Yet on the whole I think it is the voice of the old man explaining in his Vicar-of-Wakefield style, to his admiring auditors, wife, children, and grandsons, I fancy, and slaves, the _raison d'etre_ of Persian dinner-largesse customs.
C2.6.

Qy.: What was Xenophon's manner of composing?
The style here is loose, like that of a man talking.

Perhaps he lectured and the amanuensis took down what he said.
C2.8.Ineptitudes.

One does somewhat sniff an editor here, I think, but I am not sure.

There's a similar touch of ineptitude (senility, perhaps) in the _Memorabilia_, _ad fin_.