Cyropaedia (Xenophon)

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Cyropaedia (Xenophon)

The Cyropaedia is a "partly fictional biography" of Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great , , also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was a Persian people Shah . He was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty, an empire, perhaps the most wealthy and magnificent in history....
, written in the early 4th century BCE by the Athenian

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
gentleman-soldier Xenophon

Xenophon

Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens and Xenophon of Thebes, was a soldier, mercenary and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates....
. The Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
ized title Cyropedia derives from Greek Kúrou paideía , meaning "The Education of Cyrus".

ubstance, the Cyropaedia is "a political romance, describing the education of the ideal ruler, trained to rule as a benevolent despot over his admiring and willing subjects."

Although it is "generally agreed" that Xenophon "did not intend Cyropaedia as history", what other literary genre the work may belong to remains unclear.

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Encyclopedia

The Cyropaedia is a "partly fictional biography" of Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great

Athens

Xenophon

Latin

Content

In substance, the Cyropaedia is "a political romance, describing the education of the ideal ruler, trained to rule as a benevolent despot over his admiring and willing subjects."

Although it is "generally agreed" that Xenophon "did not intend Cyropaedia as history", what other literary genre the work may belong to remains unclear. Its validity as a source of Achaemenid history has been repeatedly questioned, and numerous descriptions of events or personae have been determined to be in error. Other issues have been noted to be anachronistic and/or have a historic bias.

Xenophon (c. 431 – 355 BC) was not a contemporary of Cyrus (c. 580 – 530 BC) and it is likely that at least some of the historiographer's observations were based on events that occurred at the later Achaemenid court. It is also probable that stories of the great King were recounted (and embellished) by court society and that these are the basis of Xenophon's text.

Although the work narrates, in its entirety, the life of Cyrus, only the first of the 8 books is — technically speaking — the Cyropaedia. This first book is devoted to Cyrus' descent, education and his stay at the court of his maternal grandfather, the Median

Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
dynast Astyages

Astyages

Astyages ; spelled by Herodotus as Astyages; by Ctesias as Astyigas; by Diodorus as Aspadas; Akkadian language: I?tumegu), was the last king of the Medes, r....
. Books 2 through 7 cover Cyrus' life while still a vassal of the Medians. Book 8 is a sketch of Cyrus' kingship and his views of monarchy.

Other related characters, of questionable historical truth, appear in the narrative as well. For example, the romance of Abradatas

Abradatas

Abradatas was a king, probably fictional, of Susa, known to us from Xenophon's partly fictional biography of Cyrus the Great, the Cyropaedia ....
and Pantheia forms a part of the latter half of the narrative (v.1.3, vi.1.31ff, vi.4.2ff, vii.3.2ff).

Legacy

The book was considered a classic in antiquity: the ancients believed that Xenophon composed it in response to the Republic of Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
, or vice versa, and Plato's Laws seems to allude to the Cyropaedia. Scipio Africanus

Scipio Africanus

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus also known as Scipio Africanus, Scipio the Elder, and Africanus the Elder was a general in the Second Punic War and statesman of the Roman Republic....
is said to have carried a copy with him at all times.

The Cyropaedia was re-discovered in the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe....
as a practical treatise on political virtue and social organization. To paraphrase Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an important England poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem celebrating, through fantastical allegory, the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I....
in his preface to The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene

The Faerie Queene is an English Epic poetry by Edmund Spenser, published first in three books in 1590, and later in six books in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza....
, "Xenophon's Cyropaedia is to be preferred to Plato, for it demonstrates exquisite depth of monarchial judgement. Cyrus' formation of commonwealth is such as it should be, and government by example is much more profitable and gracious than government by rule."The original reads: "For this cause is Xenophon preferred before Plato, for that the one, in the exquisite depth of his judgement, formed a Commune welth, such as it should be; but the other in the person of Cyrus, and the Persians, fashioned a government, such as might best be: So much more profitable and gratious is doctrine by ensample, then by rule."

Similar sentiments have been expressed in the modern-age. Many of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America sought inspiration from the Cyropaedia, and Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States , the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States....
had two personal copies of the book, "which was a mandatory read for statesmen alongside Machiavelli's The Prince
The Prince

Il Principe is a politics treatise by the Florence Civil service and Political philosophy Niccol? Machiavelli. Originally called De Principatibus , it was originally written in 1513, but not published until 1532, five years after Machiavelli's death....
." In modern times, its reputation has declined, together with the study of the classics; it has been described as "surely one of the most tedious books to have survived from the ancient world," a view countered by others, such as Potter, who found it "written in the most captivating, simple and elegant style imaginable."

Full Texts

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