Cyropaedia (Xenophon)
Encyclopedia
The Cyropaedia is a "partly fictional biography" of Cyrus the Great
, written in the early 4th century BC by the Athenian
gentleman-soldier, and student of Socrates
, Xenophon
of Athens
. The Latin
ized title Cyropaedia derives from Greek Kúrou paideía , meaning "The Education of Cyrus". Aspects of it would become a model for medieval writers of the genre known as mirrors for princes. In turn it was a strong influence upon the most well-known but atypical of these, Machiavelli's The Prince
, which was an important influence in the rejection of medieval political thinking, and the development of modern politics. However, unlike most "mirrors of princes", and like The Prince, whether or not the Cyropaedia actually intended to describe an ideal ruler or not is a subject of debate.
Although it is "generally agreed" that Xenophon "did not intend Cyropaedia as history", it remains unclear whether this work was intended to fit into any other classical genre known before. 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. But it is not clear that the work was intended to be used this way.
Despite such doubts, it has been argued that Xenophon's Cyropaedia offers a glimpse of Cyrus' character. The source gives "an artist's portrait" of Cyrus as "the Ideal Ruler and the best form of Government", a description that "could not have been painted had there not been a credible memory of such a Cyrus" 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 possible that stories of the great King were recounted (and embellished) by court society and that these are the basis of Xenophon's text.
The book opens with the author stating that the work started as a reflection about what it is that makes people willingly follow some leaders and not others, such as is seen to lead to the collapse of many regimes. The work narrates an entire lifetime of Cyrus, and so only the first of the 8 books is purely concerning the "education of Cyrus" (cyropaedia). This first book is devoted to Cyrus' descent, education and his stay at the court of his maternal grandfather, the Median
dynast Astyages
. It has been noted by scholars that Xenophon's description of Persian education in this pre-imperial time is strikingly unusual, and appears to be based upon the traditions of Sparta
, the subject of Xenophon's own work the Constitution of the Lacedemonians.
Books 2 through 7 cover Cyrus' life while still an important vassal of the Medes, on his career towards becoming one of the most powerful rulers in the history of Middle Eastern empires. It is in this main part of the work that the character Cyrus is often shown as an example of classical virtue, but is also at the same time often seen as showing Machiavellian tendencies. In this version of events, Cyrus is a faithful vassal to the Medians, who initially helps them as a general to defend themselves from a much more powerful and assertive Babylonian empire, which was being ruled by the tyrannical son of a more respected king. He does this partly by carefully building up alliances with nations such as the Armenians
, their neighbours who he referred to as Chaldeans, Hyrcanians, Cadusians, Saka
, and Susians. The remaining allies of Babylon included many nations of Asia Minor, as well as a corps of Egyptian infantry. For their final great field battle, Croesus
of Lydia
was general. (This is significantly different from how the real events are understood to have been.)
Book 8 is a sketch of Cyrus' kingship and his views of monarchy. This last book of the work also describes the rapid collapse of the empire of Cyrus after he died. It has sometimes been argued to be by another later author, or alternatively to be either a sign of Xenophon's theoretical inconsistency concerning his conception of an ideal ruler, or a sign that Xenophon did not mean to describe an ideal ruler in any simple way.
Other related characters, of questionable historical truth, appear in the narrative as well. For example, the romance of Abradatas
and Pantheia forms a part of the latter half of the narrative (v.1.3, vi.1.31ff, vi.4.2ff, vii.3.2ff).
, Cicero
, Tacitus
, Dionysius of Halicarnassus
, Quintilian
, Aulus Gellius
and Longinus
"ranked him among the best philosophers and historians". Classical authors believed that Xenophon composed it in response to the Republic of Plato
, or vice versa, and Plato's Laws
seems to allude to the Cyropaedia. Amongst classical leaders, Scipio Africanus
is said to have carried a copy with him at all times., and it was also a favorite of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar
.
The Cyropaedia was re-discovered in Western Europe during the late medieval period as a practical treatise on political virtue and social organization. It became an important influence upon the late medieval and Renaissance
genre known as "mirrors of princes", which attempted to give examples of behavior in order to educate young future rulers. Giovanni Pontano, Bartolomeo Sacchi, Leon Battista Alberti and Baldassare Castiglione
all treated Cyrus as an example of virtue.
The work continued to be widely read and respected in the early modern period and during the Enlightenment
. Machiavelli's The Prince, which represented a turning point towards modern political thinking, uses the mirror genre as a model, is particularly heavily influenced by the Cyropaedia, and represented a more sophisticated reading of Xenophon, apparently more critical of the idealistic approach on the surface of Xenophon's depiction, while also reading Xenophon to be giving other more important messages about Cyrus's use of deceit, and the danger of such men to republics. Ralph Nadon describes Machiavelli as "Xenophon's best-known and most devoted reader". According to Leo Strauss
, Machiavelli refers to Xenophon
more than the better known authors Plato, Aristotle
, and Cicero put together. wrote: "The Cyrus of Xenophon was a hero to many a literary man of the sixteenth century, but for Machiavelli he lived".
Among early modern writers after Machiavelli, Montaigne, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Bacon
, Jonathan Swift
, Bolingbroke
, Shaftesbury
, Edward Gibbon
, and Benjamin Franklin
"all concurred with the classical view" of Xenophon's merits as a philosopher and historian. John Milton
called his works divine, and the equal of Plato. Edmund Spenser
in his preface to The Faerie Queene
said that "Xenophon's Cyropaedia is to be preferred to Plato.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 example, then by rule." Among military leaders, Gustavus Adolphus and James Wolfe
were influenced by this work.
In turn, many of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America sought inspiration from the Cyropaedia, and Thomas Jefferson
had two personal copies of the book, "which was a mandatory read for statesmen alongside Machiavelli's The Prince
." 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."
In the nineteenth century, Xenophon and the Cyropaedia began to be seen as inferior to comparable classical authors and works, and not deserving of the older reputation. This was at least partly because works such as the Cyropaedia discuss historical subjects but are not apparently historically accurate.
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
, written in the early 4th century BC by the Athenian
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
gentleman-soldier, and student of Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, Xenophon
Xenophon
Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...
of Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. The Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
ized title Cyropaedia derives from Greek Kúrou paideía , meaning "The Education of Cyrus". Aspects of it would become a model for medieval writers of the genre known as mirrors for princes. In turn it was a strong influence upon the most well-known but atypical of these, Machiavelli's The Prince
The Prince
The Prince is a political treatise by the Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title, De Principatibus . But the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after...
, which was an important influence in the rejection of medieval political thinking, and the development of modern politics. However, unlike most "mirrors of princes", and like The Prince, whether or not the Cyropaedia actually intended to describe an ideal ruler or not is a subject of debate.
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", it remains unclear whether this work was intended to fit into any other classical genre known before. 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. But it is not clear that the work was intended to be used this way.
Despite such doubts, it has been argued that Xenophon's Cyropaedia offers a glimpse of Cyrus' character. The source gives "an artist's portrait" of Cyrus as "the Ideal Ruler and the best form of Government", a description that "could not have been painted had there not been a credible memory of such a Cyrus" 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 possible that stories of the great King were recounted (and embellished) by court society and that these are the basis of Xenophon's text.
The book opens with the author stating that the work started as a reflection about what it is that makes people willingly follow some leaders and not others, such as is seen to lead to the collapse of many regimes. The work narrates an entire lifetime of Cyrus, and so only the first of the 8 books is purely concerning the "education of Cyrus" (cyropaedia). This first book is devoted to Cyrus' descent, education and his stay at the court of his maternal grandfather, the Median
Medes
The MedesThe Medes...
dynast Astyages
Astyages
Astyages Astyages Astyages (spelled by Herodotus as Ἀστυάγης - Astyages; by Ctesias as Astyigas; by Diodorus as Aspadas; Akkadian: Ištumegu, was the last king of the Median Empire, r...
. It has been noted by scholars that Xenophon's description of Persian education in this pre-imperial time is strikingly unusual, and appears to be based upon the traditions of Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
, the subject of Xenophon's own work the Constitution of the Lacedemonians.
Books 2 through 7 cover Cyrus' life while still an important vassal of the Medes, on his career towards becoming one of the most powerful rulers in the history of Middle Eastern empires. It is in this main part of the work that the character Cyrus is often shown as an example of classical virtue, but is also at the same time often seen as showing Machiavellian tendencies. In this version of events, Cyrus is a faithful vassal to the Medians, who initially helps them as a general to defend themselves from a much more powerful and assertive Babylonian empire, which was being ruled by the tyrannical son of a more respected king. He does this partly by carefully building up alliances with nations such as the Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
, their neighbours who he referred to as Chaldeans, Hyrcanians, Cadusians, Saka
Saka
The Saka were a Scythian tribe or group of tribes....
, and Susians. The remaining allies of Babylon included many nations of Asia Minor, as well as a corps of Egyptian infantry. For their final great field battle, Croesus
Croesus
Croesus was the king of Lydia from 560 to 547 BC until his defeat by the Persians. The fall of Croesus made a profound impact on the Hellenes, providing a fixed point in their calendar. "By the fifth century at least," J.A.S...
of Lydia
Lydia
Lydia was an Iron Age kingdom of western Asia Minor located generally east of ancient Ionia in the modern Turkish provinces of Manisa and inland İzmir. Its population spoke an Anatolian language known as Lydian....
was general. (This is significantly different from how the real events are understood to have been.)
Book 8 is a sketch of Cyrus' kingship and his views of monarchy. This last book of the work also describes the rapid collapse of the empire of Cyrus after he died. It has sometimes been argued to be by another later author, or alternatively to be either a sign of Xenophon's theoretical inconsistency concerning his conception of an ideal ruler, or a sign that Xenophon did not mean to describe an ideal ruler in any simple way.
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
In classical antiquity, the Cyropaedia was considered the masterpiece of a very widely respected and studied author. PolybiusPolybius
Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...
, Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
, Tacitus
Tacitus
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...
, Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Dionysius of Halicarnassus was a Greek historian and teacher of rhetoric, who flourished during the reign of Caesar Augustus. His literary style was Attistic — imitating Classical Attic Greek in its prime.-Life:...
, Quintilian
Quintilian
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a Roman rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing...
, Aulus Gellius
Aulus Gellius
Aulus Gellius , was a Latin author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome, where he held a judicial office...
and Longinus
Longinus
- People :* Gaius Cassius Longinus , usually known as Cassius, one of the assassins of Julius Caesar* Saint Longinus, name ascribed to the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus Christ on the cross...
"ranked him among the best philosophers and historians". Classical authors believed that Xenophon composed it in response to the Republic of Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
, or vice versa, and Plato's Laws
Laws (dialogue)
The Laws is Plato's last and longest dialogue. The question asked at the beginning is not "What is law?" as one would expect. That is the question of the Minos...
seems to allude to the Cyropaedia. Amongst classical leaders, Scipio Africanus
Scipio Africanus
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus , also known as Scipio Africanus and Scipio 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., and it was also a favorite of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
.
The Cyropaedia was re-discovered in Western Europe during the late medieval period as a practical treatise on political virtue and social organization. It became an important influence upon the late medieval and 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. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
genre known as "mirrors of princes", which attempted to give examples of behavior in order to educate young future rulers. Giovanni Pontano, Bartolomeo Sacchi, Leon Battista Alberti and Baldassare Castiglione
Baldassare Castiglione
Baldassare Castiglione, count of was an Italian courtier, diplomat, soldier and a prominent Renaissance author.-Biography:Castiglione was born into an illustrious Lombard family at Casatico, near Mantua, where his family had constructed an impressive palazzo...
all treated Cyrus as an example of virtue.
The work continued to be widely read and respected in the early modern period and during the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
. Machiavelli's The Prince, which represented a turning point towards modern political thinking, uses the mirror genre as a model, is particularly heavily influenced by the Cyropaedia, and represented a more sophisticated reading of Xenophon, apparently more critical of the idealistic approach on the surface of Xenophon's depiction, while also reading Xenophon to be giving other more important messages about Cyrus's use of deceit, and the danger of such men to republics. Ralph Nadon describes Machiavelli as "Xenophon's best-known and most devoted reader". According to Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss
Leo Strauss was a political philosopher and classicist who specialized in classical political philosophy. He was born in Germany to Jewish parents and later emigrated to the United States...
, Machiavelli refers to Xenophon
Xenophon
Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...
more than the better known authors Plato, Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, and Cicero put together. wrote: "The Cyrus of Xenophon was a hero to many a literary man of the sixteenth century, but for Machiavelli he lived".
Among early modern writers after Machiavelli, Montaigne, Montesquieu, Rousseau, Bacon
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
, Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
, Bolingbroke
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke was an English politician, government official and political philosopher. He was a leader of the Tories, and supported the Church of England politically despite his atheism. In 1715 he supported the Jacobite rebellion of 1715 which sought to overthrow the...
, Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury was an English politician, philosopher and writer.-Biography:...
, Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...
, and Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
"all concurred with the classical view" of Xenophon's merits as a philosopher and historian. John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
called his works divine, and the equal of Plato. Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
in his preface to The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene
The Faerie Queene is an incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. The first half was published in 1590, and a second installment was published in 1596. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: it was the first work written in Spenserian stanza and is one of the longest poems in the English...
said that "Xenophon's Cyropaedia is to be preferred to Plato.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 example, then by rule." Among military leaders, Gustavus Adolphus and James Wolfe
James Wolfe
Major General James P. Wolfe was a British Army officer, known for his training reforms but remembered chiefly for his victory over the French in Canada...
were influenced by this work.
In turn, 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 principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
had two personal copies of the book, "which was a mandatory read for statesmen alongside Machiavelli's The Prince
The Prince
The Prince is a political treatise by the Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist Niccolò Machiavelli. From correspondence a version appears to have been distributed in 1513, using a Latin title, De Principatibus . But the printed version was not published until 1532, five years after...
." 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."
In the nineteenth century, Xenophon and the Cyropaedia began to be seen as inferior to comparable classical authors and works, and not deserving of the older reputation. This was at least partly because works such as the Cyropaedia discuss historical subjects but are not apparently historically accurate.