Cyropaedia (Xenophon)
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Cyropaedia (lit. "The Education of Cyrus") is a biography of Cyrus the Great, written by the Athenian philosopher and historian, Xenophon. The work narrates, in its entirety, the life of Cyrus. Like Xenophon's other works, it was intended as history, although some critics have questioned and debated whether parts of the account are fictional.
Postmodern critics may see a dual sense in the phrase "education of Cyrus", which could mean the education he received or the one he gave, especially since Cyrus' preferred verb seems to be didaskein (to teach) and Xenophon seems concerned primarily with the alterations Cyrus made to Persian society in order to make it fit for empire, which could be described as an education.
Prior to Cyrus, the Persians had been interested only in virtue and justice; he persuaded them to turn their virtue to the task of conquest which led to the accumulation of vast territories but also had enduring negative effects on Persian society, as can be seen in the turmoil following Cyrus' death.
As may be apparent, the Cyropaedia is less an historical work and more a practical treatise on political virtue and social organization. It was considered a classic on such subject in antiquity and again in the Renaissance; Scipio Africanus is said to have carried a copy with him at all times. The ancients 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.
Spenser remarked, in the preface to The Faerie Queene: "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."
[edit] References
- Xenophon, The Education of Cyrus, trans. and with an introd. by Wayne Ambler, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, The Agora Editions, 2001. ISBN 0-8014-8750-1
- Nadon, Christopher, Xenophon's Prince: Republic and Empire in the Cyropaedia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001. ISBN 0-520-22404-3
