The Account of Persia and Cyrus's Persian Education in Xenophon'sCyropaedia

Christopher Whidden

36 citations0/0 files storedThe Review of Politics

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Classical Philosophy and Thought Classical Antiquity Studies Renaissance and Early Modern Studies

Abstract

Abstract TheCyropaediais a biographical account of what Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire, knew in order to rule human beings. This essay focuses on Cyrus's twofold Persian education, which consisted of his conventional and heterodox educations. The former emphasized the rule of law, while the latter stressed the need for absolute rule by a single leader. In order to evaluate Cyrus's revolution, one must grasp the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Persian regime that educated him, especially in light of the impressive but short-lived empire he founded. In the end, theCyropaediaunfolds as a deeply ironic work. Despite Cyrus's prodigious wisdom, the empire he founded was for Xenophon neither unequivocally lasting nor good. In this sense, Xenophon's own knowledge rivals and supercedes that of Cyrus, insofar as Xenophon realized that wisdom is no match for the chaotic world of politics, a sobering and realistic outlook still applicable today.

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References

1965Natural Right and History 1947Paideia, the Ideals of Greek Culture 1954Natural Right and History 1987History of Political Philosophy 1997Xenophon Oeconomicus: A Social and Historical Commentary 1940Paideia. The Ideals of Greek Culture 2015The History Of Political Philosophy 1987The Friendship of the Barbarians: Xenophon and the Persian Empire

Cited by

2016Xenophon: the Small Works 2008The politics of royal education: Xenophon's Education of Cyrus in early eighteenth-century Europe 2016Xenophon and Greek Political Thought 2016Xenophon’sCyropaedia: Tentative Answers to an Enigma 2016The Character and Function of Speeches in Xenophon 2016Xenophon and his Times 2016Xenophon on Persia

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