What can we learn by reflecting on Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, the life of King Cyrus the Great of Persia?
How similar were the warrior cultures of ancient Persia and Sparta?
How did Cyrus’ magnanimous treatment of conquered cities strengthen the multi-ethnic Persian Empire?
How was Cyrus able to win so many battles where he was heavily outnumbered?
How was Cyrus able to find so many allies, and turn defeated foes into allies?
YouTube Script with more Book Links:
https://www.slideshare.net/BruceStrom1/xenophons-cyropaedia-biography-of-cyrus-the-great-king-of-persia
YouTube for this blog, with illustrations: https://youtu.be/E4BFSIpHHGk
Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Moral Sayings of Cyrus the Great, King of Persia
https://seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/xenophons-cyropaedia-moral-sayings-of-cyrus-the-great-king-of-persia/
https://youtu.be/Y3ULbvPEmik
XENOPHON’ CYROPAEDIA, BIOGRAPHY OF CYRUS THE GREAT
Xenophon opens the Cyropaedia with:
“Men unite against” “those who attempt to rule over them.” But Cyrus the Great “won the obedience from thousands of his fellow, from cities and tribes innumerable,” “eclipsing all other monarchs.” Starting with a small Persian force, joining with his neighbors the Medes, he accumulated alliances with multiple foes whom he could have destroyed, but instead befriended. This included the Assyrians, after he conquered their great capitol city, Babylon.[1]
Indeed, the ancient historian Diodorus Siculus states the “Cyrus, we are told, was not only a courageous man in war, but he was also considerate and humane in his treatment of his subjects. And it was for this reason that the Persians called him Father.”[2]
Cyrus displayed these magnanimous policies towards the ancient Jews when he not only permitted them to migrate back to Judah and Jerusalem, but he also assisted their efforts to rebuild their temple. Cyrus also released several other nationalities who had been forcibly relocated to Babylon, these repatriations made these people fiercely loyal to the nascent Persian Empire. Interestingly, neither Xenophon nor Herodotus, the other Greek historian of Cyrus the Great, mention his humane policies regarding the Jews and other peoples.
Cyrus permitted true local rule to his provinces, establishing satraps that acted as local monarchs living in relative freedom, though they sent tribute and when needed, they sent troops to the ruling Persian regime.
WAS ANCIENT PERSIA COMPARABLE TO SPARTA?
Many scholars criticize the Cyropaedia as a work of historical fiction, claiming that the book describes the military culture of Sparta that Xenophon admires. Certainly, historians of all ages view history through the lens of current history and politics, but it is true that ancient Persia developed a successful warrior culture, and that it would, in some sense, resemble the culture of the ancient Greeks, and the Spartans in particular, although it would have developed independently. Maybe Xenophon was incorrect in the particulars, we will never know for sure, but personally I believe his depiction of early Persia is credible. After all, Xenophon did spend a considerable amount of time in the heart of Persia.
Xenophon states that the ancient Persian “cities have an open place called Free Square, where stand the palace and other public buildings,” from which merchants, and “hawkers and hucksters with the yells and cries and vulgarities” are excluded, which does resemble the Spartan disdain for merchants. This square has areas assigned to boys, youths, military age men, and older men. As in Sparta, the boys, young men, and military age men live in these barracks, though married men are permitted to live with their families, unlike in Sparta.
The boys, according to Xenophon, “go to school to learn justice and righteousness,” in addition to military training. Gratitude is encouraged, ingratitude and shamelessness are punished. “The boys are instructed in temperance and self-restraint,” “they are taught to obey their rulers” and elders, “continence in meat and drink” is encouraged, following the good examples of their elders. “For tens years they are bound to sleep around these public buildings,” “to guard the community and practice self-restraint.”
The hunt for wild animals is an important part of military training. When the king departs for his hunt several times a month, he takes many young men with him, each man carrying bows and arrows, a dagger and javelins, and a light shield. Xenophon states that “hunting accustoms a man to early rising; it hardens him to endure heat and cold; it teaches him to march and to run at top speed; he must learn to let fly the arrow and hurl the javelin” quickly; and, above all, his spirit must be sharpened by encountering the mightier beasts.” And, as in ancient Greece, public games included athletic contests that practiced and honed military skills.[3]
CYRUS THE GREAT AS A YOUTH
Prince Cyrus the Great grew up in the military culture of ancient Persia. The Medes and the Persians had close ties, the Medes were both more numerous and more prosperous, enjoying more luxuries than the Persians, while the Persians were mightier warriors. Cyrus’ father, King Cambyses, was married to Mandane, daughter of the Persian king, Astyages.
When Cyrus was twelve, Astyages sent for Mandane and her son Cyrus to visit him, and when Cyrus first saw Astyages, “he fell on his neck and kissed him,” “as though he had been brought up at his grandfather’s side” “and the two of them had been playmates of old.” Noticing his grandfather’s false curls, painted cheeks, stenciled eyes, and fancy attire, he exclaimed, “Oh, mother, how beautiful my grandfather is!” Cyrus accepted the gift of robes, but what he valued most was learning how to ride, as there were few horses in Persia.
Herodotus differs in his retelling of the youth of Cyrus. He recounts a myth where Astyages has a dream that Cyrus will overthrow him, so he orders that the young Cyrus be exposed so the wild animals will devour him, but a shepherd instead raises him as his son. But his regal manner and looks reveal his identify to the king when he is about twelve, but Astyages becomes fond of this precocious prince.
Quite often there are competing oral traditions concerning the birth and death of famous founding figures in the ancient world. Scholars favor Herodotus when he says that the Persians defeated the Medes for control of their joint lands, and there may be archeological evidence supporting this, but the Cyrus of Xenophon is more diplomatic. After his many conquests leading the combined Persian and Mede armies to victory over their many neighbors, including Assyria, he prefers to permit the Persian and Median kings to think they are still the sovereign, while he holds the real power.
After a sumptuous banquet, King Astyages asks Cyrus whether he enjoyed the delicacies offered. Cyrus responds, “Our way, grandfather, is much shorter than yours, and much simpler. We hunger and wish to be fed,” noting that the Persian meals are much shorter. Indeed, he shares much of the profuse food with the attendants serving them, thanking them for teaching him how to ride. Xenophon emphasizes that Cyrus is kind to his servants, aware they can assist the king in unexpected ways.
After some months, his mother wanted to return to her husband in Persia, Cyrus begged to be left with the Medes, reasoning, “At home I am thought to be the best of the lads at shooting and hurling the javelin, and so I think I am: but here I know I am the worst at riding,” “and this annoys me exceedingly.” He sought to show his grandfather that “he will not have a stouter horseman than his grandson to fight his battles.”
Evidently, the Medes also had the sons of noblemen train at the court of the Medes, just as Alexander the Great would grow up with the noblemen of Macedonia, forging friendships that would later prove their worth on the battlefield.[4] At his grandfather’s court, he charmed everyone with his wit, eagerness, and talkative friendliness towards all, “the impression was not arrogance, but of simplicity and warm-heartedness.”
His eagerness to practice his horsemanship led him to hunts that started to thin out the king’s hunting preserves and parks, so he was eager to hunt in the wild open country. His grandfather was reluctant but relented. Cyrus asked for advice, he was told that “he must be on the guard against bears and wild-boars and lions and leopards: many a man had” “been torn to pieces by these dangerous creatures.” Indeed, lions and other beasts of Africa inhabited the wilds of ancient Persia and ancient Greece, as many literary sources confirm.
During his first hunt, Cyrus the Great eagerly pressed his horse to chase a great stag. His horse slipped, going to his knees, nearly throwing him, but “the boy managed to keep his seat, and the horse recovered its footing,” and shortly “Cyrus let fly his javelin, and the stag fell dead, a beautiful big creature.” When they were dismounted, admiring the slain stag, Cyrus sprang back on his horse when he heard a “frenzied wild boar charging down on them. He charged to meet it, drawing his bow with the surest aim possible, struck the beast in the forehead, and laid him low.” Cyrus would later display this brave coolness when under fire in battle.
PRINCE CYRUS CHALLENGES AN ASSYRIAN HUNTING PARTY
When Prince Cyrus was fifteen, the same age when Alexander the Great would first command the Macedonian troops, the young prince of Assyria planned a hunting party on the frontiers of Media and Assyria where the game was plentiful. Both states had border garrisons on this frontier, and this foolish prince, with his large hunting party, decided to bottle up the Mede soldiers in their garrisons while his soldiers drove game and grabbed booty from the Medes. King Astyages and his son Prince Cyaxares quickly rode out with whatever troops and guards they could muster to investigate. Cyrus, putting on his armor for the first time, eagerly joined the fray.
King Astyages was intimidated by the large forces bottling up the garrisons, but Cyrus urged the king to charge the raiders, as they would quickly drop their booty and flee as soon as they are attacked. So, he “gave orders for his son to take a squad of horses and charge the raiders,” so Cyaxares and Cyrus both galloped to the field with a cavalry detachment. “As soon as the plunderers saw them, they dropped their booty and fled.” The troops, led by Cyrus, slew many in pursuit. “Cyrus was ever in the front, like a young hound, untrained as yet but bred from a gallant stock, charging a wild boar recklessly; forward he swept, without eyes or thought for anything but the quarry to be captured and the blow to be struck.” “The boy’s daring was on the verge of madness.” This prompted Astyages to enter the fray with his main force, and when the Assyrians were in range of these bowmen, they turned and fled.
Xenophon tells us, “King Cambyses rejoiced to hear such tidings of his son; but, when he heard that he was already acting like a man of years, he thought it full time to call him home again that he might complete his training in the discipline of his fatherland.” Grateful, King Astyages let Cyrus return with many horses.[5]
CYRUS THE GREAT BATTLES THE ASSYRIANS
While Cyrus was finishing his training in Persia, Astyages died, passing his crown to his son Cyaxares. The Assyrians finished their conquest of Syria and subdued the Hyrcanians, who lived on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, and was plotting to invade Media, and then Persia. He sent an urgent message requesting troops to Cyrus, and the Council of Elders of Persia granted him a force of a thousand Peers, crack infantrymen, plus 10,000 archers, 10,000 slingers, and 10,000 targeteers.
In his speech to his men, Prince Cyrus extolled the virtues of military training and preparedness. “Men do not forego the pleasures of the moment to say good-bye to all joy for evermore. No, this self-control is a training, so that we may reap the fruits of a larger joy in the time to come.” We do not wish to labor and “fight forever, endlessly and hopelessly,” “but when we have proved our mettle, we may win and wear for ourselves and for our city the threefold ornament of wealth, of happiness, and of honor.” “You are not warriors if when you should wake and watch, you instead slumber, for sleep is for novices.” “Toil is your guide to happiness; hunger has been your daily condiment; and water you take to quench your thirst as the lion laps the stream.” “You are fair Honor’s suitors,” “therefore undergo toil and danger gladly.”[6]
Cyrus marched to the frontier with his uncle, King Cyaxares. The Assyrians were slowly gathering forces from their many allies, preparing for battle. Based on their intelligence, Cyaxares calculated that ultimately their cavalry would be a third the size of the Assyrians, and their infantry would be half the size. It was clear that they would lose to the Assyrians in a battle of attrition.
Cyrus chose to use these months of waiting to train his mixed Median and Persian army, seeking “to bring the physical strength of his men to the highest pitch, to teach them tactics, and to rouse their spirit for martial deeds.” In their military training, he taught his men to “perfect their use of saber, shield, and corslet, accustoming them from the very first to the thought that they must close with the enemy, or confess themselves worthless as fellow combatants.”
Perhaps Xenophon is also hinting that these soldiers were superior to those of the later Persian King Darius, who were spooked in their invasion of Greece when the Athenian hoplite infantrymen charged them at a run, defeating the Persian army at the Battle of Marathon in the upcoming Greco-Persian Wars.
Cyrus filled these months of waiting with military drills and training and contests, “he wished no man to take his meal at morning or at night till he had sweated for it. He would lead the men out to hunt, or invent games for them, or gave them work to do.” “The toil itself was a blessed means to making the men gentler towards each other.” This “common training would increase tenfold the courage with which they met the foe.”[7]
CYRUS THE GREAT DEALS WITH THE RELUCTANT ARMENIANS
King Cyaxares had also requested tribute and soldiers from his ally, the King of Armenia, who may have been too fearful of the Assyrians to respond. Cyrus organized a hunt on the Armenian borders and asked that Cyaxares follow with the main army some miles behind.
Xenophon writes, “Cyrus sent a messenger to the Armenian with these words: ‘Cyrus bids you to bring your tribute and troops without delay.’” He instructed the messenger, “if he asks you where Cyrus is, tell the truth that I am on the frontier. If he asks whether I am advancing,” “say you do not know. If he inquires how many we are, bid him send someone with you to find out.”
“Cyrus then drew up his troops in the order best suited for marching and, if necessary, for fighting, and set forth. The soldiers had orders that not a soul was to be wronged, and if they met any Armenians, they were to bid them to have no fear, but open a market wherever they wished, and sell meat or drink as they chose.”[8]
This struck terror in the heart of the hapless Armenian king, who is initially nameless since he has not yet earned respect in Xenophon’s telling of the story. We learned in our study of the Iliad that all ancient cultures were warrior cultures by necessity, all ancients lived in terror that one day an army would one day conquer and pillage their city, slay all military age men, and enslave the women and children.
The Iliad, the Basis of Greek Culture and the Western Philosophical Tradition
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/iliad_blog01/
https://youtu.be/DpmuhZJUJn0
The Warrior Cultures of the Iliad and the American Indian, Bravely Visiting the Enemy Camp
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/iliad-blog-3-visiting-the-enemy-camp-greeks-vs-indians/
https://youtu.be/ynIx-AVI2f8
Concubines in the Iliad, Old Testament and Christian Tradition
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/iliad_blog02/
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/the-iliad-blog-4-briseis-chryseis-arent-all-concubines-the-same/
https://youtu.be/bGHHD7XTvr0
The Iliad of Homer: Glory, Honor, Madness and Futility of War
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/the-iliad-blog-5-the-tide-of-battle-turns-against-the-greeks/
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/the-iliad-blog-6-embassy-to-achilles-oration-failed-meeting/
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/the-iliad-blog-7-the-deaths-of-patroclus-and-hector/
https://youtu.be/7lI2ZQ50wRc
So, this anonymous Armenian prince sent his wife and children, and his most valuable possessions, and we assume his nobles did the same, into the hills with an escort to protect them. He started to gather his forces, but when Cyrus was quickly upon him, he decided it would be folly to fight, as Cyrus was already building a reputation for swift combat and had captured his wife and family.
Xenophon tells us that “Prince Tigranes, elder son of the king, was on his way home from a far country. In the old days he had hunted with Cyrus and been his friend,” this friendship permitted him to negotiate for their lives and their kingdom. They established that the king deserved chastisement, and they agreed that vengeance would do everyone harm, Tigranes argued that Cyrus would “do himself the greatest harm if he put his own subjects to death just when they are most valuable to you.”
Cyrus asked, “Can someone have any value when they are caught doing wrong?”
“Yes,” answered Tigranes, “if that is when they turn to good and learn sobriety.” “Without this virtue all others are in vain. What good will you get from a strong man or a brave man if he lacks sobriety?” “With sobriety every friend is a friend,” “and every servant a blessing.”
Xenophon then reveals some maxims of warfare that many suspect may have influenced Machiavelli many centuries later. Cyrus asked Tigranes, “Do you think that merely to learn another is stronger than himself is defeat enough to bring a man to his senses?”
“I do,” answered Tigranes, “and far more truly than mere defeat in battle. For he who is conquered by force may fancy that if he trains, he can renew the war, and captured cities dream that with the help of allies they will fight again one day, but if we meet with men who are better than ourselves and whom we recognize to be so, we are ready to obey them of our own free will.”
Tigranes reminds Cyrus that “nothing can enslave a man more utterly than fear.” “Victims of terror cannot be brought to look their conquerors in the face, even when they try to comfort them.” These pleadings pleased Cyrus, he remembered his words to Cyaxares, “I hope to make the Armenian a better friend than before.”
Cyrus asked the king of Armenia what troops he had available, he answered that he had 8,000 cavalry and 40,000 infantry, and 3,000 talents in his treasury. He asked the king and Tigranes what ransom they would pay for their wives and children; he said the kingdom was his.
There was a war in progress between the Armenians and the neighboring Chaldeans. He asked for only half his troops and double the tribute, amounting to one hundred talents, plus a loan of a hundred talents, and built fortifications to be manned by Persians that protected them from the Chaldeans.[9] The Persians and Armenians assaulted the Chaldeans, and the Persians ambushed them while the Armenians were giving chase. After the battle, Cyrus removed the chains from the Chaldean prisoners of war, bandaged their wounds, and sent them back with the message that they needed to make peace with their Armenian neighbors.[10] Now both the Armenians and the Chaldeans were allies, Cyrus added an armed Chaldean contingent, along with the Armenians, to his armies to face the Assyrians.
CYRUS ADVANCES ON THE ASSYRIANS
Sensing that his soldiers were growing impatient, and confident that they were adequately trained, Cyrus conferred with Cyaxares on advancing on the Assyrians. Cyrus counseled, “The spirit of our soldiers will be all the higher and our enemy’s alarm will be all the greater when he hears that we are not crouching at home in terror but coming out to meet him as soon as we have heard of his advance, eager to close at once, not holding back until our territory suffers, but prompt to seize the moment and ravage his own land first.” “Battles are decided more by the character of the troops than by their bodily strength.” As always, before they advanced, Cyrus made sacrifices and offerings to Zeus and the gods, seeking their favor.
The two armies slowly advanced closer to each other, the Persians and their allies ravaging the Assyrian lands for supplies. Cyrus was careful, his men took their evening meal at daylight, lighting no fires in the camp to hide their strength. Xenophon tells us, “the armies drew nearer and nearer, until they were four miles apart.” The Assyrian camp “was completed surrounded by a trench, but also perfectly visible, while Cyrus took all the cover he could find, screening himself behind villages and hillocks, in the conviction that the more sudden the disclosure of a hostile force, the greater will be the enemy’s alarm.”
In the morning the two armies faced each other in formation. The Assyrian king encouraged his soldiers with a valorous speech. Cyrus was unimpressed, saying to a companion, “Do not be disturbed by the thought of the Assyrian’s exhortations; there are no words so fine that they can turn cowards into brave men on the day of hearing, nor make good archers out of bad, nor doughty spear-men, nor skillful rider, no, nor even teach men to use their arms and legs if they have not learned before.”
The Persians, Medes, and their allies were led into battle by Cyrus. “Once the advance began, he quickened the pace, and his men followed in perfect order, steadily, swiftly, joyously,” “hardened by toil, trained by their long discipline, every man in the front a leader, and all of them alert.” “Cyrus sounded the battle-paean, ‘Zeus our help and Zeus our leader,’ and the men took up the hymn devoutly, in one mighty chorus. For at such times those who fear the gods have less fear of their fellow men.” “The whole army of Cyrus was brimming with courage and zeal and strength and hardihood and comradeship and self-control.”
The Assyrian army lost its nerve: they turned and fled to the entrenchments in their camp. The Assyrian cavalry was chased and slaughtered, horse and rider, along with many fleeing infantry. Many Assyrians were too stunned to draw their bows and fling their spears. They were horrified when their women and children ran to and fro in utter dismay and confusion as the Persian troops burst into the camp. Cyrus, fearful that the small number of troops who burst into the camp would be surrounded, gave the order for them to fall back out of range of the camp.[11]
That night, Cyrus and his army encamped some distance from the Assyrian camp. Also, during the night, when the Assyrians discovered that their king and nearly all their nobles had been slain in the battle, they fell into despair and deserted.
The next morning, seeing the camp deserted, “Cyrus led his Persians within the entrenchments, where they found” “herds of sheep and goats and cattle, and long rows of wagons laden with good things.”
CYRUS GAINS ANOTHER ALLY, THE HYRCANIANS
Xenophon says the Hyrcanians are neighbors of the Assyrians, easily dominated because of their small numbers, but the map shows they are located on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, with Media and Parthia between them and the Assyrians, as Dr Wikipedia confirms. So, Xenophon must be mistaken, he must be describing another tribe.
Xenophon tells us that the Hyrcanians sent two ambassadors to Cyrus, their people were skilled horsemen. Their army, with their wagons and families, were guarding the rear of the fleeing Assyrians. They were dissatisfied with the abuses the Assyrians had committed on their people, and now that their king was slain, they offered their services to Cyrus as allies, they advised Cyrus that his army could easily overtake the Assyrians. Cyrus then led the Persian army in pursuit with his newfound allies, and most of the Medes, many of whose officers had been friends with Cyrus in his youth, leaving those Medes who chose to remain behind with King Cyaxares.[12]
Cyrus warns his army, “We must beware of what has ruined the fortune of many a conqueror, the lust for plunder. The man who plunders is no longer a man,” he is a slave to the plunder he must drag behind him. “We must bear in mind: nothing can bring such gain as victory; at one clutch the victor seizes all, men and women, and wealth, and territory.” He warned his army they must finish during daylight, to keep his troops in order.
When the Persians and Medes caught up to the fleeing Assyrian forces, the Hyrcanians switched sides, and their combined forces decimated many of the fleeing Assyrians and their allies. Cyrus warned his Persian officers that the Medes and their allies outnumbered them, so the Persians should be satisfied with a smaller share of the spoils of war, to ensure their continued goodwill and alliance.[13]
What to do with the disarmed prisoners of war captured during this chase? Cyrus decided it would be better to simply let them go free rather than raid the countryside for more provisions to feed them, and he had no stomach to slay them or starve them. He believed that if freed, and if the Persians dominated the country, they would “prefer obedience to battle.”
Cyrus’ attitude towards the country they were passing through, “full of sheep and goats and cattle and horses, and rich in corn and every good thing,” was that they “must become masters of those who won all this, and next we must ensure that they do not run away. A well-populated country is a rich possession, but a deserted land will soon become a desert.”
Cyrus addressed the prisoners, “Gentlemen, you owe it to your own obedience this day that your lives are safe; and for the future if you continue in this conduct, no evil whatsoever shall befall you. True, you will not have the same ruler as before, but you will dwell in the same houses, you will cultivate the same lands, you will live with your wives and govern your children as you do now. Moreover, you will not fight with us or anyone else. On the contrary, if any wrong is done to you, it is we who will fight on your behalf.”[14]
Back at the camp, “Cyaxares, the King of the Medes, on the very night when Cyrus set forth, drank himself drunk in company with the officers in his own quarters to celebrate their good fortune.” When he woke up from his stupor, he found that only his fellow revelers were in camp, that most of his army of the Medes had departed with Cyrus, he was livid.
Herodotus does not mention this King Cyaxares, and Dr Wikipedia says he only exists in the pages of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. Perhaps he did exist, but he was king in name only, for Cyrus was commanding his Median army. Xenophon’s Cyrus never overthrows him, he allows him his throne, while he mollified him, while holding the real power. In the Cyropaedia, Cyrus did the same with his father, King Cambyses of Persia, he was titular king until the day of his death.
Cyrus begins his letter, “Cyrus to Cyaxares, greeting. We do not admit that we have deserted you; for no one is deserted when his is being made the master of his enemies.” Cyaxares wants his troops to return, but Cyrus responds, “I am sending to Persia for more troops, and instructing all the men who come that, if you need them before we return, they must hold themselves at your service absolutely, to act not as they wish, but as you may care to use them.”
Cyrus concludes, “I would advise you, though I am younger than yourself, not to take back with one hand what you give with the other, or else you will win hatred instead of gratitude; nor to use threats if you wish men to come to you speedily; nor to speak of being deserted when you threaten an army, unless you would teach them to despise you. For ourselves, we will do our best to rejoin you as soon as we have concluded certain matters which we believe will prove a common blessing to yourself and us. Farewell.”[15]
Two more noblemen defected to Cyrus, Gobryas and Gadatas, turning over to Cyrus their castles and fortifications, their lands were close to Babylon, the capitol of the Assyrians, you can read of these adventures in Xenophon’s history.[16]
THE PERSIAN CYRUS RECONCILES WITH A MIFFED MEDE CYAXARES
With his mighty army camped close to Babylon, Cyrus sent for Cyaxares to confer with him on his next steps after reviewing the army. They had the Assyrians on the run, what could Cyaxares say other than to continue with the siege of Babylon? The army was drunk with victory, they would rebel if he ordered them to retreat home. Meanwhile, forty thousand additional bowmen and targeteers arrived from Persia.
Cyrus brought out a large contingent of his best armed and best mounted men drawn from the Persian, Mede, and allied armies to meet Cyaxares. But Xenophon tells us, “when Cyaxares saw so large a following of gallant gentlemen with Cyrus, and with himself so small and mean a retinue, it seemed to him an insult, and mortification filled his heart. When Cyrus sprang from his horse and came up to give him the kiss of greeting, Cyaxares, though he dismounted, turned away his head and gave him no kiss, while tears came into his eyes.”
Cyrus had the upper hand, but he did not want to be seen as a usurper, and he wanted to preserve what he could of Cyaxares’ dignity, so he led Cyaxares a short distance away, having carpets spread under a grove of palm trees to talk to the king. At the end of a short speech, where he suggested that they not accuse each other, Cyrus asks him, “If I can be shown to have done you harm, I will confess I am to blame, but if it appears that I have never injured you, not even in thought, will you not acquit me of all injustice towards you?”
After more cajoling, and more kind words from Cyrus, Cyaxares then accepted the kiss of friendship from Cyrus, and the large army, witnessing this long conversation, but not knowing what was said, cheered at the reconciliation. Xenophon writes that “the mood of Cyaxares changed, seeing that Cyrus had not stolen his subjects from him,” and they regarded him as before, or so Xenophon tells us.[17]
CYRUS DEFEATS KING CROESUS OF LYDIA, ALLY OF ASSYRIA
Both Herodotus and Xenophon tell us how the rich King Croesus of Lydia battles and loses to Cyrus the Great, but the time and place and details of the battle differ greatly. We know that Xenophon read Herodotus, he tells us a different version of the message delivered to Croesus by the Oracle at Delphi. Whereas Herodotus has King Croesus battle Cyrus near Lydia, in Xenophon he joins the Assyrian forces defending Babylon.
Herodotus, Histories of Persia, Egypt and Scythia Before the Greco-Persian Wars
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/herodotus-histories-of-persia-egypt-and-scythia-before-the-greco-persian-wars/
https://youtu.be/YwUojwMIQEw
Xenophon’s account sounds implausible, Lydia is located on the west coast of Asia Minor, and his army would likely have to march many mile to arrive at Babylon. Why would King Croesus send troops to support an empire that had recently suffered a humiliating defeat against Cyrus? The Wikipedia article on Croesus discusses the plausibility of Herodotus’ stories about Croesus but does not even mention Xenophon. Perhaps another Croesus led the Assyrian troops, and Xenophon confused him with King Croesus.
This was a hard-fought battle between the outnumbered Persians and Medes and the more numerous Assyrian forces, possibly led by Croesus, each facing each other with a center and two flanking columns. The Assyrians and Lydians were more numerous, they surrounded the Persians and Medes.
Xenophon tells us, “Cyrus gave the word, and they confronted the foe. There was silence in the ranks as they realized what they had to face, and Cyrus began the battle-hymn, and it thundered through the host.” Cyrus inspired his outnumbered troops by his aggressive bravery. “Cyrus swept forward at the head of his cavalry, straight for the enemy’s flank,” “while the infantry followed behind him, swift and steady, wave on wave, sweeping out on either side, far outflanking their opponents.”
The Persian chariots dashed in, cutting down many of the enemy. When an enemy soldier fell under Cyrus’ horse he stabbed in the belly, and Cyrus was thrown to the ground, one of his squires gave his horse to Cyrus. The Persians and Medes finally triumphed on the battlefield.[18]
This was a close call, when the king is slain, the battle is lost. Another Prince Cyrus was winning the battle when he was slain many generations later, when he was attempting to usurp the Persian throne. Xenophon was elected general of the stranded mercenary Greek army of Ten Thousand who then marched out of Persia to the Greek colonies of the Black Sea thousands of miles away.[19]
King Croesus and his remaining troops fled home to Sardis, and Cyrus pursued him the next day. Persian forces scaled the fortifications, and they seized the heights. Seeing this, the Lydians fled, and Croesus retreated to his palace, and then cried out to Cyrus. He was not willing to plunder this rich city, promising that the city would not be sacked, and the women and children would be safe.
Xenophon asked Croesus about his responses to the Oracle at Delphi. He said he first put the god to the test, which was not advisable. After much prompting and many expensive gifts, Croesus asked the Oracle, “What must I do so that sons might be born to me?” He was promised sons, but “one was dumb his whole life, and the noblest perished in the flower of his youth.”
Croesus continued, “I crushed by these sorrows, sent again to the god and asked him how I could live in happiness for the rest of my days, and the Oracle answered: ‘Know thyself, O Croesus, and happiness shall be thine.’”
But he was flattered and told he could be the general and monarch of the world, but Croesus remarked, “I did not know myself. I thought myself able to fight against you, you who are sprung from the seed of the gods, born of a royal line, trained in valor and virtue from your youth.” He then told Cyrus this his “happiness is yours to give.” So, Cyrus started the practice of accepting defeated monarchs as his advisors, keeping them close at hand.[20]
In Herodotus, Croesus asked the Oracle at Delphi what would happen if he attacked the army of Cyrus. The Oracle responded that a great empire would fall. But it was not Cyrus’ empire that fell, but Croesus’ empire.
CONQUERING BABYLON, CAPITOL OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE
Cyrus had his engineers prepare battering rams and siege engines to assault the thick walls of the city of Babylon.[21] Meanwhile, King Cyaxares withdrew with a third of the Media troops to protect their home country.[22]
Cyrus circled the great city of Babylon with his advisors, looking for a weak spot in the walls where they could place their siege engines. Winter was approaching, they could not put the city under siege, and the walls were simply too strong, and the city had ample provisions and water to survive a very long siege.
Xenophon and Herodotus agreed on the successful strategy taken, a branch of the Euphrates River flowed through the city, through a gap in the walls. Cyrus simply had a massive trench built next to the river to divert it.
Xenophon tells us, “Cyrus heard there was a high festival in Babylon when the citizens would drink and make merry the whole night long. As soon as darkness fell, he set his men to work. The mouths of the trenches were opened, and during the night the water poured in, so that the dry riverbed formed a highway into the heart of the city.”
The Persians were able to quickly find and enter the king’s palace, and he was slain with his retinue. Cyrus did not wish for this to be a bloodbath, “he sent squadrons of cavalry down the different roads with orders to kill all they found in the street, while those who knew Assyrian warned the inhabitants to stay indoors under pain of death.” “Cyrus delivered the bodies of the fallen to their kinfolk for burial.”
Cyrus quickly “issued a proclamation to the Babylonians, bidding them to till the soil and pay the dues and render willing service to the new rulers.” All captives were to be treated as subjects.
Xenophon tells us, “After this, Cyrus felt the time had come to assume the style and manner of a king: he wishes this to be done with the goodwill and concurrence of his friends,” “appearing seldom in public, always with a certain majesty.”[23]
Cyrus the Great’s reluctance to rape, pillage and plunder, and execute the military age men and enslave the women and children of the cities he captured, was unusually tolerant for the warrior cultures of the ancient world, and these tactics are what enabled him to build a successful multi-ethnic empire loyal to him. These were the same tactics that enabled Alexander the Great to also conquer the successors to his empire many generations later.
Herodotus tells us that Cyrus the Great died an ignoble humiliating death at the hands of a barbarian queen who have him beheaded, putting his head in a bag full of blood.[24] But Xenophon’s Cyrus dies a peaceful death after a long reign.
Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great, on his deathbed, warns his son Cambyses, that “your kingdom is not guarded by this golden scepter, but by faithful friends; their loyalty is your true staff, a scepter which shall not fail. But never think that loyal hearts grow as the grass grows in the field.” “Every leader must win his own followers for himself, and the way to win them is not by violence but by loving kindness.”[25]
Alexander the Great admired the example of Cyrus the Great. Alexander honored his memory by visiting his tomb when he conquered Persia.
DISCUSSING THE SOURCES
This translation is readable, though it is wordy, often we can cut a quarter of the words without changing the meaning.
Xenophon, the author of the Cyropaedia, or biography of Cyrus, is deprecated by many modern scholars, but he was just as influential as Plato with his contemporaries and Renaissance scholars, and perhaps his Cyropaedia influenced Alexander the Great, who held together his Persian and Indian conquests with the same magnanimous policies that Cyrus the Great employed. However, we do agree that this work is more historical fiction as it is biography, as there are numerous factual errors in the work.
The ancient Greek historian Thucydides said that although many of the speeches in his Greek history were based on the actual speech, that often they reflected what the character must have said. This is even more true for Xenophon’s speeches and sayings of Cyrus, as few fragments, if any, of Cyrus’ speeches likely survived in Xenophon’s days, these speeches are definitely what Xenophon thought Cyrus the Great must have said.
Some scholars comment that the Cyropaedia influenced Machiavelli’s treatise, The Prince, and though Machiavelli no doubt was acquainted with Xenophon’s works, personally I feel that this influence is overdrawn. Xenophon, like Plato, valued enlightened monarchs over radical democracies, but outside of the short first paragraph, he does not address this debate in the Cyropaedia. Instead, he merely attempts to show why Cyrus the Great was so successful in his monarchy, showing a magnanimity rarely shown by despots.
The translator’s notes says that Xenophon’s description of Cyrus the Great was based on the life of the Spartan King Agesilaus, whom he admired.[26] However, Xenophon also lists many differences between the Spartan and Persian military training, so this may be overdrawn. We plan on recording a video on Plutarch’s Life of Agesilaus and Xenophon’s Hellenica, so you can judge whether this comparison rings true for yourself.
Alas, only sparse fragments survive of the chapters Diodorus of Siculus dedicated to the rule of Cyrus the Great.[27] We also discuss Herodotus and the other Greek historians in our Book Reviews on Greek History and Philosophy.
Book and Lecture Reviews of Ancient Greek History and Philosophy
http://www.seekingvirtueandwisdom.com/book-and-lecture-reviews-of-ancient-greek-history-and-philosophy/
https://youtu.be/472aVKkPsk8
[1] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, translated by Mr Dakyns, Amazon reprint, Book 1, Chapter 1, p. 1.
[2] https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/, from Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Book 9, Chapter 4.
[3] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 1, Chapter 2, pp. 2-5.
[4] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 1, Chapter 3, pp. 6-9.
[5] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 1, Chapter 4, pp. 9-14, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lions_in_Europe
[6] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 1, Chapter 5, pp. 16-17.
[7] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 2, Chapter 1, pp. 32-34.
[8] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 2, Chapter 4, pp. 46-47.
[9] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 3, Chapter 1, pp. 52-57.
[10] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 3, Chapter 2, pp. 57-60.
[11] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 3, Chapter 2, pp. 61-69.
[12] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 4, Chapter 1, pp. 71-73 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyrcania.
[13] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 4, Chapter 2, pp. 73-78.
[14] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 4, Chapter 4, pp. 79-82.
[15] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 4, Chapter 5, pp. 82-86.
[16] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 5, Chapters 1-2, pp. 94-101.
[17] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 5, Chapter 5, pp. 113-118.
[18] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 7, Chapter 1, pp. 145-147.
[19] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabasis_(Xenophon)
[20] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 7, Chapter 3, pp. 148-150.
[21] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 6, Chapter 1, p. 125.
[22] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 6, Chapter 3, p. 133.
[23] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 7, Chapter 5, pp. 154-157.
[24] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomyris
[25] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, Book 8, Chapter 7.13, p. 192.
[26] Xenophon, Cyropaedia, The Education of Cyrus, translator notes for Book 1, p. 27.
[27] https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/
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