Xenophon: The Education of Cyrus

317 Pages·2001·2.39 MB·English

by  Krishna Rungta

Xenophon

The Education of Cyrus
A volume in the series
Agora Editions

General Editor: Thomas L. Pangle
Founding Editor: Allan Bloom

A full list of titles in the series appears at
the end of the book.
Xenophon

The Education of Cyrus

Translated and

Annotated by

WAYNE AMBLER

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS

ITHACA AND LONDON
Copyright© 2001 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review,

this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any

form without permission in writing from the publisher. For

information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House,

512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2001 by Cornell University Press

First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2001

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Xenophon.

[ Cyropaedia. English]

The education of Cyrus I Xenophon; translated and annotated by

Wayne Ambler.

p. crn.-(Agora paperback editions)

(Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8014-3818-9 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-8014-3818-7 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-8014-8750-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN-IO: 0-8014-8750-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Cyrus, King of Persia, d. 529 B.C.-Fiction. 2.

Iran-History-To 640-Fiction. I. Ambler, Wayne, II. Title. III.

Series.

P A4495.C5 A44 2001

883'.01-dc21

2001001416

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To the memory of my father
Contents

Translator's Note

Introduction: Xenophon's Education of Cyrus

�

The Education of Cyrus

viii

1

�

Xeno phon

BooK I Chapters 1-6 21·
BOOK II Chapters 1-4 61
BOOK III Chapters 1-3 85
BooK IV Chapters 1-6 113
BooK V Chapters 1-5 141
BooK VI Chapters 1-4 177
BOOK VII Chapters 1-5 203

BOOK VIII Chapters 1-8 233
Glossary 279
Notes 287
Index 303
Translator's Note

That Xenophon is a thinker of the first rank is definitely not the
dominant view in the academy today. Nevertheless, a growing literature takes note of his more distinguished earlier reputation and argues that Xenophon's often unassuming and apparently naive prose
is in fact a carefully chosen vehicle for reflections with profound political and ethical implications.1 Open-minded readers of T he Education of Cyrus will naturally want to put this view to the test, and this
translation is intended to help them do so.
I have been guided by the view that Xenophon's treatment of philosophical issues is worthy of the most serious study. As he often
touches on such issues obliquely and through the associations of his
terminology, I have taken pains to convey as accurately as possible
everything that might help readers to encounter his thought, even
though doing so complicates the task of translating into familiar English idiom. I do not claim to have achieved full accuracy nor do I
deny that the literary qualities of the Education would themselves be
worthy of careful study. Instead, I state my aim in order to explain

1 The best introduction to the recent secondary literature on the Education is Christopher Nadon, "From Republic to Empire: Political Revolution and the Common Good
in Xenophon's Education of Cyrus," American Political Science Review 90 (June 1996):
361-'74· For an extended consideration and brilliant analysis of the Education as a whole,
see Christopher Nadon, Xenophon's Prince: Repu blic and Empire in the "Cyropaedia"
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001). For a guide to the literature that takes
Xenophon seriously as a philosophic thinker, see Amy L. Bonnette, ''Translator's Note,"

in Xenophon, Memorabilia, trans. Amy L. Bonnette (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1994), xxvii-xxvili.