Cyropaedia: the education of Cyrus

Xénophon

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. Text in brackets "{}" is my transliteration of Greek text into English using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. The diacritical marks have been lost.

Informations

• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 06 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819937494
• Langue: English

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CYROPAEDIA
THE EDUCATION OF CYRUS
By Xenophon
Translated By Henry Graham Dakyns
Revised By F. M. Stawell
DEDICATION
To Clifton College
Work Number of books
The Anabasis 7
The Hellenica 7
The Cyropaedia 8
The Memorabilia 4
The Symposium 1
The Economist 1
On Horsemanship 1
The Sportsman 1
The Cavalry General 1
The Apology 1
On Revenues 1
The Hiero 1
The Agesilaus 1
The Polity of the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians2
Text in brackets “{}” is my transliteration of Greektext into English using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabettable. The diacritical marks have been lost.
INTRODUCTION
A very few words may suffice by way of introductionto this translation of the Cyropaedia .
Professor Jowett, whose Plato represents thehigh-water mark of classical translation, has given us thefollowing reminders: “An English translation ought to be idiomaticand interesting, not only to the scholar, but also to the unlearnedreader. It should read as an original work, and should also be themost faithful transcript which can be made of the language fromwhich the translation is taken, consistently with the firstrequirement of all, that it be English. The excellence of atranslation will consist, not merely in the faithful rendering ofwords, or in the composition of a sentence only, or yet of a singleparagraph, but in the colour and style of the whole work. ”
These tests may be safely applied to the work of Mr.Dakyns. An accomplished Greek scholar, for many years a careful andsympathetic student of Xenophon, and possessing a rare mastery ofEnglish idiom, he was unusually well equipped for the work of atranslator. And his version will, as I venture to think, be foundto satisfy those requirements of an effective translation whichProfessor Jowett laid down. It is faithful to the tone and spiritof the original, and it has the literary quality of a good piece oforiginal English writing. For these and other reasons it shouldprove attractive and interesting reading for the averageEnglishman.
Xenophon, it must be admitted, is not, like Plato,Thucydides, or Demosthenes, one of the greatest of Greek writers,but there are several considerations which should commend him tothe general reader. He is more representative of the type of manwhom the ordinary Englishman specially admires and respects, thanany other of the Greek authors usually read.
An Athenian of good social position, endowed with agift of eloquence and of literary style, a pupil of Socrates, adistinguished soldier, an historian, an essayist, a sportsman, anda lover of the country, he represents a type of country gentlemangreatly honoured in English life, and this should ensure afavourable reception for one of his chief works admirably renderedinto idiomatic English. And the substance of the Cyropaedia ,which is in fact a political romance, describing the education ofthe ideal ruler, trained to rule as a benevolent despot over hisadmiring and willing subjects, should add a further element ofenjoyment for the reader of this famous book in its Englishgarb.
J. HEREFORD.
EDITOR'S NOTE
In preparing this work for the press, I came uponsome notes made by Mr. Dakyns on the margin of his Xenophon. Thesewere evidently for his own private use, and are full of scholarlycolloquialisms, impromptu words humorously invented for the need ofthe moment, and individual turns of phrase, such as the referencesto himself under his initials in small letters, “hgd. ” Thoughplainly not intended for publication, the notes are so vivid andilluminating as they stand that I have shrunk from putting theminto a more formal dress, believing that here, as in the bestletters, the personal element is bound up with what is most freshand living in the comment, most characteristic of the writer, andmost delightful both to those who knew him and to those who willwish they had. I have, therefore, only altered a word here andthere, and added a note or two of my own (always in squarebrackets), where it seemed necessary for the sake of clearness.
F. M. S.
CYROPAEDIA
THE EDUCATION OF CYRUS
BOOK I
(C. 1) We have had occasion before now to reflecthow often democracies have been overthrown by the desire for someother type of government, how often monarchies and oligarchies havebeen swept away by movements of the people, how often would-bedespots have fallen in their turn, some at the outset by onestroke, while whose who have maintained their rule for ever sobrief a season are looked upon with wonder as marvels of sagacityand success.
The same lesson, we had little doubt, was to belearnt from the family: the household might be great or small— eventhe master of few could hardly count on the obedience of his littleflock. (2) And so, one idea leading to another, we came to shapeour reflexions thus: Drovers may certainly be called the rulers oftheir cattle and horse-breeders the rulers of their studs— allherdsmen, in short, may reasonably be considered the governors ofthe animals they guard. If, then, we were to believe the evidenceof our senses, was it not obvious that flocks and herds were moreready to obey their keepers than men their rulers? Watch the cattlewending their way wherever their herdsmen guide them, see themgrazing in the pastures where they are sent and abstaining fromforbidden grounds, the fruit of their own bodies they yield totheir master to use as he thinks best; nor have we ever seen oneflock among them all combining against their guardian, either todisobey him or to refuse him the absolute control of their produce.On the contrary, they are more apt to show hostility against otheranimals than against the owner who derives advantage from them. Butwith man the rule is converse; men unite against none so readily asagainst those whom they see attempting to rule over them. (3) Aslong, therefore, as we followed these reflexions, we could not butconclude that man is by nature fitted to govern all creatures,except his fellow-man. But when we came to realise the character ofCyrus the Persian, we were led to a change of mind: here is a man,we said, who won for himself obedience from thousands of hisfellows, from cities and tribes innumerable: we must ask ourselveswhether the government of men is after all an impossible or even adifficult task, provided one set about it in the right way. Cyrus,we know, found the readiest obedience in his subjects, though someof them dwelt at a distance which it would take days and months totraverse, and among them were men who had never set eyes on him,and for the matter of that could never hope to do so, and yet theywere willing to obey him. (4) Cyrus did indeed eclipse all othermonarchs, before or since, and I include not only those who haveinherited their power, but those who have won empire by their ownexertions. How far he surpassed them all may be felt if we rememberthat no Scythian, although the Scythians are reckoned by theirmyriads, has ever succeeded in dominating a foreign nation; indeedthe Scythian would be well content could he but keep his governmentunbroken over his own tribe and people. The same is true of theThracians and the Illyrians, and indeed of all other nations withinour ken; in Europe, at any rate, their condition is even now one ofindependence, and of such separation as would seem to be permanent.Now this was the state in which Cyrus found the tribes and peoplesof Asia when, at the head of a small Persian force, he started onhis career. The Medes and the Hyrcanians accepted his leadershipwillingly, but it was through conquest that he won Syria, Assyria,Arabia, Cappadocia, the two Phrygias, Lydia, Caria, Phoenicia, andBabylonia. Then he established his rule over the Bactrians,Indians, and Cilicians, over the Sakians, Paphlagonians, andMagadidians, over a host of other tribes the very names of whichdefy the memory of the chronicler; and last of all he brought theHellenes in Asia beneath his sway, and by a descent on the seaboardCyprus and Egypt also.
(5) It is obvious that among this congeries ofnations few, if any, could have spoken the same language ashimself, or understood one another, but none the less Cyrus wasable so to penetrate that vast extent of country by the sheerterror of his personality that the inhabitants were prostratebefore him: not one of them dared lift hand against him. And yet hewas able, at the same time, to inspire them all with so deep adesire to please him and win his favour that all they asked was tobe guided by his judgment and his alone. Thus he knit to himself acomplex of nationalities so vast that it would have taxed a man'sendurance merely to traverse his empire in any one direction, eastor west or south or north, from the palace which was its centre.For ourselves, considering his title to our admiration proved, weset ourselves to inquire what his parentage might have been and hisnatural parts, and how he was trained and brought up to attain sohigh a pitch of excellence in the government of men. And all wecould learn from others about him or felt we might infer forourselves we will here endeavour to set forth.
(C. 2) The father of Cyrus, so runs the story, wasCambyses, a king of the Persians, and one of the Perseidae, wholook to Perseus as the founder of their race. His mother, it isagreed, was Mandane, the daughter of Astyages, king of the Medes.Of Cyrus himself, even now in the songs and stories of the East therecord lives that nature made him most fair to look upon, and setin his heart the threefold love of man, of knowledge, and ofhonour. He would endure all labours, he would undergo all dangers,for the sake of glory. (2) Blest by nature with such gifts of souland body, his memory lives to this day in the mindful heart ofages. It is true that he was brought up according to the laws andcustoms of the Persians, and of these laws it must be noted thatwhile they aim, as laws elsewhere, at the common weal, theirguiding principle is far other than that which most nations follow.Most states permit t