Customer Reviews

Xenophon's Prince: Republic and Empire in the Cyropaedia

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This is an illuminating and truly original interpretation of this rich and difficult book. Most other criticism of Xenophon is ultimately condescending and assumes that the author is somehow naive in the subjects he addresses here - leadership, politics, and the nature of a republic. Nadon takes the author on his own terms, rather than try to interpret him through modern theories. By approaching Xenophon with respect and scholarship, he finds the themes that unite this book and which show the modern reader the intent of this great classic mind.

Nadon's careful examination of Xenophon's Education of Cyrus is by far the best available treatment of the work: careful, concise, beautifully written. Highly recommended as an introduction not only to Xenophon, but to the reading of classical literature generally.

Nadon's analysis of Xenophon's masterpiece Cyropedia does not reflect the true intension of Xenophon in the original text; he claims that Cyrus was using methods of a typical tyrant to achieve his goals (to transform Persia from a Republic to an Empire).
He believes that he has solved the puzzle about inconsistencies between body of Xenophon's text and its surprising ending in chapter 8 but the truth is that the author is torn between translation and analysis of the original text and his own imagination and speculations around the subject and the analysis is not based on knowledge about Iranian history and traditions and it has lead to a need for twisting and turning the original text of Cyropedia to suit the analysis.
It can not be denied that Cyrus the Great librated Babylonians and we have texts written at end of political independence of Babylonia which vilifies Nabonidus and praises Cyrus the Great as the liberator of the oppressed sanctuaries and the king of Persians are not considered as foreign invader but the saviour.
On many occasions the author completely looses his ability to return to original text of Cyropedia and his imagination takes over ,page 158 shows a clear example there he is stating `we must note he(Cyrus)
never expresses the slightest concern for Panthea's honour and his references from Cyropedia is 6.3.15
The original text does not indicate anything close to what the author himself is referring to.

Another ridiculous statement on page 114 is (from foot note and text): Cyrus castrated men and employed them as his personal bodyguards. How can someone harm another human in such a manner and then leave him in charge for his own security????(Again the speculation that the author made has nothing to do with the text of Cyropedia, it was his imagination).
In chapter four we can see a discussion about Xenophon's book Hiero and how the tyrant must commit various criminal acts to acquire and to preserve his rule, but a closer examination of Xenophon's Hiero reveals that Xenophon's tyrant is in fact very different from Xenophon's Cyrus.
The Tyrant lives in luxury (Hiero IV.9),instead of admiring merit the tyrant kills people with merit(Hiero V.1,2),incriminate his fatherland, to train his citizens to soldiers, confers no pleasure on him(Hiero V 4),The tyrant instead of aiding or avenging despotic lord, murders private citizens and he sets up statues of the doers of such deeds in temples(Hiero IV 4), and finally the Tyrant relies on foreign bodyguards only ,in fear for his own security he can not trust his countrymen.
If we compare behaviour and method of rule of Xenophon's tyrant in Hiero and his Cyrus in Cyropedia,
we can see striking difference in relation to his subjects, friends and family and way of life.
In my opinion Mr Nadon's analysis is not convincing and I hope that in near future we can have a deeper and more detailed study of Xenophon's masterpiece , Cyropedia
Xenophon has described Cyrus the Great as kind, benevolent and generous and the author had to twist and turn the text to suit his own conspiracy theory .
A much better book to read is Xenophon's Cyrus the Great, the art of leadership and war by Larry Hedrick.
You can visit [...] for a preview of a documentary film about Cyrus the Great.