Cyropaedia

From that time on his empire was bounded on the east by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Black Sea, on the west by Cyprus and Egypt, and on the south by Ethiopia. The extremes of his empire are uninhabitable, on the one side because of the heat, on another because of the cold, on another because of too much water, and on the fourth because of too little.

Cyrus himself made his home in the[*](He locates his residences) centre of his domain, and in the winter season he spent seven months in Babylon, for there the climate is warm; in the spring he spent three months in Susa, and in the height of summer two months in Ecbatana. By so doing, they say, he enjoyed the warmth and coolness of perpetual spring-time.

People, moreover, were so devoted to him[*](His personal popularity) that those of every nation thought they did themselves an injury if they did not send to Cyrus the most valuable productions of their country, whether the fruits of the earth, or animals bred there, or manufactures of their own arts; and every city did the same. And every private individual thought he should become a rich man if he should do something to please Cyrus. And his theory was correct; for Cyrus would always accept that of which the givers had an abundance, and he would give in return that of which he saw that they were in want.

When his life was far spent amid such achievements[*](The passing of Cyrus) and Cyrus was now a very old man, he came back for the seventh time in his reign to Persia. His father and his mother were in the course of nature long since dead; so Cyrus performed the customary sacrifice and led the Persians in their national dance and distributed presents among them all, as had been his custom.

As he slept in the palace, he saw a vision: a[*](He is warned in a vision) figure of more than human majesty appeared to him in a dream and said: Make ready,[*](Literally Be packing up; cf. Varro, de R.R. 1. 1: annus octogesimus admonet me ut sarcinas colligam antequam proficiscar e vita.) Cyrus; for thou shalt soon depart to the gods. When the vision was past, he awoke and seemed almost to know that the end of his life was at hand.

Accordingly, he at once took victims and offered sacrifice in the high places to ancestral Zeus, to Helius, and to the rest of the gods, even as the Persians are wont to make sacrifice; and as he sacrificed, he prayed, saying: O[*](His prayer) ancestral Zeus and Helius and all the gods, accept these offerings as tokens of gratitude for help in achieving many glorious enterprises; for in omens in the sacrifice, in signs from heaven, in the flight of birds, and in ominous words, ye ever showed me what I ought to do and what I ought not to do. And I render heartfelt thanks to you that I have never failed to recognize your fostering care and never in my successes entertained proud thoughts transcending human bounds. And I beseech of you that ye will now also grant prosperity and happiness to my children, my wife, my friends, and my country, and to me myself an end befitting the life that ye have given me.

Then after he had concluded his rites and come home, he thought he would be glad to rest and so lay down; and when the hour came, those whose office it was came in and bade him go to his bath. But he told them that he was resting happily. And then again, when the hour came, those whose office it was set dinner before him. But his soul had no desire for food, but he seemed thirsty and drank with pleasure.

And when the same thing befell him on the next day and the day after that, he summoned his sons; for they had accompanied him, as it chanced, and were still in Persia. He summoned also his friends and the Persian magistrates; and when they were all come, he began to speak as follows:

My sons, and all you my friends about me,[*](His last words) the end of my life is now at hand; I am quite sure of this for many reasons; and when I am dead, you must always speak and act in regard to me as of one blessed of fortune. For when I was a boy, I think I[*](He reviews his life) plucked all the fruits that among boys count for the best; when I became a youth, I enjoyed what is accounted best among young men; and when I became a mature man, I had the best that men can have. And as time went on, it seemed to me that I recognized that my own strength was always increasing with my years, so that I never found my old age growing any more feeble than my youth had been; and, so far as I know, there is nothing that I ever attempted or desired and yet failed to secure.

Moreover, I have lived to see my friends made[*](His services) prosperous and happy through my efforts and my enemies reduced by me to subjection; and my country, which once played no great part in Asia, I now leave honoured above all. Of all my conquests, there is not once that I have not maintained. Throughout the past I have fared even as I have wished; but a fear that was ever at my side, lest in the time to come I might see or hear or experience something unpleasant, would not let me become overweeningly proud or extravagantly happy.

But now, if I die, I leave you, my sons, whom the gods have given me, to survive me, and I leave my friends and country happy;

and so why should I not be justly accounted blessed and enjoy an immortality of fame?But I must also declare my will about the disposition[*](He defines the succession) of my throne, that the succession may not become a matter of dispute and cause you trouble. Now, I love you both alike, my sons; but precedence in counsel and leadership in everything that may be thought expedient, that I commit to the first born, who naturally has a wider experience.

I, too, was thus trained by my country and yours to give precedence to my elders—not merely to brothers but to all fellow-citizens—on the street, in the matter of seats, and in speaking; and so from the beginning, my children, I have been training you also to honour your elders above yourselves and to be honoured above those who are younger. Take what I say, therefore, as that which is approved by time, by custom, and by the law.

So you, Cambyses, shall have the throne, the gift of the gods and of myself, in so far as it is mine to give. To you, Tanaoxares, I give the satrapy of Media, Armenia, and, in addition to those two, Cadusia. And in giving you this office, I consider that I leave to your older brother greater power and the title of king, while to you I leave a happiness disturbed by fewer cares;

for I cannot see what human pleasure you will lack; on the contrary, everything that is thought to bring pleasure to man will be yours. But to set one’s heart on more difficult undertakings, to be cumbered with many cares, and to be able to find no rest, because spurred on by emulation of what I have done, to lay plots and to be plotted against, all that must necessarily go hand in hand with royal power more than with your station; and, let me assure you, it brings many interruptions to happiness.

As for you, Cambyses, you must also know[*](His words of counsel—(1) to Cambyses;) that it is not this golden sceptre that maintains your empire; but faithful friends are a monarch’s truest and surest sceptre. But do not think that man is naturally faithful; else all men would find the same persons faithful, just as all find the other properties of nature the same. But every one must create for himself faithfulness in his friends; and the winning of such friends comes in no wise by compulsion, but by kindness.

If, then, you shall endeavour to make others also fellow-guardians of your sovereignty, make a beginning nowhere sooner than with him who is of the same blood with yourself. Fellow-citizens, you know, stand nearer than foreigners do, and messmates nearer than those who eat elsewhere; but those who are sprung from the same seed, nursed by the same mother, reared in the same home, loved by the same parents, and who address the same persons as father and mother, how are they not the closest of all?

Do not you two, therefore, ever make of no effect those blessings whereby the gods have led the way to knitting close the bonds between brothers, but do you build at once upon that foundation still other works of love; and thus the love between you will always be a love that no other men can ever surpass. Surely he that has forethought for his brother is taking care for himself; for to whom else is a brother’s greatness more of an honour than to a brother? And who else will be honoured by the power of a great man so much as that man’s brother? And if a man’s brother is a great man, whom will any one so much fear to injure as that man’s brother?

Therefore, Tanaoxares, let no one more[*]((2) to Tanaoxares) readily than yourself yield obedience to your brother or more zealously support him. For his fortunes, good or ill, will touch no one more closely than yourself. And bear this also in mind: whom could you favour in the hope of getting more from him than from your brother? Where could you lend help and get in return a surer ally than you would find in him? Whom would it be a more shameful thing for you not to love than your own brother? And who is there in all the world whom it would be a more noble thing to prefer in honour than your brother? It is only a brother, you know, Cambyses, whom, if he holds the first place of love in his brother’s heart, the envy of others cannot reach.

Nay by our fathers’ gods I implore you, my sons, honour one another, if you care at all to give me pleasure. For assuredly, this one thing, so it[*](Cyrus on the immortality of the soul) seems to me, you do not know clearly, that I shall have no further being when I have finished this earthly life; for not even in this life have you seen my soul, but you have detected its existence by what it accomplished.