Cyropaedia

And since he considered that all Babylon, too,[*](The city guards) stood in need of adequate protection, whether he himself happened to be at home or abroad, he stationed there also an adequate garrison, and he arranged that the Babylonians should furnish the money for their wages, for it was his aim that this people should be as destitute of resources as possible, so that they might be as submissive and as easily restrained as possible.

This guard that he then established about himself and in the city of Babylon is maintained on the same footing even to this day. And as he studied how his whole empire might be held together and at the same time enlarged, he reflected that these mercenaries were not so much better men than those he had made subject as they were inferior in number; and he realized that the brave men, who with the aid of the gods had brought him victory, must be kept together and that care must be exercised that they should not abandon their practice of virtue.

But in order that he might not seem to be issuing orders to them, but that they also might of themselves recognize that this was the best course for them and so abide in virtue and cultivate it, he collected the peers and all who were men of influence, together with such as seemed to him most worthy sharers of his toil and its rewards;

and when they had come together he addressed them as follows:Friends and allies, thanks be above all to the gods[*](Cyrus advocates the old morals for his new empire) that they have vouchsafed to us to obtain all that we thought we deserved. For now we are in possession of broad and fertile lands and of subjects to support us by tilling them; we have houses also and furniture in them.

And let not one of you think that in having these things he has what does not belong to him; for it is a law established for all time among all men that when a city is taken in war, the persons and the property of the inhabitants thereof belong to the captors. It will, therefore, be no injustice for you to keep what you have, but if you let them keep anything, it will be only out of generosity that you do not take it away.

As for the future, however, it is my judgment that if we turn to idleness and the luxurious self-indulgence of men of coarse natures, who count toil misery and living without toil happiness, we shall soon be of little account in our own eyes and shall soon lose all the blessings that we have.