Cyropaedia

That this, however, should[*](Specialization desirable even in the kitchen) be so is no marvel. For just as all other arts are developed to superior excellence in large cities, in that same way the food at the king’s palace is also elaborately prepared with superior excellence. For in small towns the same workman makes chairs and doors and plows and tables, and often this same artisan builds houses, and even so he is thankful if he can only find employment enough to support him. And it is, of course, impossible for a man of many trades to be proficient in all of them. In large cities, on the other hand, inasmuch as many people have demands to make upon each branch of industry, one trade alone, and very often even less than a whole trade, is enough to support a man: one man, for instance, makes shoes for men, and another for women; and there are places even where one man earns a living by only stitching shoes, another by cutting them out, another by sewing the uppers together, while there is another who performs none of these operations but only assembles the parts. It follows, therefore, as a matter of course, that he who devotes himself to a very highly specialized line of work is bound to do it in the best possible manner.

Exactly the same thing holds true also in reference to the kitchen: in any establishment where one and the same man arranges the dining couches, lays the table, bakes the bread, prepares now one sort of dish and now another, he must necessarily have things go as they may; but where it is all one man can do to stew meats and another to roast them, for one man to boil fish and another to bake them, for another to make bread and not every sort at that, but where it suffices if he makes one kind that has a high reputation—everything that is prepared in such a kitchen will, I think, necessarily be worked out with superior excellence.

Accordingly, Cyrus far surpassed all others in[*](Cyrus lavish in his gifts) the art of making much of his friends by gifts of food. And how he far surpassed in every other way of courting favour, I will now explain. Though he far exceeded all other men in the amount of the revenues he received, yet he excelled still more in the quantity of presents he made. It was Cyrus, therefore, who began the practice of lavish giving, and among the kings it continues even to this day.

For who has richer friends to show than the Persian king? Who is there that is known to adorn his friends with more beautiful robes than does the king? Whose gifts are so readily recognized as some of those which the king gives, such as bracelets, necklaces, and horses with gold-studded bridles? For, as everybody knows, no one over there is allowed to have such things except those to whom the king has given them.

And of whom else is it said that by the munificence of his gifts he makes himself preferred above even brothers and parents and children? Who else was ever in a position like the Persian king to punish enemies who were distant a journey of many months? And who, besides Cyrus, ever gained an empire by conquest and even to his death was called father by the people he had subdued? For that name obviously belongs to a benefactor rather than to a despoiler.

Moreover,[*](The king’s eyes and king’s ears) we have discovered that he acquired the so-called king’s eyes and king’s ears in no other way than by bestowing presents and honours; for by rewarding liberally those who reported to him whatever it was to his interest to hear, he prompted many men to make it their business to use their eyes and ears to spy out what they could report to the king to his advantage.

As a natural result of this, many eyes and many ears were ascribed to the king. But if any one thinks that the king[*](Hdt. i. 114; Aesch. Pers. 980) selected one man to be his eye, he is wrong; for one only would see and one would hear but little; and it would have amounted to ordering all the rest to pay no attention, if one only had been appointed to see and hear. Besides, if people knew that a certain man was the eye, they would know that they must beware of him. But such is not the case; for the king listens to anybody who may claim to have heard or seen anything worthy of attention.

And thus the saying comes about, The king has many ears and many eyes; and people are everywhere afraid to say anything to the discredit of the king, just as if he himself were listening; or to do anything to harm him, just as if he were present. Not only, therefore, would no one have ventured to say anything derogatory of Cyrus to any one else, but every one conducted himself at all times just as if those who were within hearing were so many eyes and ears of the king. I do not know what better reason any one could assign for this attitude toward him on the part of people generally than that it was his policy to do large favours in return for small ones.