Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/133



'Cyropædeia,' or 'Education of Cyrus,' is, like the 'Anabasis,' misnamed. For only the first few chapters are about the education, properly so called, of the Persian monarch. The remainder of the work, extending to eight books, and being nearly the largest of the writings of Xenophon, treats of the successful exploits of Cyrus as a general, and a military and civil organiser, under his uncle Cyaxares, till he finally receives from the latter the hand of his daughter in marriage, and is placed on the throne of Media. The work closes with an account of the distribution into satrapies of the countries conquered by Cyrus; and of the sage advice which he gave, when his death drew nigh, to his sons and his chief officers of state—advice, says Xenophon, which was but too much neglected by his successors, who forgot his maxims, and by their misrule suffered the excellent institutions of Cyrus to fall into abeyance, and the national character of the Persians to decay.