Emma Davis

Xenophon’s Cyrus is known among scholars for subverting Persian laws. He promises that his rule, unlike those laws, will not need force to ensure people’s obedience, for it will always prioritize his subjects’ good. But Xenophon shows that Cyrus’s leadership is more Persian than it seems. It relies on the same method of compulsion as the Persian laws do: the inculcation of gratitude and shame within citizens. Through his discussion of this similarity, Xenophon also shows that Cyrus cannot keep his promise. Like Persia, his empire faces—and fails to resolve—conflicts between its power and its people’s good. Moreover, by making himself the main object of his subjects’ gratitude, Cyrus makes them dependent on him and divided from one another. Through his treatment of gratitude in the Cyropaedia, I argue, Xenophon demonstrates both the attractions and the dangers of an absolute ruler.