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now to reflect how often
democracies have been overthrown by the desire for some other type of
government, how often monarchies and oligarchies have been swept
away by movements of the people, how often would-be despots have
fallen in their turn, some at the outset by one stroke, while whose who
have maintained their rule for ever so brief a season are looked upon
with wonder as marvels of sagacity and success.
The same lesson, we had little doubt, was to be learnt from the family:
the household might be great or small--even the master of few could
hardly count on the obedience of his little flock. [2] And so, one idea
leading to another, we came to shape our reflexions thus: Drovers may
certainly be called the rulers of their cattle and horse- breeders the
rulers of their studs--all herdsmen, in short, may reasonably be

considered the governors of the animals they guard. If, then, we were to
believe the evidence of our senses, was it not obvious that flocks and
herds were more ready to obey their keepers than men their rulers?
Watch the cattle wending their way wherever their herdsmen guide
them, see them grazing in the pastures where they are sent and
abstaining from forbidden grounds, the fruit of their own bodies they
yield to their master to use as he thinks best; nor have we ever seen one
flock among them all combining against their guardian, either to
disobey him or to refuse him the absolute control of their produce. On
the contrary, they are more apt to show hostility against other animals
than against the owner who derives advantage from them. But with
man the rule is converse; men unite against none so readily as against
those whom they see attempting to rule over them. [3] As long,
therefore, as we followed these reflexions, we could not but conclude
that man is by nature fitted to govern all creatures, except his
fellow-man. But when we came to realise the character of Cyrus the
Persian, we were led to a change of mind: here is a man, we said, who
won for himself obedience from thousands of his fellows, from cities
and tribes innumerable: we must ask ourselves whether the government
of men is after all an impossible or even a difficult task, provided one
set about it in the right way. Cyrus, we know, found the readiest
obedience in his subjects, though some of them dwelt at a distance
which it would take days and months to traverse, and among them were
men who had never set eyes on him, and for the matter of that could
never hope to do so, and yet they were willing to obey him. [4] Cyrus
did indeed eclipse all other monarchs, before or since, and I include not
only those who have inherited their power, but those who have won
empire by their own exertions. How far he surpassed them all may be
felt if we remember that no Scythian, although the Scythians are
reckoned by their myriads, has ever succeeded in dominating a foreign
nation; indeed the Scythian would be well content could he but keep his
government unbroken over his own tribe and people. The same is true
of the Thracians and the Illyrians, and indeed of all other nations within
our ken; in Europe, at any rate, their condition is even now one of
independence, and of such separation as would seem to be permanent.
Now this was the state in which Cyrus found the tribes and peoples of
Asia when, at the head of a small Persian force, he started on his career.

The Medes and the Hyrcanians accepted his leadership willingly, but it
was through conquest that he won Syria, Assyria, Arabia, Cappadocia,
the two Phrygias, Lydia, Caria, Phoenicia, and Babylonia. Then he
established his rule over the Bactrians, Indians, and Cilicians, over the
Sakians, Paphlagonians, and Magadidians, over a host of other tribes
the very names of which defy the memory of the chronicler; and last of
all he brought the Hellenes in Asia beneath his sway, and by a descent
on the seaboard Cyprus and Egypt also.
[5] It is obvious that among this congeries of nations few, if any, could
have spoken the same language as himself, or understood one another,
but none the less Cyrus was able so to penetrate that vast extent of
country by the sheer terror of his personality that the inhabitants were
prostrate before him: not one of them dared lift hand against him. And
yet he was able, at the same time, to inspire them all with so deep a
desire to please him and win his favour that all they asked was to be
guided by his judgment and his alone. Thus he knit