{"title":"Ruling through Fear. Cyrus the Great in Xenophon’s <b> <i>Cyropaedia</i> </b>","authors":"Matteo Zaccarini","doi":"10.1515/klio-2023-0005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Summary This paper explores Xenophon’s depiction of Cyrus the Great as a ruler in the Cyropaedia. Xenophon’s Cyrus is often regarded by the scholarship as an ideal, benevolent leader sincerely concerned with virtue, friendship, and honour-related dynamics. However, it is clear that Cyrus equally resorts to malicious and divisive means, employing psychological subjugation, fostering mutual rivalry among his friends, and weakening his subjects. His actions ultimately arouse fear, envy, and insecurity, as Cyrus displays some of the typical features of a tyrant. Xenophon possibly meant to show how Cyrus, by successfully balancing different and contrasting aspects, succeeded in maintaining power no matter the costs by ‘domesticating’ his subjects.","PeriodicalId":17832,"journal":{"name":"Klio","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Klio","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1515/klio-2023-0005","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Summary This paper explores Xenophon’s depiction of Cyrus the Great as a ruler in the Cyropaedia. Xenophon’s Cyrus is often regarded by the scholarship as an ideal, benevolent leader sincerely concerned with virtue, friendship, and honour-related dynamics. However, it is clear that Cyrus equally resorts to malicious and divisive means, employing psychological subjugation, fostering mutual rivalry among his friends, and weakening his subjects. His actions ultimately arouse fear, envy, and insecurity, as Cyrus displays some of the typical features of a tyrant. Xenophon possibly meant to show how Cyrus, by successfully balancing different and contrasting aspects, succeeded in maintaining power no matter the costs by ‘domesticating’ his subjects.
期刊介绍:
KLIO is one of the oldest journals in the German-speaking area and contains contributions on the history of ancient Greece and Rome. The essays present new interpretations of traditional sources concerning problems of political history as well as papers on the whole field of culture, economy and society.