Cyropaedia

By Xenophon (transl. H. G. Dakyns, M.A.) Etext prepared by John
Bickers, [email protected] and Dagny,
[email protected]

CYROPAEDIA THE EDUCATION OF CYRUS
BY
XENOPHON

Translated By Henry Graham Dakyns
Revised By F. M. Stawell

DEDICATION
To Clifton College

PREPARER'S NOTE
This was typed from an Everyman's Library edition. It seems that
Dakyns died before Cyropaedia could be included as the planned fourth
and final volume of his series, "The Works of Xenophon," published in
the 1890s by Macmillan and Co. The works in that series can all be
found in Project Gutenberg under their individual titles. The complete
list of Xenophon's works (though there is doubt about some of these) is:
Work Number of books
The Anabasis 7 The Hellenica 7 The Cyropaedia 8 The Memorabilia 4
The Symposium 1 The Economist 1 On Horsemanship 1 The
Sportsman 1 The Cavalry General 1 The Apology 1 On Revenues 1
The Hiero 1 The Agesilaus 1 The Polity of the Athenians and the
Lacedaemonians 2
Text in brackets "{}" is my transliteration of Greek text into English
using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. The diacritical
marks have been lost.

INTRODUCTION
A very few words may suffice by way of introduction to this translation

of the /Cyropaedia/.
Professor Jowett, whose Plato represents the high-water mark of
classical translation, has given us the following reminders: "An English
translation ought to be idiomatic and interesting, not only to the scholar,
but also to the unlearned reader. It should read as an original work, and
should also be the most faithful transcript which can be made of the
language from which the translation is taken, consistently with the first
requirement of all, that it be English. The excellence of a translation
will consist, not merely in the faithful rendering of words, or in the
composition of a sentence only, or yet of a single paragraph, but in the
colour and style of the whole work."
These tests may be safely applied to the work of Mr. Dakyns. An
accomplished Greek scholar, for many years a careful and sympathetic
student of Xenophon, and possessing a rare mastery of English idiom,
he was unusually well equipped for the work of a translator. And his
version will, as I venture to think, be found to satisfy those
requirements of an effective translation which Professor Jowett laid
down. It is faithful to the tone and spirit of the original, and it has the
literary quality of a good piece of original English writing. For these
and other reasons it should prove attractive and interesting reading for
the average Englishman.
Xenophon, it must be admitted, is not, like Plato, Thucydides, or
Demosthenes, one of the greatest of Greek writers, but there are several
considerations which should commend him to the general reader. He is
more representative of the type of man whom the ordinary Englishman
specially admires and respects, than any other of the Greek authors
usually read.
An Athenian of good social position, endowed with a gift of eloquence
and of literary style, a pupil of Socrates, a distinguished soldier, an
historian, an essayist, a sportsman, and a lover of the country, he
represents a type of country gentleman greatly honoured in English life,
and this should ensure a favourable reception for one of his chief works
admirably rendered into idiomatic English. And the substance of the
/Cyropaedia/, which is in fact a political romance, describing the
education of the ideal ruler, trained to rule as a benevolent despot over
his admiring and willing subjects, should add a further element of
enjoyment for the reader of this famous book in its English garb.

J. HEREFORD.

EDITOR'S NOTE
In preparing this work for the press, I came upon some notes made by
Mr. Dakyns on the margin of his Xenophon. These were evidently for
his own private use, and are full of scholarly colloquialisms,
impromptu words humorously invented for the need of the moment,
and individual turns of phrase, such as the references to himself under
his initials in small letters, "hgd." Though plainly not intended for
publication, the notes are so vivid and illuminating as they stand that I
have shrunk from putting them into a more formal dress, believing that
here, as in the best letters, the personal element is bound up with what
is most fresh and living in the comment, most characteristic of the
writer, and most delightful both to those who knew him and to those
who will wish they had. I have, therefore, only altered a word here and
there, and added a note or two of my own (always in square brackets),
where it seemed necessary for the sake of clearness.
F. M. S.

CYROPAEDIA
THE EDUCATION OF CYRUS

BOOK I
[C.1] We have had occasion before