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Persians as Centaurs in Xenophon's Cyropaedia
- Transactions of the American Philological Association
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 135, Number 1, Spring 2005
- pp. 177-207
- 10.1353/apa.2005.0010
- Article
- Additional Information
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Cyrus depends on the traditional virtues of the Persians, but must introduce a new understanding of virtue to make them an imperial people, coupling Median luxury with Persian restraint. The collapse of this unstable combination immediately following Cyrus' death is therefore natural enough. The Cyropaedia is thus a guide both to how to found an empire and to why not to found an empire.