Homer, /vide/ Book of Job (Satan), /vide/ Tragedians.
C2.15. Cf. the /Economist/ for praise of rural simplicity. It is Xenophon /ipsissimus/.
C2.17. Whose bad manners is Xenophon thinking of? Thebans'?
C2.20, fin. A very noble sentence. The man who utters it and the people whose heart and mind it emanates from must be of a high order; and in the /Memorabilia/ Socrates has this highest praise, that he studied to make himself and /all others also/ as good as possible.
C2.21. Notice the practical answer of Cyrus to this panegyric (cf. J. P.).
C2.32. Prolix, Xenophontic.
C3.6 ff. Here also I feel the mind of Xenophon shimmering under various lights. The /Cyropaedia/ is shot with Orientalism. Homeric Epicism--antique Hellenism and modern Hellenism are both there. Spartan simplicity and Eastern quaintness both say their say. In this passage the biblical element seems almost audible.
C3.7. This is in the grand style, Oriental, dilatory, ponderous, savouring of times when battles were affairs of private arrangement between monarchs and hedged about by all the punctilios of an affair of honour.
C3.12. N.B.--The archic man shows a very ready wit and inventiveness in the great art of 'grab' in war, though as he said to his father he was 'a late learner' in such matters. Cf. in modern times the duties of a detective or some such disagreeable office. G. O. Trevelyan as Irish secretary. Interesting for /war ethics/ in the abstract, and for Xenophon's view, which is probably Hellenic. Cyrus now has the opportunity of carrying out the selfish decalogue, the topsy-turvy morality set forth in I. C.6, C.26 ff.
C3.13. Cf. Old Testament for the sort of subterfuges and preparations, e.g. the Gibeonites.
C3.15. The archic man has no time. Cyrus {ou skholazei}. Cf. J. P. It comes from energy combined with high gifts of organisation, economic, architectonic.
C3.19. Nice, I think, this contrasting of spiritual and natural productiveness.
C3.32. Here is the rule of conduct clearly expressed, nor do I see how a military age could frame for itself any other. Christianity only emerged /sub pace Romana/, which for fraternal brotherhood was the fullness of time; and even in the commercial age the nations tumble back practically into the old system.
C3.36 ff. An army on forced march: are there any novelties here?
C3.53. These minute details probably not boring at the time, but interesting rather, perhaps useful.
C4.13. Cyrus resembles Fawcett in his unselfish self-estimate. Gadatas is like the British public, or hgd.
C4.16. Here we feel that the Assyrian is not a mere weakling: he can play his part well enough if he gets a good chance. It needs an Archic and Strategic Man to overpower him.
C4.17. ANCIENT and MODERN parallelism in treatment of wounded.
C4.24. Hellenic war ethics: non-combatant tillers of the soil to be let alone. Is this a novelty? If not, what is the prototype? Did the modern rights of non-combatants so originate?
C4.27, fin. A touch which gives the impression of real history: that is the art of it.
C4.34. Almost autobiographical: the advantage of having a country seat in the neighbourhood of a big town. Here we feel the MODERNISM of XENOPHON. The passage which Stevenson chose for the motto to his /Silverado Squatters/ would suit Xenophon very well (Cicero, De Off. I. xx.). Xenophon || Alfred Tennyson. [Mr. Dakyns used the geometric sign || to indicate parallelism of any sort. The passage from Cicero might be translated thus: 'Some have lived in the country, content with the happiness of home. These men have enjoyed all that kings could claim, needing nothing, under the dominion of no man, untrammelled and in freedom; for the free man lives as he chooses.']
C4.36. The wicked man as conceived in Hellenico-Xenophontine fashion, charged with the spirit of meanness, envy, and hatred, which cannot brook the existence of another better than itself.
C4.38. A nice touch: we learn to know Gadatas and Xenophon also, and the Hellenic mind.
C5.10. Pathos well drawn: /vide/ Richard II. and Bolingbroke. Euripidean quality.
C5.12. The archic man has got so far he can play the part of intercessor between Cyaxares and his Medes. The discussion involves the whole difficulty of suppression ('he must increase, but I must decrease' is one solution, not touched here).
C5.34. Perhaps this is the very point which Xenophon, Philosopher, wishes to bring out, the pseudo-archic man and the archic man contrasted, but Xenophon, lover of man and artist, draws the situation admirably and truthfully without any doctrinal purpose. It is {anthropinon} human essentially, this jealousy and humiliation of spirit.
C5.35. Cyrus' tone of voice and manner must have some compelling charm in them: the dialectic debate is not pursued, but by a word and look the archic man wins his way.
C5.36. Oriental and antique Hellenic, also /modern/, formalities. I can imagine some of those crowned heads, emperors of Germany and Austria, going through similar ceremonies, walking arm-in-arm, kissing on both cheeks fraternally, etc.
C5.39-40. This reveals the incorrigible weakness of Cyaxares. He can never hold his own against the archic man. As a matter of philosophic 'historising,' probably Xenophon conceives the Median element as the corrupting and sapping one in the Persian empire (/vide/ Epilogue), only he to some extent justifies and excuses Cyrus in his imitations of it. That is a difficulty.
C5.41. The archic man shows self-command again: his energy somewhat relieves ignobler actors of responsibility and so far saps their wills. His up-and-doingness a foil to their indolence.
BOOK VI
[C.1] So the day ended, and they supped and went to rest. But early the next morning all the allies flocked to Cyaxares' gates, and while Cyaxares dressed and adorned himself, hearing that a great multitude were waiting, Cyrus gave audience to the suitors his own friends had brought. First came the Cadousians, imploring him to stay, and then the Hyrcanians, and after them the Sakians, and then some one presented Gobryas, and Hystaspas brought in Gadatas the eunuch, whose entreaty was still the same. [2] At that Cyrus, who knew already that for many a day Gadatas had been half-dead with fear lest the army should be disbanded, laughed outright and said, 'Ah, Gadatas, you cannot conceal it: you have been bribed by my friend Hystaspas to take this view.'
[3] But Gadatas lifted up his hands to heaven and swore most solemnly that Hystaspas had not influenced him.
'Nay,' said he, 'it is because I know myself that, if you depart, I am ruined utterly. And therefore it was that I took it upon me to speak with Hystaspas myself, and ask him if he knew what was in your mind about the disbanding of the army.'
[4] And Cyrus said, 'It would be unjust then, I suppose, to lay the blame on Hystaspas.' 'Yes, Cyrus, most unjust,' said Hystaspas, 'for I only said to Gadatas that it would be impossible for you to carry on the campaign, as your father wanted you home, and had sent for you.'
[5] 'What?' cried Cyrus, 'you dared to let that be known whether I wished it or not?'
'Certainly I did,' he answered, 'for I can see that you are mad to be home in Persia, the cynosure of every eye, telling your father how you wrought this and accomplished that.'
'Well,' said Cyrus, 'are you not longing to go home yourself?'
'No,' said the other. 'I am not. Nor have I any intention of going: here I shall stay and be general-in-chief until I make our friend Gadatas the lord and the Assyrian his slave.'
[6] Thus half in jest and half in earnest they played with one another, and meanwhile Cyaxares had finished adorning himself and came forth in great splendour and solemnity, and sat down on a Median throne. And when all were assembled and silence was proclaimed, Cyaxares said:
'My friends and allies, perhaps, since I am present and older than Cyrus, it is suitable that I should address you first. It appears to me that the moment has come to discuss one question before all others, the question whether we ought to go on with the campaign or disband the army. Be pleased,' he added, 'to state your opinions on the matter.'
[7] Then the leader of the Hyrcanians stood up at once and said:
'Friends and allies, I hardly think that words are needed when facts themselves show us the path to take. All of us know that while we stand together we give our enemy more trouble than we get: but when we stood alone it was they who dealt with us as they liked best and we liked least.'
[8] Then the Cadousian followed.
'The less we talk,' said he, 'about breaking-up and going home separately the better; separation has done us
