Historical Studies

Historical Studies

The Rediscovery of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia in the Early Modern Period, A Handbook for European Princes

Document Type : Research Paper

Author
Ahmad Fazlinejad
Associate Professor, Department of History, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran
10.30465/hcs.2025.51587.3028
Abstract
Abstract
In studies of ancient Greek historiography, Xenophon's Cyropaedia has always been of interest, both as a literary model and as a book for Teaching governance. This work is also important for understanding the place of the Iranian style of governance among the thought trends of ancient Greece. Although Xenophon's writings about Cyrus' life and actions have been widely criticized and evaluated by scholars, there is no doubt about the influence of these writings on historians, political thinkers, and rulers of Europe in later periods. Xenophon's Cyropaedia is considered the most important surviving historiographical text of the classical ancient era, both in the field of political philosophy, in the field of romantic literature, and as a guide to teaching governance. The present study, using a historical method and a descriptive-analytical approach, examines the role of the Cyropaedia in three important movements in European history in the early modern period: the Italian Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment. The research findings show that among the Greek and Roman texts of the ancient period, Xenophon's Cyropaedia had the greatest impact on European thought and monarchical systems from the Renaissance to the French Revolution.
Keywords: Xenophon's Cyropaedia, Renaissance, Reformation, Age of Enlightenment, Political Philosophy
 
Introduction
The present study investigates why and how Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, the Greek historian and philosopher, was rediscovered in early modern Europe. Among Greek authors, Xenophon possessed extensive knowledge and firsthand experience regarding the political structure of the Achaemenid Empire, as well as a deep understanding of its early rulers—particularly Cyrus the Great, its founder. In Cyropaedia, Xenophon not only describes Cyrus’s style of governance for a Greek readership through a synthesis of history and biography, but also articulates his own ideas concerning the ideal kingship and the qualities of a good king. After Xenophon, other thinkers and political philosophers continued to study this work, and it attracted the attention of many rulers—from Alexander the Great to Roman emperors.
In early modern Europe, Xenophon’s Cyropaedia was among the most significant Greek works to be translated and studied by historians and political thinkers. Monarchs and leaders across European countries welcomed it as a handbook of political theory and practice. The central question of the present study is why and how, among the many historical, philosophical, and political works of classical antiquity, Xenophon’s Cyropaedia attained such prominence finding its way into royal courts, libraries, and intellectual circles.
 
Materials and Methods
This study has been conducted using a historical method with a descriptive–analytical approach. The materials and data necessary for analysis and evaluation were collected and organized from primary sources dating to both antiquity and the early modern period. First, through an examination of the prevailing political and philosophical currents of the ancient Greek world, the significance of Cyropaedia among the works of historians and philosophers, as well as Xenophon’s purpose in writing the life of Cyrus the Great, are considered. In the next stage, the intellectual and social contexts and the reasons behind the interest of early modern European writers and philosophers in Cyropaedia are explored.
The focus of this study is on the role of Cyropaedia during the early modern period as a handbook for European princes and on its influence in shaping political systems based on patriarchal monarchy rather than lordly lordship.
 
 
Discussion and Results
Xenophon’s Cyropaedia attracted the attention of European thinkers and rulers through three major intellectual currents in early modern history. The first occurred during the Italian Renaissance and its subsequent spread to other countries. In this phase, the translation of Cyropaedia into various European languages enabled historians and political philosophers to become acquainted with Cyrus the Great’s model of governance and to compare him with other rulers of the ancient world. During this period, Machiavelli referred to Cyrus in his works as a monarch who could serve as a model for contemporary rulers.
The second phase corresponds to the period of the Reformation and its aftermath, during which Xenophon’s Cyropaedia became one of the most widely translated and studied works by European scholars. In Germany, France, and England—countries where the Reformation brought fundamental changes to the relationship between religion and the state—Cyropaedia emerged as a key text in political thought and a practical guide for rulers. In England, during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and James I (1603–1625), Xenophon’s work was a favorite in both the royal court and political and literary circles. In France, it was among the influential works shaping the thought of Jean Bodin (1530–1596), the political philosopher of the tumultuous Reformation era.
In his renowned work, The Six Books of the Republic, Jean Bodin compares three types of monarchy: hereditary royal monarchy, lordly monarchy, and tyrannical monarchy. Drawing on Xenophon’s Cyropaedia and referencing the kingdoms of the Medes and the Persians, Bodin classifies Cyrus’s monarchy as a royal monarchy in which the ruler exercises authority to improve the welfare of society. In this respect, he distinguishes it from both lordly and tyrannical forms of monarchy.
The third phase in early modern Europe corresponds to the Enlightenment, which many historians date from the end of the Thirty Years’ War and the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 to the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. During the Enlightenment, European historians and thinkers’ interest in antiquity and powerful monarchies, such as the Achaemenid Empire and the Roman Empire, led to the creation of numerous works about these states. In this period, Xenophon’s Cyropaedia not only continued to be regarded as a valuable text in political thought and ancient history, but also inspired writers to produce histories and narratives about the Achaemenids. For instance, the German historian Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren (1760–1842) authored History of the Achaemenid Empire, in which he described Cyrus based on Xenophon’s account.
In the final years of the eighteenth century, Cyropaedia attracted the attention of the founders of the newly established United States. Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), among others, studied the work as a guide to kingship and recommended it to his contemporaries.
 
Conclusion
The findings of this study indicate that, among the historical and philosophical works of classical antiquity, Xenophon’s Cyropaedia was more than any other text recognized in early modern Europe by translators, political thinkers, and rulers as a model of ideal governance. The translation and study of this work ensured that Cyrus the Great remained one of the most celebrated ancient rulers, and in some early modern monarchies, Cyropaedia was used as a handbook for governance, taught and consulted within royal courts.
Keywords
Xenophon's Cyropaedia
Renaissance
Reformation
Age of Enlightenment
Political Philosophy
Subjects
Ahd-e Atiq [The Old Testament], Ketab-e Ezra, bab-e chaharom; Ketab-e Ester, bab-ha-ye sheshom va dahom. [in Persian].
Aristotle (1349). Siyasat [Politics], translated by Hamid Enayat, Tehran: Sherkat-e Sahami-ye Ketabha-ye Jibi. [in Persian].
Berlin, I. (1398). Vic ova Herder: Do barrasi dar Tarikh-e andisheha [Vico and Herder: Two Studies in the History of Ideas], translated by Edris Ranji, Tehran: Qoqnoos. [in Persian].
Bodin, Jean (1903), The Six Books of a Commonweale, translated by: Richard Knolles, London, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.
Burke, Peter (1966), “A Survey of the Popularity of Ancient Historians, 1450-1700”, in: History and Theory, Published By: Wiley, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 135-152.
Chernyakhovskaya, Olga (2018), “Mechanisms of Peasure according to Xenophon’s Socrates”, in: Plato and Xenophon comparative Studies, edited by: Gabriel Danzig, David Johnson, Donald Morrison, Brill. Leiden. Boston, pp. 318-339.   
Ciccolella, Federica (2024), “The Divine Language: Greek in a Sixteenth-Century German School”, in: Reading, Writing, Translating: Greek in Early Modern Schools, Universities, and beyond, edited by Johanna Akujarvi & Kristina Savin, Lund University, pp. 65-88.
Cicero (1958-60), Letters to his friends, trans, W. Glynn Williams. Vol 3, Cambridge, Harvard University press.
Clark, George (1964), The Seventeenth Century, New York.
Cook, James Wyatt (2006), Encyclopedia of Renaissance Literature, Fact on File, Inc, New York.
Cramise, John (2002), Kingship and Crown finance under James VI and I 1603-1625, the royal historical society the Boydel press.
Dipiero, T. (2006). “Le Grand Cyrus (Madeleine de Scudéry, 1649–1653)”. In F. Moretti (Ed.), The Novel, Volume 2: Forms and Themes Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 152-160.
Ellis, Anthony (2015), “Herodotus and God in the Protestant Reformation”, in: Histos Supplement, 4, 173-245.
Elyot, Thomas (1883), The Book named the Governour, edited from the first edition of 1531, by Henry Herbert Stephen Croft, In two Volumes, Vol I, London, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co, Paternoster Square.
Endelman, Gary and Mehta, Cyrus D (2013), “How Cyrus’ View of Religious Toleration May Have Inspired the American Constitution”, in: Https://blog.cyrusmehta.com
Erasmus, Desiderius (1977), The Education of a Christian Prince, translated by Neil M. Cheshire and Michael J. Heath, Cambridge University Press.
Filmer, R. (1396). Pedarsalar [Patriarcha], translated by Ali Ardestani, Tehran: Negah-e Moaser. [in Persian].
Gattschalk, Louis (1951), Europe and the Modern World, Chicago, Scott, Forsemen and Company.
Georges, Pricles (1994), Barbarian Asia and the Greek experience, from the Archaic period to the Age of Xenophon, the Johns Hopkins University Press. 
Heeren, Arnold. H (1846), Historical Researches into the Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Principal Nations of Antiquity, Vol 1: Asian Nations. Persians, Phoenicians, Babylonians. Translated from the German, London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden.
Herder, Johan Gottfried (1800), Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man, translated from the German, by T. Churchill, Bergman Publishers, New York, London.
Humble, Noreen (2017), “Xenophon and the Instruction of Princes”, in: The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon, edited by Michael A. Flower, Cambridge University Press, pp. 416-434.  
Humble, Noreen (2018), “Erudition, Emulation and Enmity in the Dedication Letters to Filelfo’s Greek to Latin Translations”, in: Francesco Filelfo, man of letters, edited by: Jeroen De Keyser, Brill, Leiden. Boston, pp. 127-173.
Humble, Noreen (2020), “Worn out in the Reading: Xenophon’s Cyropaedia in the Sixteenth Century”, in: Ancient Information on Persia Re-assessed: Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Proceedings of a Conference Held at Marburg in Honour of Christopher J. Tuplin, December 1–2, 2017, edited by Bruno Jacobs, Harrassowitz Verlag. Wiesbaden, pp. 341-366. 
Ianziti, Gary (2012), Writing history in Renaissance Italy: Leonardo Bruni and the uses of the past, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England.
James I (1887), Basilicon Doron or his Majestys instructions to his dearest sonne Henry the Prince, written by King James I, reprinted from the excessively rare privately- printed edition of Edinburgh, 1599, London, printed by Werthelmer, Lea & Co, circus place.
Jerlerup, Torbjörn (2003), “The Renaissance, and the Rediscovery of Plato and the Greeks”, in: Fidelio, Journal of Poetry, Science, and Statecraft, Vol. 12, No. 3 Fall 2003, pp. 36-55.
Kunawt, W. (2535). Arman-e Shahriyari-ye Iran-e Bastan az Ksenophon ta Ferdowsi az ruy-e athar-e nevisandegan-e Yunan va Rom va Iran [The Ideal Kingship in Ancient Iran from Xenophon to Ferdowsi Based on the Works of Greek, Roman and Iranian Authors], translated by Seif Al-Ddin Najmabadi, Tehran: Entesharat-e Edare-ye Kol-e Negaresh, Vezarat-e Farhang va Honar; Chapkhane-ye Ziba. [in Persian].
Loloi, Parvin (2010), “Portraits of the Achaemenid Kings in English Drama: Sixteenth–Eighteenth Centuries”, in: The World of Achaemenid Persia History, Art and Society in Iran and the Ancient Near East, edited by John Curtis and St John Simpson, Proceedings of a conference at the British Museum 29th September–1st October 2005, I.B. Touris & Co Ltd. London. New York, pp. 33-40.
Luther, Martin (1960 A), “An Open Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation”, in: Three Treatises Martin Luther, Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
Luther, Martin (1960 B), “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church”, in: Three Treatises Martin Luther, Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
Machiavelli, N. (1366). Shahryar [The Prince], translated by Dariush Ashuri, Tehran: Nashr-e Parvaz. [in Persian].
Machiavelli, N. (1388). Goftarha [Discourses], translated by Mohammad Hasan Lotfi, Tehran: Khvarazmi. [in Persian].
Marraro, Howard R (1943), “Unpublished Correspondence of Jefferson and Adams to Mazzei”, in: The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol LI, No. 2, pp. 113-133.
Matijasic, Ivan (2018), Shaping the canons of ancient Greek historiography: imitation, classicism, and literary criticism, Walter de Gruyter Gmb H, Berlin/Boston.
McCabe, Ina Baghdiantz (2008), Orientalism in early modern France: Eurasian trade, exoticism, and the Ancien Régime, Berg, Oxford. New York.
Millicent Sowerby, Emily (1983), Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson. 5 Books, Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-59.
Mojtabayi, Fathollah (1352). Shahr-e Ziba-ye Aflatun va Shahi-ye Armani dar Iran-e Bastan [Plato’s Beautiful City and Ideal Kingship in Ancient Iran], Tehran: Anjoman-e Farhang-e Iran-e Bastan. [in Persian].
Pereze Martin, Inmaculada (2013), “The Reception of Xenophon in Byzantium: The Macedonian Period”, in: Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 53 (2013) 812–855.
Plato (1353). Jomhuri [The Republic], translated by Mohammad Hasan Lotfi, Tehran: Khosheh. [in Persian].
Pownall, Franes (2020), “Xenopho’s Cyropaedia and Greek Historiography”, in Ancient Information on Persia Reassessed: Xenophon’s Cyropaedia proceedings of a conference held at Marburg in honour of Christopher J. Tuplin, edited by: Bruno Jacobs, Harrassowitz Verlag. Wiesbaden, pp. 3-18.  
Ramsay, Andrew Michael (1730), The Travels of Cyrus to which is annex'd, A discourse upon the theology and mythology of the pagans, Vol I, London, Woodward.
Rhodes, P. J (2007), “Dacuments and the Greeks Historians”, in: Acompanion to Greek and Roman Historiography, Vol I, edited by: John Marincola, Blackwell Publishing, pp. 56-66.
Saarinen, Risto (2011), Weakness of will in Renaissance and Reformation Thought, Oxford University Press.
Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Heleen (2010), “The Death of Cyrus: Xenophon’s Cyropaedia as a Source for Iranian History”, in: Oxford Readings in Classical Studies Xenophon, edited by: Vivienne J. Gray, Oxford University Press, pp. 439-453.
Sidney, Sir Philip (1890), An Apology for Poetry, edited with introduction and notes by Albert S. Cook, Boston, Published by Ginn & Company.
Stadter, Phillip. A (2002), “Historical Thought in Ancient Greece”, in: A Companion to Western Historical Thought, edited by: Lioyd Kramer and Sarah Maza, pp. 35-59.
Stoneman, Richard (2020), “Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus in Early Modern Europe”, in: Ancient Information on Persia Re-assessed: Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, Proceedings of a Conference Held at Marburg in Honour of Christopher J. Tuplin, December 1–2, 2017, edited by Bruno Jacobs, Harrassowitz Verlag. Wiesbaden, pp. 325-339.
Wiesehöfer, Josef (2017), “Cyrus the Great and the sacrifi ces for a dead king”, in: Ancient Historiography on war and Empire, edited by Timothy Howe, Sabine Müller and Richard Stoneman, Oxbow Books, Oxford & Philadelphia, pp. 55-61.
Wilson, N.G (1992), From Byzantium to Italy, London: Ducworth.
Xenophon (1394). Khaterat-e Soqrati [Memorabilia], translated by Mohammad Hasan Lotfi, Tehran: Khvarazmi. [in Persian].
Xenophon (1914), Cyropaedia, translated by Walter Miller, 2 Volumes, London: William Heinemann, New York: the Macmillan co.
Historical Studies
Volume 17, Issue 1 - Serial Number 33
Spring and Summer 2026-2027
April 2026
Pages 425-462

  • Receive Date 08 April 2025
  • Revise Date 04 September 2025
  • Accept Date 08 October 2025