(1) Now the father of Cyrus is said to have been Cambyses, king of the Persians; this Cambyses was of the race of the Perseidae, who were so named after Perseus.9 His mother is agreed to have been Mandane. This Mandane was the daughter of Astyages, who became king of the Medes. As to his nature, even now Cyrus is still described in word and song by the barbarians as having been most beautiful in form and most benevolent in soul, most eager to learn, and most ambitious,10 with the result that he endured every labor and faced every risk for the sake of being praised. (2) He is remembered, then, as having such a nature in body and soul.11
He was, moreover, educated in the laws of the Persians. These laws do not seem to begin where they begin in most cities, but by caring for the common good. For most cities allow each to educate his own children however he wants, and they allow the adults themselves to live however they please; then they enjoin them not to steal or plunder, not to use violence in entering a house, not to strike whomever it is unjust to strike, not to commit adultery, not to disobey a ruler, and similarly with other such matters. If someone transgresses one of these strictures, they punish him.
(3) But the Persian laws, starting earlier, take care that the citizens will not in the first place even be such as to desire any vile or shameful deed.12 They exercise this care in the following way: They have a so-called Free Square, where the king’s palace and other government buildings have been built. From hence are banished to another place merchandise for sale and its sellers, their cries and their vulgarity, lest their confusion mingle with the good order of the educated. (4) This square by the government buildings is divided into four parts. One of these is for the boys, one for the youths, another for the mature men, another for those who are beyond the years of military service. It is required by law that these divisions attend their several places, the boys and the mature men at daybreak, the elders when it suits each of them, except for appointed days, when they are obliged to be present. The youths even sleep beside the government buildings with their light weapons, except the married youths; these are not sought after (unless it was previously required that they attend), although it is not noble for them to be absent often. (5) There are twelve rulers over each of these parts, for the Persians are divided into twelve tribes. Over the boys are chosen those of the elders who are thought to make the boys best; over the youths those of the mature men who are thought to render the youths best; and over the mature men those who are thought to render them especially ready to carry out the orders and exhortations of the greatest office.13 Leaders of the elders are also chosen, and they lead so that these too perform their duties completely. In order that it may be more clear how they take care that the citizens be as good as possible, we will describe what each age group is ordered to do.
(6) The boys who go to school spend their time learning justice. It is said that they go for this purpose, as among us they go to learn their letters. Their rulers spend most of the day judging cases among them, for just as men do, of course, boys also accuse each other of theft, robbery, violence, deceit, calumny, and other such things as are likely; and they take vengeance on whomever they resolve to have done any of these injustices. (7) They punish also whomever they find to be bringing an unjust accusation. They also judge cases of ingratitude, an accusation for which human beings hate each other very much but very rarely adjudicate; and they punish severely whomever they judge not to have repaid a favor he was able to repay, for they think that those who are ungrateful would be especially uncaring also about gods, as well as about parents, fatherland, and friends; and shamelessness seems to follow especially upon ingratitude, and it seems in turn to be the greatest leader to everything shameful. (8) They also teach the boys moderation.14 It contributes greatly to their learning moderation that they see also their elders spending the whole day moderately.15 They teach them also to obey the rulers. It contributes greatly to this too that they see their elders strictly obeying the rulers. They also teach continence in food and drink.16 It contributes greatly also to this that they do not see their elders going off for food until the rulers dismiss them, and that the boys eat not with their mothers but with their teacher, and not before the rulers give the signal. They carry bread from home as their main food, greens as a relish, and a drinking cup so that if one is thirsty, he may draw up water from the river.17 In addition to these things, they learn how to shoot a bow and to throw a spear. The boys do this until they are sixteen or seventeen years old; after this they enter among the youths.
(9) These youths spend their time in the following way. For ten years after they leave the class of the boys, they sleep around the government buildings, just as we said before, both for the city and for moderation, for this age seems especially in need of care. They present themselves to the rulers also during the day, in case they should need to use them for the community.18 And whenever it is necessary, all remain around the government buildings; but when the king goes out for a hunt, he leads out half of the guard with him. And he does this many times during the month. Those who go out must have a bow and quiver, a scimitar19 or small sword in a sheath, and, moreover, a light shield and two spears, one to throw and the other, if need be, to use close at hand.
(10) Here is why they take care that hunting be a matter of public concern, and why, just as he is also in war, the king is their leader, and he himself joins the hunt and also takes care that they do: It seems to them that hunting is the truest of the exercises that pertain to war. For it habituates them to rise at dawn and to endure cold and heat, it exercises them in marches and in running, and it is necessary both to shoot wild animals with the bow and to spear them whenever one comes close. It is necessary that, whenever one of the mightier wild animals turns up, as often happens, even the soul be whetted, for surely one must strike the wild animal that comes to close quarters and be on one’s guard against the one that approaches. Consequently, it is not easy to find anything missing from hunting that is present in war.
(11) They go out on the hunt with a lunch that is larger, as is to be expected,20 than that of the boys, but it is in other respects the same. They will not eat this lunch while hunting; and if it should be at all necessary to remain out to pursue the game, or if they are for any other reason willing to spend more time hunting, they eat their lunch for dinner and hunt again the next day until dinnertime, and they calculate that these two days are one, because they spent on them the food of only one day. This they do to habituate themselves, so that if it is at all necessary also in war, they are able to do the same thing. And as a relish, those of this age have whatever they catch on the hunt. If nothing else, there are greens. And if someone should think that they eat without pleasure when they have only greens with their bread, or drink without pleasure when they drink only water, let him remember how pleasant barley cake and bread are to those who hunger to eat, and how pleasant water is to one who thirsts to drink. (12) The tribes that remain behind spend their time concerned with shooting their bows and throwing their spears, and with the other things that they learned when they were boys; and they compete continuously against each other in these things. There are also public contests in them, and prizes are offered. In whichever tribe there are the most members who are most skillful, most manly, and most obedient, the citizens praise and honor not only their present ruler but also the one who educated them when they were boys. If there should be any need to post guards, to search for malefactors, to chase after robbers, or to do any other work that requires strength or speed, the magistrates make use of those of the youths who remain behind. This, then, is what the youths do.
But when they complete their ten years, they enter among the mature men. (13) From whenever they graduate, they spend the next twenty-five years in the following way. First, just as did the youths, they offer themselves to the magistrates21 to be put to use if the community should be in need of such deeds as belong to men who have become prudent and yet are still powerful. If it should be necessary to go somewhere on a military expedition, those who have been educated in this way go on the expedition without taking their bows or their spears anymore, but with what are called weapons for close combat: a breastplate on their chest, a shield in their left hand (such as the Persians are painted as having), and a sword or scimitar in their right hand. And all the magistrates are drawn from this group except the teachers of the boys. When they have spent their twenty-five years and would be somewhat more than fifty years old, then they enter among those who are called the “elders” and really are.22 (14) Now these elders no longer go on military expeditions outside of their own territory, but they remain at home and adjudicate all things common and private. They also judge capital cases as well as choose all magistrates. And if any of either the young or mature men should fall at all short of what is lawful, the several rulers of the tribes, or any other who wishes, show it, and the elders listen and pass judgment. Whoever is convicted spends the rest of his life in dishonor.
(15) In order that the whole Persian regime may be shown more clearly, I shall go back a little, for now, on account of what has been said above, it may be made clear quite concisely. The Persians are said to number about one hundred and twenty thousand. No one of them is barred by law from honors or political office, but it is permitted to all Persians to send their own children to the common23 schools of justice. And yet only those who are able to raise their children without putting them to work do send them; those who are not able do not. Whoever is educated by the public teachers is permitted to spend his youth among the youths; to those who are not so educated, it is not permitted. To those in turn among the youths who spend their time fulfilling what is prescribed by law, it is permitted to be enrolled among the mature men and to share in political offices and honors. But those who do not pass their time among the youths do not enter among the mature men. Those who pass their time among the mature men without being censured become enrolled among the elders. Thus the elders are seated after having passed through everything noble. By using this regime, they think they may become the best.
(16) There remains even now evidence of their moderate diet and of their working off what they have taken in, for even now it is still shameful for them to spit and blow their noses, or to be detected passing gas, and it is also shameful to be detected going off somewhere to urinate or do some other such thing. They would not be able to act like this if they did not employ a moderate diet and expend their moisture through work, so that it goes off in another way. Now these things we can say about all the Persians; but as for that24 on account of which the argument began, we shall now relate the actions of Cyrus beginning from his boyhood.