(1) When he was in Babylon, he decided to send satraps to the subdued nations. Nevertheless, he wished that the commanders in the citadels and the colonels of the guards in the country listen to no one but himself. Thinking ahead, he foresaw that if any of the satraps became insolent because of their wealth and the number of their subjects and undertook to disobey him, he would immediately have rivals in the country.29 (2) So wishing to achieve this [force independent of the satraps], he resolved first to call his chief aides together and speak to them in advance, so that those who were going [out as satraps] might know the terms on which they were going. He believed that in this way they would bear these terms more easily. Otherwise, if he should establish someone as ruler and he should perceive these terms later, he thought they would bear it ill, believing that these terms stemmed from distrust of themselves. (3) So gathering them together, he spoke as follows: “Men, friends, in the cities that have been subdued, we have garrisons and their commanders, whom we left there at the time. Before I went away, I ordered them to busy themselves with nothing but keeping the fortresses safe. So since they have nobly guarded what has been assigned to them, I shall not deprive them of their rule, yet I have decided to send others as satraps, who will rule over the inhabitants and who, receiving the tribute, will both pay the garrisons their wage and pay for whatever else may be needed. (4) It also seems to me that whomever I trouble from among those of you who remain here by sending you out to these nations to do something, you should have lands and houses there, both so that a tribute may be brought to you here and so that you may be able to lodge in residences of your own whenever you go there.”
(5) This is what he said, and to many of his friends he gave houses and subjects throughout all the cities that had been subdued. Even now lands still remain for the descendants of those who received them then, different ones in different countries, but they themselves dwell beside the king.
(6) “It is necessary,” he said, “that we look for those going out as satraps to the various countries to be such as will remember to send also here whatever may be noble or good in each land, so that we who are here may share in the goods that arise from all places, for if something terrible arises anywhere, it will also be up to us to defend against it.”
(7) Having said these things, he then stopped the argument. Next, from those of his friends he knew desired to go on the stated terms, he selected those who seemed to be most suitable and sent them as satraps—Megabyzus to Arabia, Artabatas to Cappadocia, Artacamas to the Greater Phyrygia, Chrysantas to Lydia and Ionia, Adousius to Caria (just as they had asked), and Pharnuchus to the Phrygia on the Hellespont and Aeolia. (8) He did not send Persians as satraps over Cilicia, Cyprus, and the Paphlagonians, because they seemed to join the campaign against Babylon voluntarily. He did, however, order even these to pay tribute. (9) As Cyrus then established it, so even now the king still has guard posts in the citadels, and the guards’ colonels are appointed by the king and registered with the king. (10) He told all those being sent out as satraps to imitate all the things they saw him doing: First, that they establish a cavalry from the allies and Persians who were sent along with them, and charioteers as well; that they compel those who receive land and offices to come to court and, practicing moderation, to offer themselves up for the use of the satrap, if anything should be needed; that they educate at court also the children who are born, just as also was done with him; that the satrap take those in his court out hunting, and exercise both himself and his circle in military matters.
(11) “Whoever,” he said, “in proportion to his power, displays the most chariots, and the most and best knights, I shall honor as a good ally and as a good fellow guardian of the empire for both Persians and me. Let it be with you as it is with me, that the best are honored even by where they sit, and that you have a table like mine, which supports the members of the household in the first place but which then is adorned sufficiently for your friends to share in and to honor whoever does anything noble each day. (12) Acquire parks too, and raise wild animals, and neither yourselves ever sit down to your food without exercise nor throw fodder to unexercised horses. Since I am but one [person], I would not be able to preserve with human virtue all your good things. Rather, I must, being good and having good [men] with me, be a protector for you; and you, similarly, being yourselves good and having good [men] with you, must be allies to me. (13) I would wish that you also consider that I am not commanding slaves in any of the things that I prescribe to you. What things I say you need to do, I too try to do myself, all of them. Just as I order you to imitate me, so you too must teach those who have offices beneath you to imitate you.”
(14) So Cyrus then arranged these things like this. Still even now in the same way all the safeguards beneath the king are similarly maintained; all the rulers’ courts receive similar service; all the households, both great and small, are similarly managed; all the best of those on hand are honored by where they sit; all the expeditions are put in order in the same way; and all political actions are concentrated in a few who are in control.
(15) Having said how they each had to do these things, and having given a force to each, he sent them out. And he told all to make preparations in the expectation that there would be an expedition in the next year and a display of men, weapons, horses, and chariots.We considered also this practice that Cyrus began, as they say, and that still endures even now: Each and every year a man with an army goes on patrol in order that, if one of the satraps needs assistance, he may render it; and if anyone has become insolent, he may make him moderate; and if one neglects either the paying of the tribute or the guarding of the inhabitants, or if he disregards that the land is to be worked or anything else that has been ordered, he may straighten out all these things. If he is not able to, he reports back to the king; and when he hears about it, he deliberates about the one who is out of order. And these of whom it is often said that a son of the king is coming, or a brother of the king, or the Eye of the king, are those who go on patrol; and sometimes they do not appear, for each of them turns aside in the direction the king orders.
(17) We also learned still another contrivance of his for the greatness of his empire, one from which he quickly perceived how things were even at a very great distance. Having considered how long a distance a horse could complete in a day if it was ridden so as not to deplete its strength, he made stations for the horses at just this distance. In them he put horses and people to take care of them, and he ordered that the appropriate man at each post receive the letters brought in, and pass them on, and that he take in the tired horses and human beings and send on other fresh ones. (18) There are times, they say, when this travel is not halted even at night; instead, the nighttime messenger relieves the daytime one. These things being like this, some say that they complete this travel more swiftly than do cranes. But if they say this falsely, it is quite clear that this is nevertheless the quickest human travel on land. It is good to perceive everything as quickly as possible and to take care of it as quickly as possible.
(19) When the year was out, he assembled his army at Babylon, and he is said to have had up to one hundred and twenty thousand knights, up to two thousand scythed chariots, and up to six hundred thousand infantry. (20) When these were ready for him, he started the expedition on which it is said that he subdued all the nations that inhabit the land as one goes out of Syria as far as the Indian Ocean. 30 After this, it is said there was the expedition against Egypt and that Egypt was subdued. (21) At this point, the Indian Ocean bounded his empire to the east; the Black Sea to the north; Cyprus and Egypt to the west; and Ethiopia to the south. The limits of these borders are uninhabitable because of heat, in one case; by cold in another; by water in another; and by lack of water in another. (22) Making his habitation in their center, he himself spent seven months around wintertime in Babylon, for this place was warm. Around springtime, he spent three months in Susa. The peak of the summer heat he spent in Ecbatana, for two months. Acting in this manner, they say that he always spent his time in the warmth and the coolness of spring.
(23) Human beings were so disposed to him that every nation thought they got less if they did not send to Cyrus whatever fine thing either naturally grew in their land, was raised there, or was made by art; and so too with every city;31 and every private person thought that he would become wealthy if he could gratify Cyrus in something. For Cyrus, taking from each whatever the givers had in abundance, gave in return what he perceived them to be lacking.