The First Four Books of Xenophon's AnabasisXenophon
History
The First Four Books of Xenophon's Anabasis
Xenophon
Cyrus, the Younger, approximately 423 B.C.-401 B.C.; Iran -- History -- To 640
16. With regard to justice, if any appeared to him inclined to display
that virtue, he made a point of making such men richer than those who
sought to profit by injustice. 17. Accordingly, while in many other
respects his affairs were administered judiciously, he likewise
possessed an army worthy of the name. For it was not for money that
generals and captains came from foreign lands to enter into his service,
but because they were persuaded that to serve Cyrus well, would be more
profitable than any amount of monthly pay. 18. Besides, if any one
executed his orders in a superior manner, he never suffered his
diligence to go unrewarded; consequently, in every undertaking, the best
qualified officers were said to be ready to assist him.
19. If he noticed any one that was a skilful manager, with strict regard
to justice, stocking the land of which he had the direction, and
securing income from it, he would never take anything from such a
person, but was ever ready to give him something in addition; so that
men laboured with cheerfulness, acquired property with confidence, and
made no concealment from Cyrus of what each possessed; for he did not
appear to envy those who amassed riches openly, but to endeavour to
bring into use the wealth of those who concealed it.
20. Whatever friends he made, and felt to be well-disposed to him, and
considered to be capable of assisting him in anything that he might wish
to accomplish, he is acknowledged by all to have been most successful in
attaching them to him. 21. For, on the very same account on which he
thought that he himself had need of friends, namely, that he might have
co-operators in his undertakings, did he endeavour to prove an efficient
assistant to his friends in whatever he perceived any of them desirous
of effecting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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