attend;
another was to assign the lightest and most profitable tasks to
those who were punctual, and a third to give nothing whatever to the
offenders. [20] But the most effective of all, for those who paid no
heed to gentler measures, was to deprive the truant of what he possessed
and bestow it on him who would come when he was needed. By this process
Cyrus gave up a useless friend and gained a serviceable one. To this
day the king sends for and seeks out those who do not present themselves
when they should.

[21] Such was his method with the truants; with those who came forward
he felt, since he was their rightful leader, that he could best incite
them to noble deeds by trying to show that he himself had all the
virtues that became a man. [22] He believed that men do grow better
through written laws, and he held that the good ruler is a living law
with eyes that see, inasmuch as he is competent to guide and also to
detect the sinner and chastise him. [23] Thus he took pains to show
that he was the more assiduous in his service to the gods the higher
his fortunes rose. It was at this time that the Persian priests, the
Magians, were first established as an order, and always at break of day
Cyrus chanted a hymn and sacrificed to such of the gods as they might
name. [24] And the ordinances he established service to this day at the
court of the reigning king. These were the first matters in which the
Persians set themselves to copy their prince; feeling their own fortune
would be the higher if they did reverence to the gods, following the man
who was fortune's favourite and their own monarch. At the same time, no
doubt, they thought they would please Cyrus by this. [25] On his side
Cyrus looked on the piety of his subjects as a blessing to himself,
reckoning as they do who prefer to sail in the company of pious men
rather than with those who are suspected of wicked deeds, and he
reckoned further that if all his partners were god-fearing, they would
be the less prone to crime against each other or against himself, for he
knew he was the benefactor of his fellows. [26] And by showing plainly
his own deep desire never to be unfair to friend or fellow-combatant or
ally, but always to fix his eyes on justice and rectitude, he believed
he could induce others to keep from base actions and walk in the paths
of righteousness. [27] And he would bring more modesty, he hoped, into
the hearts of all men if it were plain that he himself