against their guardian, either to disobey him or to
refuse him the absolute control of their produce. On the contrary, they
are more apt to show hostility against other animals than against
the owner who derives advantage from them. But with man the rule is
converse; men unite against none so readily as against those whom they
see attempting to rule over them. [3] As long, therefore, as we followed
these reflexions, we could not but conclude that man is by nature fitted
to govern all creatures, except his fellow-man. But when we came to
realise the character of Cyrus the Persian, we were led to a change
of mind: here is a man, we said, who won for himself obedience from
thousands of his fellows, from cities and tribes innumerable: we must
ask ourselves whether the government of men is after all an impossible
or even a difficult task, provided one set about it in the right way.
Cyrus, we know, found the readiest obedience in his subjects, though
some of them dwelt at a distance which it would take days and months to
traverse, and among them were men who had never set eyes on him, and for
the matter of that could never hope to do so, and yet they were willing
to obey him. [4] Cyrus did indeed eclipse all other monarchs, before or
since, and I include not only those who have inherited their power, but
those who have won empire by their own exertions. How far he surpassed
them all may be felt if we remember that no Scythian, although
the Scythians are reckoned by their myriads, has ever succeeded in
dominating a foreign nation; indeed the Scythian would be well content
could he but keep his government unbroken over his own tribe and people.
The same is true of the Thracians and the Illyrians, and indeed of all
other nations within our ken; in Europe, at any rate, their condition is
even now one of independence, and of such separation as would seem to
be permanent. Now this was the state in which Cyrus found the tribes and
peoples of Asia when, at the head of a small Persian force, he started
on his career. The Medes and the Hyrcanians accepted his leadership
willingly, but it was through conquest that he won Syria, Assyria,
Arabia, Cappadocia, the two Phrygias, Lydia, Caria, Phoenicia, and
Babylonia. Then he established his rule over the Bactrians, Indians, and
Cilicians, over the Sakians, Paphlagonians, and Magadidians, over a
host of other tribes the very names of which defy the memory of the
chronicler; and last of all he