Cyropaedia: The Education of Cyrus by Xenophon is a book about leadership. It tells the story of Xenophon as a boy, the relationship he had with his peers, his mentors and his family as he grows up and becomes a man. It demonstrates, rather than explains the effect of his youthful training in his ascent to become a great leader. I carried three main lessons from this: poverty breeds strength, a good friend is a powerful enemy, and discipline is a core virtue.
Regarding the first, the book describes how Cyrus, along with his fellow Persians, was taught to fast and to endure privation from an early age. He was taught to sleep on rocks and to enjoy the most basic of foods (the kind the army might eat whilst on a march). This enabled him to flatter his family members (as no luxury or food compares to the grace of your love and the pleasure of your company), and to forge and strengthen his friendships. As he rose in prominence in his military campaigns, he gained the respect of his subordinates by living as an equal. Whenever there was a great bounty or tribute, he took his share last, and even most of his wealth would be kept in reserve as a tool for honoring new alliances. This caused him to have great renown among all the soldiers, and friend and foe alike.
Of Cyrus’ priorities, forging strong bonds seemed to be at the top. When an enemy was defeated, he would try to convert as many of them to friends and allies as possible. One of the means was by allowing them to keep more of their possessions and dignity than was common at the time, but in other cases it was by resolving disputes or aiding them in some way. One example was, after winning a battle against Assyria and killing the Assyrian king, he won over one of the former generals of the king by promising to avenge the general’s son against the new king. One particular story that stood out to me as an example of his character, is this: following a successful battle, as the men were taking as prizes, a beautiful noblewoman was set aside to be for Cyrus. When he spoke with her, she insisted that the had a husband and he was alive(as he had not been in the city during the battle). So Cyrus protected her until her husband returned. When one of the guards betrayed Cyrus by attempting to seduce the noblewoman, Cyrus immediately forgave him and gave him the opportunity to regain his honor by acting as a spy on Cyrus behalf. When the husband finally did arrive, he ended up giving his troops, and his life, fighting alongside Cyrus as thanks for helping the lovers to be reunited. In this way he turned every setback into an opportunity, and every gift into an advantage. Near the climax of the story, his army had grown to immense power thanks to the vast number of friendships he had forged so far.
Discipline for Cyrus was the virtue that made the others possible. There was a scene in the book where the Assyrian king gives a great speech before marching his army out to battle, and Cyrus discussed the content of the speech with the friends and generals. When asked why he didn’t give any such speech to his troops, his argument ran thusly: “A speech alone will not make a poor army great in even the slightest,and a well-disciplined army, which had long prepared before the battle already knew what to do and what was at stake.” Discipline was the virtue that allowed him to endure, and even enjoy privation, and to win so many friends.
One of the things I particularly enjoyed during the story was the camaraderie, listening to Cyrus and his friends get into philosophical discussions about the virtues needed to govern an army, mixed with the jokes that friends tell of each other. If you are looking for a book on how a leader should behave, this will be one of the enjoyable few.