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Xenophon's Education Through Cyrus
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20577 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1992 |
8,045 Words |
| Author
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Wayne Ambler
Wayne Ambler is an associate professor at the University of
Dallas. |
Although the Cyropaideia, or The Education of Cyrus, has a plot and characters, and although it affords the pleasures we associate with reading novels, it begins like a treatise: Its first three sections state a problem and propose a solution. The problem is that it appears to be very difficult for human beings to rule over other human beings, so political instability is a constant and lamentable fact of life; the solution is to take note of Cyrus' example of extraordinary success and thus enable oneself to address the problem intelligently or scientifically (1.1.3).
Xenophon begins the Cyropaideia by stressing that political stability is rare or nonexistent. No regime endures as it would wish; many collapse with breathtaking speed. It appears that this instability is not the result of bad circumstances or bad luck; and, in contrast to Alexander Hamilton's opening argument in Federalist 9 (which also raises this issue), it is not a problem only or especially for "the petty republics of Greece and Italy." It seems to be inherent in political life: Politics entails rule, and rule entails dividing a single species into two groups, rulers and ruled (1.1.2). For reasons that Xenophon does not elaborate at this point, but may not be hard to imagine, subjects are not content with this division and struggle to undo it. Nor, as Hamilton, of course, emphasizes, is democracy exempt form this problem. For it democracy is the rule by the people, than in practice "the people" does not mean everyone; it means especially the majority. To a minority, and even to a minority of one, rule by the majority may often be preferable to the risks of anarchy or civil war, but why would it be preferable to rule by the minority itself? This holds true even if the majority is made up of a group of minorities, as expected and hoped for by Madison in Federalist 10.
Like other regimes, then, democracy has built-in source of instability that are likely to surface when opportunities present themselves Notwithstanding that some few regimes have been long-lasting, the opening observation of the Cyropaideia remains not only intelligible but even powerful. Contemporary events in central Europe, for example, are not likely to diminish its force.
But although Xenophon begins by sketching the problem of political instability, he quickly invites us to consider a possible solution to this problem. Like Hamilton in Federalist 9, it appears that he has sketched the problem not because it is insuperable but in order to prepare the proper reception for his solution. And without denying that there are important differences between ancient and modern science, we may
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