Cyropaedia: The Education of Cyrus — Book II - Chapter 2

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2] It was the constant aim of Cyrus whenever he and his soldiers messed together, that the talk should be lively and full of grace, and at the same time do the listeners good.

Thus one day he brought the conversation round to the following theme:-- "Do you think, gentlemen," said he, "that our new comrades appear somewhat deficient in certain respects simply because they have not been educated in the same fashion as ourselves?

Or will they show themselves our equals in daily life and on the field of battle when the time comes to meet the foe?"

[2] Hystaspas took up the challenge:--"What sort of warriors they will prove I do not pretend to know, but this I do say, in private life some of them are cross-grained fellows enough.

Only the other day," he went on, "Cyaxares sent a present of sacrificial meat to every regiment.

There was flesh enough for three courses apiece or more, and the attendant had handed round the first, beginning with myself.

So when he came in again, I told him to begin at the other end of the board, and serve the company in that order.

[3] But I was greeted by a yell from the centre: one of these men who was sitting there bawled out, 'Equality indeed!

There's not much of it here, if we who sit in the middle are never served first at all!'

It nettled me that they should fancy themselves treated worse than we, so I called him up at once and made him sit beside me.

And I am bound to say he obeyed that order with the most exemplary alacrity.

But when the dish came round to us, we found, not unnaturally, since we were the last to be served, that only a few scraps were left.

At this my man fell into the deepest dudgeon, and made no attempt to conceal it, muttering to himself, 'Just like my ill-luck!

To be invited here just now and never before!'

[4] I tried to comfort him.

'Never mind,' I said, 'presently the servant will begin again with us, and then you will help yourself first and you can take the biggest piece.'

Just then the third course, and, as it proved, the last, came round, and so the poor fellow took his helping, but as he did so it struck him that the piece he had chosen first was too small, and he put it back, meaning to pick out another.

But the carver, thinking he had changed his mind and did not want any more, passed on to the next man before he had time to secure his second slice.

[5] At this our friend took his loss so hard that he only made matters worse: his third course was clean gone, and now in his rage and his bad luck he somehow managed to overset the gravy, which was all that remained to him.

The captain next to us seeing how matters stood rubbed his hands with glee and went into peals of laughter.

And," said Hystaspas, "I took refuge in a fit of coughing myself, for really I could not have controlled my laughter.

There, Cyrus," said he, "that is a specimen of our new comrades, as nearly as I can draw his portrait."

[6] The description, as may be guessed, was greeted with shouts of laughter, and then another brigadier took up the word: "Well, Cyrus," said he, "our friend here has certainly met with an absolute boor: my own experience is somewhat different.

You remember the admonitions you gave us when you dismissed the regiments, and how you bade each of us instruct his own men in the lessons we had learnt from you.

Well, I, like the rest of us, went off at once and set about instructing one of the companies under me.

I posted the captain in front with a fine young fellow behind him, and after them the others in the order I thought best; I took my stand facing them all, and waited, with my eyes fixed on the captain, until I thought the right moment had come, and then I gave the order to advance.

[7] And what must my fine fellow do but get in front of the captain and march off ahead of the whole troop.

I cried out, 'You, sir, what are you doing?'

'Advancing as you ordered.'

'I never ordered you to advance alone,' I retorted, 'the order was given to the whole company.'

At which he turned right round and addressed the ranks: 'Don't you hear the officer abusing you?

The orders are for all to advance!'

Whereupon the rest of them marched right past their captain and up to me.

[8] Of course the captain called them back, and they began to grumble and growl: 'Which of the two are we to obey?

One tells us to advance, the other won't let us move.'

"Well, I had to take the whole matter very quietly and begin again from the beginning, posting the company as they were, and explaining that no one in the rear was to move until the front rank man led off: all they had to do was to follow the man in front.

[9] As I was speaking, up came a friend of mine; he was going off to Persia, and had come to ask me for a letter I had written home.

So I turned to the captain who happened to know where I had left the letter lying, and bade him fetch it for me.

Off he ran, and off ran my young fellow at his heels, breast-plate, battle-axe, and all.

The rest of the company thought they were bound to follow suit, joined in the race, and brought my letter back in style.

That is how my company, you see, carries out your instructions to the full."

[10] He paused, and the listeners laughed to their hearts' content, as well as they might, over the triumphant entry of the letter under its armed escort.

Then Cyrus spoke: "Now heaven be praised!

A fine set they are, these new friends of ours, a most rare race!

So grateful are they for any little act of courtesy, you may win a hundred hearts by a dish of meat!

And so docile, some of them must needs obey an order before they have understood it!

For my part I can only pray to be blest with an army like them all."

[11] Thus he joined in the mirth, but he turned the laughter to the praise of his new recruits.

Then one of the company, a brigadier called Aglaïtadas, a somewhat sour-tempered man, turned to him and said: "Cyrus, do you really think the tales they tell are true?"

"Certainly," he answered, "why should they say what is false?"

"Why," repeated the other, "simply to raise a laugh, and make a brag like the impostors that they are."

[12] But Cyrus cut him short, "Hush!

hush!

You must not use such ugly names.

Let me tell you what an impostor is.

He is a man who claims to be wealthier or braver than he is in fact, and who undertakes what he can never carry out, and all this for the sake of gain.

But he who contrives mirth for his friends, not for his own profit, or his hearers' loss, or to injure any man, surely, if we must needs give him a name, we ought to call him a man of taste and breeding and a messenger of wit."

[13] Such was the defence of Cyrus in behalf of the merrymakers.

And the officer who had begun the jest turned to Aglaïtadas and said: "Just think, my dear sir, if we had tried to make you weep!

What fault you would have found with us!

Suppose we had been like the ballad-singers and story-tellers who put in lamentable tales in the hope of reducing their audience to tears!

What would you have said about us then?

Why, even now, when you know we only wish to amuse you, not to make you suffer, you must needs hold us up to shame."

[14] "And is not the shame justified?"

Aglaïtadas replied.

"The man who sets himself to make his fellows laugh does far less for them than he who makes them weep.

If you will but think, you will admit that what I say is true.

It is through tears our fathers teach self-control unto their sons, and our tutors sound learning to their scholars, and the laws themselves lead the grown man to righteousness by putting him to sit in the place of penitence.

But your mirth-makers, can you say they benefit the body or edify the soul?

Can smiles make a man a better master or a better citizen?

Can he learn economy or statesmanship from a grin?"

[15] But Hystaspas answered back: "Take my advice, Aglaïtadas, pluck up heart and spend this precious gift of yours on your enemies: make them sit in the seat of the sorrowful, and fling away on us, your friends, that vile and worthless laughter.

You must have an ample store of it in reserve: it cannot be said you have squandered it on yourself, or ever wasted a smile on friend or foreigner if you could help it.

So you have no excuse to be niggardly now, and cannot refuse us a smile."

"I see," said Aglaïtadas, "you are trying to get a laugh out of me, are you not?"

But the brigadier interposed, "Then he is a fool for his pains, my friend: one might strike fire out of you, perhaps, but not a laugh, not a laugh."

[16] At this sally all the others shouted with glee, and even Aglaïtadas could not help himself: he smiled.

And Cyrus, seeing the sombre face light up said: "Brigadier, you are very wrong to corrupt so virtuous a man, luring him to laughter, and that too when he is the sworn foe of gaiety."

So they talked and jested.

[17] And then Chrysantas began on another theme.

[18] "Cyrus," he said, "and gentlemen all, I cannot help seeing that within our ranks are men of every kind, some better and some worse, and yet if anything is won every man will claim an equal share.

Now to my mind nothing is more unfair than that the base man and the good should be held of equal account."

"Perhaps it would be best, gentlemen," said Cyrus in answer, "to bring the matter before the army in council and put it to them, whether, if God grant us success, we should let all share and share alike, or distribute the rewards and honours in proportion to the deserts of each."

[19] "But why," asked Chrysantas, "why discuss the point?

Why not simply issue a general order that you intend to do this?

Was not that enough in the case of the competitions?"

"Doubtless," Cyrus answered, "but this case is different.

The troops, I take it, will feel that all they win by their services on the campaign should belong to them in common: but they hold that the actual command of the expedition was mine by right even before we left home, so that I was fully entitled, on their view, to appoint umpires and judges at my own will."

[20] "And do you really expect," asked Chrysantas, "that the mass of the army will pass a resolution giving up the right of all to an equal share in order that the best men should receive the most?"

"Yes, I do," said Cyrus, "partly because we shall be there to argue for that course, but chiefly because it would seem too base to deny that he who works the hardest and does most for the common good deserves the highest recompense.

Even the worst of men must admit that the brave should gain the most."

[21] It was, however, as much for the sake of the Peers themselves as for any other reason that Cyrus wished the resolution to be passed.

They would prove all the better men, he thought, if they too were to be judged by their deeds and rewarded accordingly.

And this was the right moment, he felt, to raise the question and put it to the vote, now when the Peers were disposed to resent being put on a level with the common people.

In the end it was agreed by all the company that the question should be raised, and that every one who claimed to call himself a man was bound to argue in its favour.

[22] And on that one of the brigadiers smiled to himself and said: "I know at least one son of the soil who will be ready to agree that the principle of share and share alike should not be followed everywhere."

"And who is he?"

another asked.

"Well," said the first, "he is a member of our quarters, I can tell you that, and he is always hunting after the lion's share of every single thing."

"What?

Of everything?"

said a third.

"Of work as well?"

"Oh, no!"

said the first, "you have caught me there.

I was wrong to say so much, I must confess.

When it comes to work, I must admit, he is quite ready to go short: he will give up his own share of that, without a murmur, to any man whatever."

[23] "For my part, gentlemen," said Cyrus, "I hold that all such idlers ought to be turned out of the army, that is, if we are ever to cultivate obedience and energy in our men.

The bulk of our soldiers, I take it, are of the type to follow a given lead: they will seek after nobleness and valour if their leaders are valiant and noble, but after baseness if these are base.

[24] And we know that only too often the worthless will find more friends than the good.

Vice, passing lightly along her path of pleasure, wins the hearts of thousands with her gifts; but Virtue, toiling up the steep ascent, has little skill to snare the souls of men and draw them after her, when all the while their comrades are calling to them on the easy downward way.

[25] It is true there are degrees, and where the evil springs only from sloth and lethargy, I look on the creatures as mere drones, only injuring the hive by what they cost: but there are others, backward in toil and forward in greed, and these are the captains in villainy: for not seldom can they show that rascality has its advantages.

Such as they must be removed, cut out from among us, root and branch.

[26] And I would not have you fill their places from our fellow-citizens alone, but, just as you choose your horses from the best stocks, wherever you find them, not limiting yourselves to the national breed, so you have all mankind before you, and you should choose those, and those only, who will increase your power and add to your honour.

Let me clinch my argument by examples: no chariot can travel fast if the horses in the team are slow, or run straight if they will not be ruled; no house can stand firm if the household is evil: better empty walls than traitors who will bring it to the ground.

[27] "And be sure, my friends," he added, "the removal of the bad means a benefit beyond the sheer relief that they are taken away and will trouble us no more: those who are left and were ripe for contagion are purified, and those who were worthy will cleave to virtue all the closer when they see the dishonour that falls on wickedness."

[28] So Cyrus spoke, and his words won the praise of all his friends, and they set themselves to do as he advised.

But after that Cyrus began to jest again.

His eye fell on a certain captain who had chosen for his comrade at the feast a great hairy lad, a veritable monster of ugliness, and Cyrus called to the captain by name: "How now, Sambulas?

Have you adopted the Hellenic fashion too?

And will you roam the world together, you and the lad who sits beside you, because there is none so fair as he?"

"By heaven," answered Sambulas, "you are not far wrong.

It is bliss to me to feast my eyes upon him."

[29] At that all the guests turned and looked on the young man's face, but when they saw how ugly it was, they could not help laughing outright.

"Heavens, Sambulas, tell us the valiant deed that knit your souls together!

How has he drawn you to himself?"

[30] "Listen then," he answered, "and I will tell you the whole truth.

Every time I call him, morning, noon, or night, he comes to me; never yet has he excused himself, never been too busy to attend; and he comes at a run, he does not walk.

Whatever I have bidden him do, he has always done it, and at the top of his speed.

He has made all the petty captains under him the very models of industry; he shows them, not by word but deed, what they ought to be."

[31] "And so," said another, "for all these virtues you give him, I take it, the kiss of kinship?"

But the ugly lad broke out: "Not he!

He has no great love for work.

And to kiss me, if it came to that, would mean more effort than all his exercises."