A Mirror for Princes: Xenophon's Study of Leadership and Rule in the Cyropaedia
This course was available in the past and may be presented again as part of the Basic Program of Liberal Education curriculum.
Xenophon of Athens was a soldier, philosopher, and friend of Socrates. He composed his own Apology of Socrates and led a military retreat of 10,000 Greek mercenaries across Persia. But he is most famous for his Cyropaedia, a study of the education and career of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire. Widely renowned as a masterpiece in antiquity, the Cyropaedia was rediscovered by late medieval and early modern political writers, who used it as a model to compose "mirrors for princes." Most famous among his early modern admirers was Niccolo Machiavelli, whose The Prince was clearly indebted to Xenophon.
Course Outline
Notes
Online registration closes June 8 at 5:00 pm CT.