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Review title: persians were Barbarians and savages in the eyes of the Greeks
Product review: This book is fine as a modernization of an ancient classic but several things need to be understood. Xenophon never intended to write a biography of Cyrus. He was writing an idealized portrait of a long dead Persian ruler. He combined what he knew about Persia, a few facts about the historical Cyrus and a fictional vision of a what he thought was the ideal ruler. The original is much closer to Maciavelli's the Prince in purpose than it is to Plutarch's "Lives". So when credit is being given for the wisdom in the book, it must be given directly to Xenophon, not Cyrus. You learn very little about Cyrus and Persians in the original and a lot about Xenophon and Greeks (particularly Sparta, Xenophon's real life ideal.)
