The Cyropaedia, sometimes spelled Cyropedia, is a partly fictional biography[2] of Cyrus the Great, the founder of Persia's Achaemenid Empire. It was written around 370 BC by Xenophon, the Athenian-born soldier, historian, and student of Socrates. The Latinized title Cyropaedia derives from the Greek Kúrou paideía (Κύρου παιδεία), meaning The Education of Cyrus. Aspects of it would become a model for medieval writers of the genre mirrors for princes. In turn, the Cyropaedia strongly influenced the most well-known but atypical of these, Machiavelli's The Prince, which fostered the rejection of medieval political thinking and development of modern politics.
- ^ Ashley Cooper, Maurice (1803). Cyropædia; or, The institution of Cyrus, . London. Printed by J. Swan for Vernor and Hood [etc.]
- ^ Sancisi-Weerdenburg, Heleen (1993), "Cyropaedia", Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 6, Costa Mesa: Mazda