What the Rulers Want: Xenophon on Cyrus' Psychology

This article presents an interpretation of Cyrus' psychology in Xenophon's Cyropaedia. Its point is that Cyrus' psychological structure is composed by a set of three desires (philotimía, philanthropía, philomátheia) given by nature and a set of virtues (sophrosúne and enkráteia) acquired by education. The paper will argue that Cyrus, as an enkratic ruler, does not long for any kind of honours, but is guided by true philotimía, that is, the desire for true honours-honours freely given by gratitude or admiration. philanthropía is the key to achieve these honours, since it naturally prompts a benevolent and generous behaviour. At the same time, philomátheia provides the desire of knowledge necessary to acquire the techniques in order to accomplish ambitious and philanthropic deeds. Therefore, confronting those who have posed negative interpretations of Cyrus, the article will argue that the uncommon combination of these psychological predispositions makes Cyrus a virtuous and effective ruler.