SOURCE: "1001 Iranian Nights: History and Fiction in Xenophon's Cyropaedia," in The Greek Historians: Literature and History, Anma Libri, 1985, pp. 65-85.

Arguing that Classical scholars have usually treated Persia as a negligible detail of setting in the Cyropaedia, Hirsch makes its presence central in the essay that follows in order to vindicate Xenophon's knowledge of Persian culture.

This paper, which concerns itself with one of the more curious pieces of literature which have come down to us from classical antiquity—the Cyropaedia of Xenophon— is written in that spirit of respect for the intelligence and integrity of the ancient authors which has always characterized the writing and teaching of Toni Raubitschek, to whom this volume is dedicated.

Xenophon, as is well known, was an Athenian of aristocratic family whose adult life spanned the first half of the fourth century B.C. Student of Socrates, participant in the unsuccessful revolt...