Astral Codex Ten

Cyropaedia

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Cyropaedia

Article

Cyropaedia is a recurring book in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 4 times across 4 issues between January 10, 2024 and January 14, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as “The result was Cyropaedia, a biography of Cyrus”; “Plato’s Republic might be a response to Cyropaedia or vice versa”; “Xenophon hints at this in Cyropaedia . Cyrus and his childhood friends form a tightly-knit cadre”. It most often appears alongside Astral Codex Ten, Cyrus the Great, Henrietta Lacks.

Metadata

  • Category: Books
  • Mention count: 4
  • Issue count: 4
  • First seen: January 10, 2024
  • Last seen: January 14, 2025

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Book Review: Cyropaedia
January 10, 2024 · Original source
The result was Cyropaedia, a biography of Cyrus. Modern historians debate how much of it was made up. Probably it was a lot. Better to think of it as a combination biography of Cyrus and manifesto about political philosophy.
Inline links: Cyropaedia
Xenophon was a mercenary who fought beside Persians, making him potentially qualified to know things about Cyrus. He was a member of Socrates’ inner circle along with Plato, making him potentially qualified to know things about political philosophy (Plato’s Republic might be a response to Cyropaedia or vice versa; classicists aren’t sure).
Cyropaedia consists of eight books, exploring themes like:
Open Thread 311
January 15, 2024 · Original source
1: Last week I posted a subscribers-only book review of Cyropaedia. Several people commented that two days earlier, the Substack Mr. and Mrs. Psmith’s Bookshelf also reviewed the same book (the commenters politely omitted “and did a better job”). Highly recommended, whether you read my version or not.
Inline links: a subscribers-only book review of, Mr. and Mrs. Psmith’s Bookshelf, reviewed the same book
Subscrive Drive 2024 + Free Unlocked Posts
January 18, 2024 · Original source
Book Review: Cyropaedia - Why is everyone terrible except Cyrus the Great?
Inline links: Book Review: Cyropaedia
Subscrive Drive '25 + Free Unlocked Posts
January 14, 2025 · Original source
To whet your appetite, I’m unlocking two old subscriber-only posts: Henrietta Lacks Seems Like A Nice Person, But Not A Scientific Hero and Book Review: Cyropaedia. Everyone should now be able to read these.
Inline links: Henrietta Lacks Seems Like A Nice Person, But Not A Scientific Hero, Book Review: Cyropaedia