2 REV. ANDREW CRAIG ROBINSON, M.A., ON DARIUS 



him more worthy of credit on this subject than the former ; 

 and as to those facts wherein they differ, I shall think it 

 sufficient to briefly relate what Herodotus says of them. 

 It is well known that Xenophon served a long time under 

 the younger Cyrus, who had in his troops a great number 

 of Persian noblemen, with whom undoubtedly this waiter, 

 considering how curious he was, did often converse, in 

 order to acquaint himself by that means with the manners 

 and customs of the Persians ; with their conquests in 

 general, but more particularly with those of that prince 

 who had founded their monarchy, and whose history he 

 proposed to write. This he tells us himself in the beginning 

 of his Cyropaedia. He says, ' Having always looked on 

 this great man as worthy of admiration, I took a pleasure 

 of informing myself of his birth, his natural disposition, 

 and the method of his education, that I might know by 

 what means he became so great a prince ; and herein I 

 advance nothing but what has been told me.' " 



Rolhn goes on : — 



"As to what Cicero says in his first letter to his brother 

 Quintus : ' That Xenophon's design in writing the history 

 of Cyrus was not so much to follow truth as to give a model 

 of a just government ' ; this ought not to lessen the authority 

 of that judicious historian " (Xenophon) " or make us 

 give the less credit to what he relates. All that can be 

 inferred from that is that the design of Xenophon, who 

 was a great philosopher, as well as a great captain, was 

 not merely to write Cyrus's history, but to represent him 

 as a model and example to princes, for their instruction 

 in the art of reigning, and in gaining the love of their subjects 

 notwithstanding the pomp and elevation of their stations. 

 With this view he may possibly have lent his hero some 

 thoughts, some sentiments, or discourses of his own. But 

 the substance of the facts and events he relates is to be 

 deemed true ; and of this their conformity with the Holy 

 Scripture is itself a sufficient proof." 



Kollin's Histoire Ancienne was published in Paris, as already 

 mentioned, in the years 1730-1738 ; and when after that date a 

 little more than a hundred years had passed away — that is to say 



