Cyrus the Great by Jacob Abbott

Cyrus the Great Reviews

• 
  Iran

  O man, whoever you are and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus who won the Persians their empire. Do not therefore begrudge me this bit of earth that covers my bones.
• 
  Ahmed El Batran

  The life of Cyrus the Great isn’t as eventful as those of others narrated by Jacob Abbott. But still, Abbott manages to captivate me with his writing. In the last paragraphs, Abbott reflects on the tragic transformation of Cyrus. Here is what he had to say:
  
  “In reflecting on this melancholy termination of this great conqueror's history, our minds naturally revert to the scenes of his childhood, and we wonder that so amiable, and gentle, and generous a boy should become so selfish, and unfeeling, and overbearing as a man. But such are the natural and inevitable effects of ambition and an inordinate love of power. The history of a conqueror is always a tragical and melancholy tale. He begins life with an exhibition of great and noble qualities, which awaken in us, who read his history, the same admiration that was felt for him, personally, by his friends and countrymen while he lived, and on which the vast ascendency which he acquired over the minds of his fellow-men, and which led to his power and fame, was, in a great measure, founded. On the other hand, he ends life neglected, hated, and abhorred. His ambition has been gratified, but the gratification has brought with it no substantial peace or happiness; on the contrary, it has filled his soul with uneasiness, discontent, suspiciousness, and misery. The histories of heroes would be far less painful in the perusal if we could reverse this moral change of character, so as to have the cruelty, the selfishness, and the oppression exhaust themselves in the comparatively unimportant transactions of early life, and the spirit of kindness, generosity, and beneficence blessing and beautifying its close. To be generous, disinterested, and noble, seems to be necessary as the precursor of great military success; and to be hard-hearted, selfish, and cruel is the almost inevitable consequence of it. The exceptions to this rule, though some of them are very splendid, are yet very few.”
  
  It’s frightening to reflect that one’s promise and potential, one’s apparent qualities are no foreteller of his destiny. Only after one is tested, with ease and hardship, peacefulness and fear, power and weakness, plenty and need … only after one withstands the test of time, can we truly judge that person.
  
  But even then, we cannot really make a judgement. For we only see a part of the picture, not the totality of circumstances. Veiled are the heavy burdens and moral dilemmas, and veiled too are the silent whispers in the dark corners of the minds, hearts, and souls.
  
  But if there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that life’s not over until it’s over, for better or for worse. One can never settle on past successes, for every new day brings new challenges and tests… new trials … one can never rest until the final rest. But on the bright side, there’s a blessing in all of this. It means that every day is a new beginning, a new chance to make things right … a new chance to start over and live as one ought to live.
  
  I also loved reading this:
  
  “Araspes maintained that every man had the command of his own heart and affections, and that, with proper determination and energy, he could direct the channels in which they should run, and confine them within such limits and bounds as he pleased. Cyrus, on the other hand, maintained that human passions were stronger than the human will; that no one could rely on the strength of his resolutions to control the impulses of the heart once strongly excited, and that a man's only safety was in controlling the circumstances which tended to excite them. This was specially true, he said, in respect to the passion of love. The experience of mankind, he said, had shown that no strength of moral principle, no firmness of purpose, no fixedness of resolution, no degree of suffering, no fear of shame, was sufficient to control, in the hearts of men, the impetuosity of the passion of love, when it was once fairly awakened. In a word, Araspes advocated, on the subject of love, a sort of new school philosophy, while that of Cyrus leaned very seriously toward the old.
  Araspes's self-confidence.
  In conclusion, Cyrus jocosely counseled Araspes to beware lest he should prove that love was stronger than the will by becoming himself enamored of the beautiful Susian queen. Araspes said that Cyrus need not fear; there was no danger. He must be a miserable wretch indeed, he said, who could not summon within him sufficient resolution and energy to control his own passions and desires. As for himself, he was sure that he was safe.”
• 
  Kathy

  Abbott does a great job with his histories. He gives enough detail to bring the characters to life, but not so much that one gets bogged down. I always enjoy his "moral of the story" as well. I have just learned that Abraham Lincoln read and enjoyed Abbott's histories. So, I'm in good company!
• 
  saïd

  This book was published in 1850, and its primary sources were Herodotus and Xenophon, so it's far from the most accurate or reliable account. I first read the book via
  Gutenberg, and I wish I could say it was for some reason having to do with the pursuit of knowledge or something, but really it was mostly because I thought the
  illustration was, well, compelling.
  
  The book is fine. Jacob Abbott's style of writing is quite engaging.
• 
  Kelhi Herring

  Quick review!
  
  This is not a critical biography but a retelling of Cyrus' story based on two ancient sources, Herodotus and Xenophon. If you're looking for a critical biography, look somewhere else! (After all, due to the material provided by Herodotus and Xenophon, many chunks of the story are pretty close to myth.) But if you'd like to read one story based on what Herodotus and Xenophon have to tell us, plus Abbott's occasional comments and assessments, this is the book for you. Abbott also includes relevant material from the Old Testament.
  
  Abbott does a good job weaving these two sources together. I really liked his discussion of Herodotus and Xenophon as sources in the first chapter; he presents background (why they wrote what they wrote) in addition to biographies. Another interesting aspect of this book is that Abbott pauses his narrative of Cyrus when one of the sources provides backrgound (story) for one of the major figures in Cyrus' life.
  
  Since I've only read (parts) of Herodotus previously, it was enjoyable to hear some new stories from Xenophon.
  
  There's very little commentary or discussion of themes. Abbott does pause his narrative in a few places to give comments (such as thoughts about tyrants).
  
  Note also that this is not a novel: Abbott does not turn Cyrus into a developed character, and the narrative does not unfold as you'd expect in historical fiction. He's just repeating and interweaving his sources.
  
  I give the book 4/5 stars. I don't have major criticisms. I enjoyed it for background listening (I listened on LibriVox) while driving to and from work. But I'd not recommend it for everyone as "a great book." If you think you'd enjoy 7+ hours as described above, listen or read away!
• 
  JennyF

  Really enjoyed reading this. A very easy read. It gives background information to Cyrus who is mentioned in the Bible in relation to the Jews returning from captivity in (what was) Babylon to their homeland in Judea.
• 
  Carol Bakker

  Short biography, originally published in 1850, Volume 3 of the Makers of History. Abbott's sources are Herodotus and Xenophon. This was an enjoyable read which reviewed familiar stories, but taught me new ones. One complaint I have was that the writing failed to portray Persian culture. I couldn't/didn't picture an Asian boy/man while I read this.
  
  Unrelated to the story, there were two exhilarating word-bird moments. After Cyrus conquers Croesus, they meet face to face. There were difficulties in respect to language, too, which embarrassed the conversation, as the two kings could speak to each other only through an interpreter. Embarrassed: an archaic meaning is to hamper or impede, complicate.
  
  Explaining the engineering of the land around Babylon, the author compared the raised banks to the levees of New Orleans with a glorious asterisk*: From the French word levée, raised.
  
  Commenting on monuments:
  In fact, statues of brass or of marble generally make far more durable monuments than statues of gold; and no structure or object of art is likely to be very permanent among mankind unless the workmanship is worth more than the material.
  
  To Bible readers, Cyrus is the king who liberated the Jews from Babylonian captivity. Abbott framed this in a way I'd never before thought of (emphasis mine):
  
  The march of this peaceful multitude of families—men, women, and children together—burdened as they went, not with arms and ammunition for conquest and destruction, but with tools and implements for honest industry, and stores of provisions and utensils for the peaceful purposes of social life, as it was, in its bearings and results, one of the grandest events in history, so it must have presented, in its progress, one of the most extraordinary spectacles that the world has ever seen.
• 
  Rob Perry

  Abbott draws upon Xenophon the storyteller and Herodotus' sometimes dubious Histories, to reveal a fanciful biography of Cyrus the Great.
• 
  gustavo Inacio ferreira assis

  Interesting
  
  It’s a great good. A very good introduction to Cyrus and the beginning of a great empire. Thank you for this book.
• 
  James

  'We wonder that so amiable, gentle and generous farm boy should become so selfish, unfeeling and overbearing as a man'
• 
  Mark Bennon

  Abbott is a fantastic story teller who weaves biblical wisdom into historical narrative. He's quickly moving up the top ten list of people that I'd like to have a beer with.
• 
  Lynette Caulkins

  I appreciated the stories in the lore of Cyrus the Great, having no prior exposure to these tales of ancient Persian history, brought to us through the Greeks.
  
  Gotta say, I don't believe that as a mother I would send my mostly-grown son off to live with the grandfather who had tried to murder him as an infant and caused me to believe he was dead for a good decade. . .
• 
  Therese

  $0.0