Yet he also illustrates how corrupted those institutions became and how inferior Persian leaders and people were in Xenophon's day. Xenophon takes pains to note how Cyrus rewards people on the basis of merit and how all the institutions he founded persisted until Xenophon's own day. For one, "people are only too glad to obey the man who they believe takes wiser thought for their interests than they themselves do." (4540) This seems to validate those from Plato to modern-day Progressives who feel they know better than others what is good for them. He gives practical advice and makes observations still relevant today, such as, "generals who were seldom to be seen often neglected much that needed to be done." (location 7949-7950) Though Adam Smith is credited with understanding the benefits of the division of labor and specialization, Xenophon was way ahead of him: "he who devotes himself to a very highly specialized line of work is bound to do it in the best possible manner." (location 8253-8254) And of course, the famous admonition, "Knowing thyself.thus shalt thou live and be happy." (location 7698-7699) Xenophon emphasizes a number of ideals, such as the importance of gratitude, the need for absolute integrity and justice in dealings between people, the benefit of austere living and liberal giving to others. Therefore one can glean a number of leadership lessons from it, whether they be accurately factual about Cyrus or drawn from Xenophon's own ideas. Nonetheless, given Xenophon's success in fighting his way out of the Persian domains, recorded in Anabasis, he is something of an authority on leadership. Xenophon likely imposes a number of things on Cyrus the Great and Persia under his leadership from his own ideas or contemporary environment. The editor describes it as a "political romance" vice biography, and so it is well-described.
Its historical detail is also very interesting, for providing a glimpse of life in different parts of the Near East in classical times. Anyone interested in leadership could gain from reading this book. Not only does it contain many nuggets of wisdom for military leadership in particular, but it covers a range of issues from logistics to Xenophon's handling of scheming peers, subordinates, and rivals. Anabasis has often been cited as a classic on leadership and rightly so. A concise, clearly written account of a Greek mercenary army's march into the heart of the Persian empire under the banner of a potential usurper, and its march back out when the usurper had the bad taste to die in battle.
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