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Monday, March 06, 2023

Freedom

Xenophon, Anabasis 1.7.3 (Cyrus to the Greek soldiers; tr. H.G. Dakyns):
Liberty—it is a thing which, be well assured, I would choose in preference to all my other possessions, multiplied many times.

εὖ γὰρ ἴστε ὅτι τὴν ἐλευθερίαν ἑλοίμην ἂν ἀντὶ ὧν ἔχω πάντων καὶ ἄλλων πολλαπλασίων.
Maurice W. Mather and Joseph William Hewitt ad loc.:
According to the Persian notion, Cyrus himself was the slave of the king [his brother Artaxerxes II] ... who alone, of all the Persians, was free.