FROM REPUBLIC TO EMPIRE - POLITICAL REVOLUTION AND THE COMMON GOOD INXENOPHONS EDUCATION-OF-CYRUS

While recent scholarship has provoked renewed interest in the Educatio n of Cyrus as an important work for our understanding of the origins o f classical political philosophy, it has yet to produce a coherent int erpretation that preserves the unity of Xenophon's vision of political life. Following a short review of three recent books on the subject, I argue that the obstacles in the way to such an understanding can be resolved by focusing on the underlying causes in Xenophon's account of the transformation of a republican regime into a universal empire and , in particular, on the various deficiencies and self-contradictions o f the republican conception of the common good. I show how an understa nding of Xenophon's analysis of virtue within both republican and impe rial political orders can lead to a fruitful confrontation with the th ought of his most famous student, admirer, and antagonist, Machiavelli .