This book is a literary study of the Cyropaedia, Xenophon's fictional account of Cyrus the Great and the founding of his empire. The Cyropaedia is a complex blend of various literary forms, and this book examines several of its literary genres. General discussions of the works of Xenophon's predecessors and contemporaries, in particular Herodotus, Plato, and Ctesias, are combined with a detailed commentary on select passages.