Xenophon, Cyropaedia

<font><font size="+2">Xenophon, Cyropaedia I.3-4: But when we came to realise the
character of Cyrus the Persian, we were led to a change of mind: here
is a man, we said, who won for himself obedience from thousands of his
fellows, from cities and tribes innumerable: we must ask ourselves
whether the government of men is after all an impossible or even a
difficult task, provided one set about it in the right way. Cyrus, we
know, found the readiest obedience in his subjects, though some of
them dwelt at a distance which it would take days and months to
traverse, and among them were men who had never set eyes on him, and
for the matter of that could never hope to do so, and yet they were
willing to obey him. Cyrus did indeed eclipse all other monarchs,
before or since, and I include not only those who have inherited their
power, but those who have won empire by their own exertions. How far
he surpassed them all may be felt if we remember that no Scythian,
although the Scythians are reckoned by their myriads, has ever
succeeded in dominating a foreign nation; indeed the Scythian would be
well content could he but keep his government unbroken over his own
tribe and people. The same is true of the Thracians and the Illyrians,
and indeed of all other nations within our ken; in Europe, at any
rate, their condition is even now one of independence, and of such
separation as would seem to be permanent. Now this was the state in
which Cyrus found the tribes and peoples of Asia when, at the head of
a small Persian force, he started on his career. The Medes and the
Hyrcanians accepted his leadership willingly, but it was through
conquest that he won Syria, Assyria, Arabia, Cappadocia, the two
Phrygias, Lydia, Caria, Phoenicia, and Babylonia. Then he established
his rule over the Bactrians, Indians, and Cilicians, over the Sakians,
Paphlagonians, and Magadidians, over a host of other tribes the very
names of which defy the memory of the chronicler; and last of all he
brought the Hellenes in Asia beneath his sway, and by a descent on the
seaboard Cyprus and Egypt also.</font></font>