Nice Guys Finish First: Xenophon on Exhortations and Their Limits

Abstract:

In chapter 3.3 of Cyropaedia, Xenophon offers a wide-ranging meditation on the role of speech in arousing enthusiasm for battle. He emphasizes the uselessness of general exhortations, arguing that being prepared in body and mind is the crucial factor not only for being capable of fighting but also for stirring the right emotions. Although pre-battle exhortations have little utility, however, Cyrus does not condemn their use altogether: he only denies that they are a substitute for rigorous training. The very need for an exhortation implies a lack of readiness on the part of the soldiers and a lack of confidence in them by the leader, and therefore, aside from being superfluous, an exhortation may have a negative effect on the soldiers. The King of Assyria provides a caricature of a bad exhortation by threatening and scaring his soldiers with ill-conceived and inappropriate exhortatory tropes.