So I am reading Alcibiades and Socrates says the education and lineage of the kings of Persia is superior. This has been bothering me for a while, in quite a few greek texts Ive read (from Xenophon and Plato, or from Xenophon, Plato, and wrongly attributed to Plato) they show some admiration for the Persians and recognize some superiorities, I thought Greeks were extremely chauvinistic and saw all non greeks as inferior.
It's just Plato and Xenophon detested democracy
Why do you use the picture of Senhor Madruga, fellow Brazilian?
>>24971785Like with every culture, the private thoughts of intelligent men are free from the prejudices of popular chauvinism, even if they generally believe in the importance of the latter.
>>24971800His name is Don Ramon, and his expression seems fitting to express my own pondering.
>>24971785Yes it's all true but plato and xenophon are exceptional men whose observations and thoughts rise above the many other Greeks
the reason nobody ever thinks about ancient persia today is because the modern day country, iran, is controlled by an islamic theocracy and islamic theocracies always have extreme difficulty in acknowledging the existence of their nations pre-islamic history. that means that they rarely ever, if ever, market ancient persia to the world, preserve its history and culture and just spread the knowledge of the era in general. they do none of that because muslims do not want to do thatyour confusion would never exist if information about persia were more common
>>24971785>>24971799In Charmides, Socrates also refers to Thracian king Zamolxys as the perfect monarch iirc.
>>24971785Xenophon was a Persophile who adored Cyrus the Younger and fought for him. He also had an axe to grind with Athens so he talked down their system.
>>24971907He admired Cyrus the Great. About working under Cyrus the Younger, he semed to think he was decent based only on what Proxenus told him, but he also reflected that (recalling he speaks about himself in third person):>He went on the campaign like this, then, fully deceived―not, however, by Proxenus, for he did not know that the attack was against the King, nor did any other of the Greeks except Clearchus. When they came to Cilicia, however, it then seemed clear to all that the expedition was against the King. Although they feared the journey and were unwilling, the majority nevertheless followed along out of shame both before each other and before Cyrus. Xenophon too was one of these.He wasn't a fan of all things Persian, and what he likes about Cyrus the Great reminds much of Sparta, and he did seem to be more evidently a Laconophile.
>>24971785Why does this look like Nick Mullen?
