For over two millennia, the "Cyropaedia", an imaginative biography of the Persian king Cyrus the Great, was Xenophon's most popular work. This study examines the work, demonstrating its overall coherence and unity and focusing, in particular, on the notoriously difficult ending.

Nadon's lively, insightful study draws upon his deep knowledge and understanding of classical political theory and reveals in the Cyropaedia a subtlety and sophistication overlooked until now.