“Soft countries breed soft men. For it is not possible for the same land to bear both wonderful fruits and men who are good at war.”
– Cyrus the Great
his quote from the final has often been thought of as a last message. Though Herodotus put these words in the mouth of the first Persian king as a lesson to his countrymen, it may well have been meant as a mirror for the Greeks: you may just have defeated the Persians, but don’t go soft! Cyrus the Great carved out the largest Empire the world had seen, conquering the Medes, the Lydians, and the neo-Babylonian Empire.
