person

Cyrus the Great

Cyrus

Persian king and founder of the Achaemenid empire (c. 600-530 BC); for Cicero, the type of the just monarch.

Reading notes

Ad Quintum Fratrem 1.1 §23 Cyrus of Xenophon
Xenophon's Cyropaedia portrays Cyrus the Great not as history but as an idealised model of the just ruler; it was a touchstone of Greek and Roman thinking on good government.
On the Ends of Good and Evil §2.116 not that of Cyrus, not those of Agesilaus, Aristides, or Themistocles
A roll of celebrated statesmen and commanders: Cyrus the Great of Persia, the Spartan king Agesilaus, and the Athenians Aristides "the Just" and Themistocles. Cicero notes none was ever eulogized as a clever contriver of pleasures.
On the Ends of Good and Evil §3.76 that pyre heaped up by Cyrus
After defeating Croesus, Cyrus the Great of Persia (reigned c. 559-530 BC) is said to have set him on a pyre; in the legend Croesus was spared. Cicero's point: had Croesus truly been happy, his happiness would have endured even to the pyre.