In the 6th century bc Cyrus the Great established the Persian Empire as the most powerful state in the world. It was influential in ancient times and then again in the Renaissance. It may have been composed in response to Plato’s The Republic, and Plato’s Laws seems to refer back to it. Scipio Africanus is said to have always carried a copy of the Cyropedia with him.(more) 

     No house can stand firm if the household is evil; better empty walls than traitors who will bring it to the ground.

        Cyrus the Great(Cyropedia, Book II)