By this process Cyrus gave up a useless friend and gained a serviceable one.

To this day the king sends for and seeks out those who do not present themselves when they should.
[21] Such was his method with the truants; with those who came forward he felt, since he was their rightful leader, that he could best incite them to noble deeds by trying to show that he himself had all the virtues that became a man.

[22] He believed that men do grow better through written laws, and he held that the good ruler is a living law with eyes that see, inasmuch as he is competent to guide and also to detect the sinner and chastise him.

[23] Thus he took pains to show that he was the more assiduous in his service to the gods the higher his fortunes rose.

It was at this time that the Persian priests, the Magians, were first established as an order, and always at break of day Cyrus chanted a hymn and sacrificed to such of the gods as they might name.