However, these nine years went by before I had reached any firm conclusions about the debates among scholars or began to look for principles of a more certain philosophy than those commonly accepted.
Alexander [the Great] admired Cyrus the Great, from an early age reading Xenophon’s Cyropaedia, which described Cyrus’s heroism in battle and governance as a king and legislator.
These nine years passed away, however, before I had come to any determinate judgment respecting the difficulties which form matter of dispute among the learned, or had commenced to seek the principles of any Philosophy more certain than the vulgar.