The Immortals

[Paullus Scipio]

ARTABANOS WROTE:-

But that’s neither what the Cyropaedia is claiming, for most parts Xenophon should have had an Persian original, it's more or less the only ancient Persian work that has directly survived.

.....great caution should be used when looking at the Cyropaedia, even though it does contain much interesting detail. Xenophon here is writing a fictionalised fable, a moral tale to educate greeks, ( e.g. the education of Persian boys is an ideal, and sounds suspiciously like the Spartan agogue rather than something genuinely Persian )using a 'fictionalised' Cyrus whose Persian army and Egyptian foe never really existed. The imaginary battle of 'Thymbara', though, served to illustrate Xenophon's thoughts to a large degree on drills and tactics of contemporary Hoplites.
I would not be at all certain that it reproduces any real ancient Persian work.
Is there some other, perhaps Persian, literature/evidence to support this idea?