Why is Xenophon’s Cyropaedia sometimes associated with the first Western love story?

Xenophon’s Cyropaedia is sometimes associated with the first Western love story because it contains the narrative of the soldier Abradates and his loyal wife, Panthea.1

While the Cyropaedia is primarily a work of "fictive history" that uses the life of Cyrus the Great to explore themes of political and military leadership, it incorporates various narrative interpolations that deviate from its didactic agenda. The poignant account of the devotion between Abradates and Panthea stands out within this broader philosophical history, leading some scholars to identify it as an early precursor to the Western love story and the later development of the Greek romance.21