The histories of Herodotus;

40 HERODOTUS—BOOK I, CLIO [96-98
throughout the whole of Media, and he knew that injustice
and justice are ever at variance. The Medes of the same
village, observing his conduct, chose him for their judge
and he, constantly keeping the sovereign power in view,
showed himself upright and just. By this conduct he acquired
no slight praise from his fellow-citizens, so much so that the
inhabitants of other villages, hearing that Deioces was the
only one who judged uprightly, having before met with unjust
sentences, when they heard of him, gladly came from all
parts to Deioces, in order to submit their quarrels to his decision
; and at last they would commit the decision to no one
else. In the end, when the number of those who had recourse
to him continually increased as men heard of the justice
of his decisions, Deioces, seeing the whole devolved upon
himself, would no longer occupy the seat where he used to
sit to determine differences, and refused to act as judge any
more, for that it was of no advantage to him to neglect his
own affairs, and spend the day in deciding the quarrels of
others. Upon this, rapine and lawlessness growing far more
frequent throughout the villages than before, the Medes called
an assembly and consulted together about the present state
of things, but, as I suspect, the partisans of Deioces spoke
to the following purpose : " Since it is impossible for us to
inhabit the country if we continue in our present condition,
let us constitute a king over us, and so the country will
governed by good laws, and we ourselves shall be able
be
to
attend to our business, nor be any longer driven from our
homes by lawlessness." By some such words they persuaded
them to submit to a kingly government. Upon their immediately
putting the question, whom they should appoint king,
Deioces was unanimously preferred and commended ; so that
at last they agreed that he should be their king. But he required
them to build him a palace suitable to the dignity of
a king, and guards for the security of his person. The Medes
accordingly did so ; and built him a spacious and strong palace
in the part of the country that he selected, and permitted
him to choose guards for his person out of all the Medes.
Being thus possessed of the power, he compelled the Medes
to build one city, and having carefully adorned that, to pay
less attention to the others. And as the Medes obeyed him
in this also, he built lofty and strong walls, which now go
under the name of Ecbatana, 1 one placed in a circle within
the other; and this fortification is so contrived that each circle
was raised above the other by the height of the battlements
1 For the Scripture account of Ecbatana, see Judith, i : 1-4.
;