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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 be governed by good laws, and we ourselves shall be able 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.

only. The situation of the ground, rising by an easy ascent, was very favourable to the design. But that which was particularly attended to is, that there being seven circles altogether, the king's palace and the treasury are situated within the innermost of them. The largest of these walls is about equal in circumference to the city of Athens; the battlements of the first circle are white, of the second black, of the third purple, of the fourth blue, of the fifth bright red. Thus the battlements of all the circles are painted with different colours; but the last two have their battlements plated, the one with silver, the other with gold.

Deioces then built these fortifications for himself, and round his own palace; and he commanded the rest of the people to fix their habitations round the fortification. And when all the buildings were completed he, for the first time, established the following regulations: that no man should be admitted to the king's presence, but every one should consult him by means of messengers, and that none should be permitted to see him; and, moreover, that it should be accounted indecency for any to laugh or spit before him. He established such ceremony about his own person, for this reason, that those who were his equals, and who were brought up with him, and of no meaner family, nor inferior to him in manly qualities, might not, when they saw him, grieve and conspire against him; but that he might appear to be of a different nature to them who did not see him. When he had established these regulations, and settled himself in the tyranny, he was very severe in the distribution of justice. And the parties contending were obliged to send him their cases in writing, and he having come to a decision, on the cases so laid before him, sent them back again. This then was his plan in reference to matters of litigation. And all other things were regulated by him: so that if he received information that any man had injured another, he would presently send for him, and punish him in proportion to his offence; and for this purpose he had spies and eavesdroppers in every part of his dominions.

Now Deioces collected the Medes into one nation, and ruled over that. The following are the tribes of the Medes: the Busæ, Parataceni, Struchates, Arizanti, Budii, and the Magi. Such are the tribes of the Medes. Deioces had a son, Phraortes, who, when his father died, after a reign of fiftythree years, succeeded him in the kingdom; but having so succeeded, he was not content to rule over the Medes only, but, having made war on the Persians, he attacked them and

reduced them under the dominion of the Medes. And afterward being master of these two nations, both of them powerful, he subdued Asia, attacking one nation after another, until at last he invaded the Assyrians, who inhabited the city of Nineveh, and who had before been supreme though at that time they were abandoned by their confederates (who had revolted), but who were otherwise in good condition: Phraortes then, having made war on them, perished with the greater part of his army, after he had reigned twenty-two years.

When Phraortes was dead, Cyaxares, his son, grandson of Deioces, succeeded him. He is said to have been more warlike than his ancestors. He first divided the people of Asia into cohorts, and first divided them into spearmen, archers, and cavalry; whereas before they had been confusedly mixed together. It was he that fought with the Lydians, when the day was turned into night as they were fighting; and who subjected the whole of Asia above the river Halys. He assembled the forces of all his subjects, and marched against Nineveh to avenge his father and destroy that city. However, when he had obtained a victory over the Assyrians, and while he was besieging Nineveh, a great army of Scythians came upon him, under the conduct of their king Madyes, son of Protothyas. These Scythians had driven the Cimmerians out of Europe, and pursuing them into Asia, by that means entered the territories of the Medes. The distance from the lake Mæotis to the river Phasis and to Colchis is a journey of thirty days to a well-girt man, but the route from Colchis to Media is not long, for only one nation, the Saspires, lies between them: when one has passed over this, one finds one's self in Media. The Scythians, however, did not pass by this way, but turned to the higher road by a much longer route, having Mount Caucasus on the right, and there the Medes coming to an engagement with the Scythians, and being worsted in the battle, lost their dominion, and the Scythians became masters of all Asia. Thence they proceeded to Egypt, and when they reached Palestine in Syria, Psammitichus, King of Egypt, having met them with presents and prayers, diverted them from advancing farther. In their return, however, they came to Ascalon, a city of Syria, and when most of them had marched through without doing any injury, some few, who were left behind, pillaged the Temple of Celestial Venus. This temple, as I find by inquiry, is the most ancient of all the temples dedicated to this goddess; for that in Cyprus was built after this, as the Cyprians them

selves confess; and that in Cythera was erected by Phoenicians who came from the same part of Syria. However, the goddess inflicted on the Scythians who robbed her temple at Ascalon, and on all their posterity, a female disease; so that the Scythians confess that they are afflicted with it on this account, and those who visit Scythia may see in what a state they are whom the Scythians call Enarees. For twenty-eight years, then, the Scythians governed Asia, and everything was overthrown by their licentiousness and neglect; for besides the usual tribute, they exacted from each whatever they chose to impose, and, in addition to the tribute, they rode round the country and plundered them of all their possessions. Now Cyaxares and the Medes invited the greatest part of them to a feast, and having made them drunk, put them to death; and so the Medes recovered their former power, and all they had possessed before; and they took Nineveh (how they took it, I will relate in another work 1), and reduced the Assyrians into subjection, with the exception of the Babylonian district. Having accomplished these things, Cyaxares died, after he had reigned forty years, including the time of the Scythian dominion.

Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, succeeded him in the kingdom. He had a daughter, to whom he gave the name of Mandane. He dreamed that she made so great a quantity of water as not only filled his own city, but overflowed all Asia. And having communicated this dream to those of the Magi who interpret dreams, he was exceedingly alarmed when informed by them of every particular; and he afterward gave this Mandane, when she had arrived at a marriageable age, to no one of the Medes who was worthy of her, through dread of the vision, but to a Persian, named Cambyses, whom he found descended of a good family, and of a peaceful disposition, deeming him far inferior to a Mede of moderate rank. In the first year after Mandane was married to Cambyses, Astyages saw another vision: it appeared to him that a vine grew up from his daughter's womb, and that the vine covered all Asia. Having seen this and communicated it to the interpreters of dreams, he sent to Persia for his daughter, who was then near her time of delivery; and upon her arrival he put her under a guard, resolving to destroy whatever should be born of her; for the Magian interpreters had signified to him from his vision that the issue of his daughter would reign

'Several passages of our author seem to prove that Herodotus wrote other histories than those which have come down to us. In this book he speaks of his Assyrian history; in the second of the Libyan.

in his stead. Astyages therefore, guarding against this, as soon as Cyrus was born, sent for Harpagus, a kinsman of his, the most faithful of all the Medes, and the manager of all his affairs, and said to him: "Harpagus, on no account fail to perform the business I now charge you with; nor expose me to danger by deceiving me; nor, by preferring another, draw ruin upon thy own head. Take the child that Mandane has given birth to, carry him to your own house and kill him, and afterward bury him in whatever way you think fit." Harpagus answered: "O king, you have never yet observed any ingratitude in me, and I shall take care never to offend you in the future. If therefore it is your pleasure that this thing should be done, it is fitting that I readily obey you." Harpagus, having given this answer, when the child had been put into his hands, adorned as if for death, returned home weeping; and upon his arrival he told his wife all that Astyages had said. She asked him, "What then do you propose to do?" He answered: "Not as Astyages has commanded; though he should be yet more outrageous and mad than he is, I will not comply with his wishes, nor will I submit to him by performing such a murder: and for many reasons I will not murder the child; both because he is my own relation, and because Astyages is old, and has no male offspring; besides, if, after his death, the sovereignty should devolve on this daughter, whose son he would now murder by my means, what else remains for me but the greatest danger? It is necessary, however, for my safety that the child should die, but as necessary that one of Astyages's people should be the executioner, and not one of mine." Thus he spoke, and immediately sent a messenger for one of Astyages's herdsmen, whom he knew grazed his cattle on pastures most convenient for the purpose, and on mountains abounding with wild beasts. His name was Mitradates, and he had married his fellowservant. The name of the woman to whom he was married, in the language of Greece was Cyno, and in that of the Medes Spaco, for the Medes call a bitch Spaca. The foot of the mountains at which this herdsman grazed his cattle lies to the north of Ecbatana, toward the Euxine Sea. For the Medic territory on this side toward the Saspires is very mountainous, lofty, and covered with forests; whereas all the rest of Media is level. When therefore the herdsman, being summoned in great haste, arrived, Harpagus addressed him as follows: "Astyages bids thee take this infant, and expose him on the bleakest part of the mountains, that he may speedily perish; and has charged me to add that if thou by any means

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