The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [102]
9. His fellows observed his integrity and chose him as their judge.
10. Soon the neighbouring villages invited him to be their judge also, for they heard of his uprightness.
11. At last the Medes put their confidence in no one else.
12. After a time, Deioces announced that he was wearied with so many appeals from all the villages of the Medes, and wished to retire from the task.
13. But when he did so, lawlessness again broke out, and the people were more discomforted than before, having grown used to order.
14. Their leading men therefore convened in assembly, and debated among themselves what to do.
15. ‘We cannot possibly live in this country if matters continue as now,’ they said. ‘Let us therefore set a king over us, that the land may be well governed,
16. ‘And we ourselves may be able to attend to our own affairs, and not be forced to quit our country because of anarchy.’
17. The assembly agreed; and when they began to discuss whom to appoint, every mouth was filled with the name of Deioces.
18. They built him a palace, appointed a guard to serve him, and obeyed his injunction to quit their villages and gather together to build a great city.
19. Thus arose Ecbatana, whose walls are of great strength, rising in circles one within the other.
20. The innermost walls encircled the treasury and citadel; the outermost had nearly the extent of the walls of Athens in its greatest period.
21. Of the outermost wall the battlements were white, of the next circle of wall they were black, of the next scarlet, of the fourth blue, of the fifth orange; all these colours were of paint.
22. But the battlements of the two innermost walls were respectively coated with silver and gold.
23. Moreover Deioces instituted ceremonial proceedings, of which the key was that his subjects never met him directly, but communicated through messengers only.
24. This he did because he reasoned that his peers, being no less well born and having the same or greater qualities,
25. Might from too much observance of him come to regret electing him king, and be pained at the sight of his lordship over them;
26. Whereas if they did not see him they would come to think of him as quite a different man from themselves, and hold him in awe.
Chapter 8
1. Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a nation, and ruled over them with strict justice.
2. Now these are the tribes of which they consisted: the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii and the Magi.
3. Having reigned fifty-three years, Deioces was succeeded by his son Phraortes.
4. This prince, not satisfied with a dominion which did not extend beyond the single nation of the Medes, began by attacking the Persians;
5. And marching an army into their country, brought them under the Median yoke before any other people.
6. After this success, being now at the head of two nations, both powerful, he proceeded to conquer Asia, overrunning province after province.
7. At last he engaged in war with the Assyrians to whom Nineveh belonged, who were formerly the lords of Asia.
8. At present they stood alone because their allies had deserted to the Medes, yet still their internal condition was as flourishing as ever.
9. On the death of Phraortes his son Cyaxares ascended the throne. He was still more warlike than his ancestors, and first gave organisation to an Asiatic army,
10. Dividing the troops into companies, and forming distinct bodies of spearmen, archers and cavalry, who before his time had been mingled in one mass, and confused together.
11. He it was who fought the Lydians on the occasion when an eclipse of the sun turned day into night, and who brought under his dominion the whole of Asia east of the Halys.
12. This prince, collecting together all the nations which recognised his sway, marched against Nineveh, resolved to avenge his father.
13. A battle was fought, in which the Assyrians suffered defeat; and Cyaxares had already begun the