96 
INDEPENDENT KINGDOM OF THE MEDES. 
ten tribes, and planted them, along with their brethren of the 
former conquest, on the banks of the Gozen in Media. 1 noticed 
the situation of some of these cities, (whence so few of them re¬ 
turned,) in my account of this celebrated river, by its present name 
of the Kizzilouzan, or golden stream.* It was during the reign of 
Sennacherib, (Salmaneser’s immediate successor,) that theMedes 
revolted from the Assyrian yoke ; and, placing Dejoces at their 
head, declared him not only of the blood of Arbaces, but in 
every way worthy to be their king. This prince is the Kai- 
Kobad of the Persian writers, and the Arphaxad of the Book of 
Judith. As king of the Medes, he naturally fixed his royal seat 
in the usual central residence of the former delegated governors 
of Media; and Herodotus, as well as the author of the Book of 
Judith, assures us, that he enlarged and beautified the city so 
essentially, that he might well be called the builder of Ecbatana. 
Rhages, no doubt, partook of his occasional presence, when he 
visited the north-eastern division of his kingdom; but Ecbatana 
was the station of his court. He was the founder of the Kaianian 
line, or dynasty of Cyrus, by the maternal side; that prince’s 
mother, Mandana, being a grand-daughter of Dejoces ; while his 
father was Cambyses sovereign of Elam, or Persis; which, if 
not a tributary kingdom to Media, was at least its sure ally. 
The account which Xenophon gives of the manners of the court 
of A sty ages, when the young Cyrus is brought thither, impresses 
the reader with a high idea of its pomp and refinement; and, 
from the relative situation of Ecbatana with regard to other 
places in the country, I should be led to deem it the principal 
capital of Media from the very earliest ages, whether under the 
# See Vol. I. page 284.- 
