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Deioces was the founder and the first king of the Median Kingdom, an ancient polity in western Asia. His name has been mentioned in different forms in various sources, including the ancient Greek historian Herodotus.
The exact date of the era of Deioces' rule is not clear and probably covered most of the first half of the 7th century BC. According to Herodotus, Deioces was the first Median king to have gained independence from the Neo-Assyrian Empire and governed for 53 years. After Deioces' death, his son, Phraortes, succeeded him.
Deioces' name is derived from the Iranian Dahyu-ka, and is the junior noun of the word dahyu-, meaning "the land". The old Iranian name Deioces was not uncommon even in later times. In the Achaemenid period, the Old Persian form of Deioces has been mentioned in several Elamite epigraphy of the mud plates of Persepolis. Those mentions apparently referred to different persons in separate government regions; and one of them was an individual assigned to the food rationing of the horses.
Friedrich von Spiegel believes that Dahayuku means "resident and village head" and is in fact the older form of the word dehghan "farmer". Also following Spiegel's theory, Ferdinand Justi believes that Deioces' name is his title and a shortened form of dahyaupati in Old Persian and danhupaiti in Avestan having acquired the suffix -ka. The name of Deioces may also be related to the modern Kurdish language name Diyako.
In Assyrian sources, 674 BC, there are mentions of the actions of a person called Kashtariti, whom some researchers believe to be the same Phraortes. Therefore, the year 674 BC can be considered the end of Deioces' rule; and by reckoning his fifty-three-year old reign, the beginning of the era of Deioces' rule should be around 728 BC. Below is a list of the era of Deioces' reign based on the historians' views:
According to Herodotus, the Medes were the first people to break free from Assyrian dominance. The Medes were living in small villages with independent rulers, when a certain Deioces embarked on an elaborate scheme to make himself king. In the anarchistic era of the Medes, Deioces tried to enforce justice in his own village and gained a credit and reputation as a neutral judge. Thus, the territory of his activity expanded and the peoples of other villages resorted to him until he eventually announced that the requests of the people are too much and the post is troublesome and difficult for him and he is not ready to continue the work. Following the resignation, theft and chaos increased; and the Medes gathered and chose him as the king in order to settle the disagreements. Deioces thus rose from a commoner to a despot, who united the Median tribes. Under his rule, he established a spearmen guard, and constructed a new capital, Ecbatana, with strong fortifications and a royal palace.
Deioces held a ceremony for the first time; Herodotus states that Deioces stayed in his palace; and his connection was by sending to and receiving messages from the outside; and no one was able to contact the king directly; and the petitions and messages were performed only by the messengers; the limitation was in order to make a sense of fear and respect among the people. Besides, it was forbidden to laugh or Spitting in the king's presence. Of his other actions was creating a group called "The King's Eyes and Ears", which consisted of people assigned to spy for the king himself; this organization and group existed during the Achaemenid era.
Diakonoff believes that Deioces could not have been the king of the whole Medes, and was not even the ruler of a large region, and was just one of the small and numerous Median lords; but the illustrious history of the successors shined on his face and gave him fame in history. After Deioces, his son, Phraortes, succeeded him and ruled for 22 years; though some researchers believe that he ruled for fifty-three years (678-625 BC).
Herodotus described that the royal complex was made of seven concentric walls, with each internal one higher than the external one. Each of the seven walls were decorated with a specific color: the first (external) wall was white, second wall black, third one high red, fourth blue, fifth low red, sixth wall copper, and the seventh and innermost wall gold. Such a coloring was the symbol of the Classical planet in Babylon, but was an imitation of Babylon in Ecbatana. The king's palace was situated within the last wall along with its treasures.
However, this narrative of Herodotus's is not corroborated by what is written in Assyrian sources, which imply the existence of various masters in the Medes until years after Deioces, and the foundation of an independent royal body and constructing several large royal complexes was not something that the Assyrians could easily remain silent against; thus these words from Herodotus seem exaggerative, or depict an adapted and modified picture of the periods after Deioces' reign. Nevertheless, Polybius, a famous Greek historian, mentioned this palace in his book and his description of Hamadan, stating the long age of this palace.
According to some historians and archaeologists, the hill that is currently situated in the city and known as the Ecbatana Hill, was the true place of the ancient city of Ecbatana.
Some historians, including Henry Rawlinson, believe that the Ecbatana mentioned in Herodotus's writings is not the current Hamadan; and the olden Median capital should be searched in Takht-e Soleymān and in the vicinity of Lake Urmia to the south east. But some researchers, like Jacques de Morgan, believe that Herodotus's Ecbatana is the same Hamadan today; and the places of the seven castles of Fort Ecbatana could be identified by the projections on the land and hills.
Among Herodotus's reports about Deioces and those of Avesta and Middle Persian, Arabic and Persian language texts about Hushang, there are some common features about the identities of Hushang and Deioces; the most important of them can be summarized in three points:
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