The invention of the Supreme Court, etc.

[timelets]

“The royal judges are men selected from all Persians to serve in this capacity until they die or are found guilty of some injustice. They judge lawsuits and are the interpreters of ancestral ordinances and institutions, and every question is referred to them for judgment.

So they responded to Cambyses’ question with an answer that was both just and safe: they said they had discovered no law that would sanction marriage between a man and his sister, but they had found another law stating that the king of the Persians was permitted to do whatever he wanted. [5] Thus they did not break the law because of their fear of Cambyses, but in order that they would not destroy themselves by protecting the law, they discovered another one that supported the king in his desire to marry his sister. ”

--- Herodotus: Histories.