XERXES THE GREAT I (486-465 BCE) WAS  THE PERSIAN KING OF ACHAEMENID EMPIRE (MODERN IRAN).THE NAMES XERXES IS ACTUALLY A GREEK TRANSCRIPTION, XERXES ASCENDED THE THRONE AND BECAME EMPEROR OF ONE THE LARGEST EMPIRES IN THE WORLD AT THAT TIME.

The Battle of Thermopylae, but with romanticized anecdotes intertwined between the actual events that took place before and during the particular military encounter. One apt example would pertain to King Leonidas I himself, Xerxes was only 38-years old at the time of the battle.It is no hidden secret that the sheer level of training and high morale of the Spartans allowed to them to be steadfast in the face of an overwhelming Persian force in the first day of the Battle of Thermopylae. The encounter didn’t prove to be successful for Xerxes, with the heavy defeat rather exacerbated by the constricted landscape of the pass (which countered the Persian advantage in numbers). And Herodotus, while being vague on casualty figures, talked about how the longer spears of the Greeks were actually better suited to the task of engaging the enemy than the shorter spears of the Persian infantrymen. We are also told that the Greeks fought in relays, with contingents allowed to take a break from the front-line – thus making the defense more effective with fresher batches of men.

Xerxes the Great was a King  of  Persia (Today's Iran ) (485–465 BC) of Achaemenid Empire. Xerxes the Great was the son of Darius I and Atossa, who were distant cousins in the Persian royal family of Achaemenids. Atossa was a daughter of the famous Persian king Cyrus the Great as well as the sister of Cambyses II who ruled before Darius I. On the other hand, Darius I was part of the side branch of the Achaemenids dynasty.The names Xerxes is actually a Greek transcription, done by Herodotus who was the primary source of the life of Xerxes I for a long time. The actual name in old Persian was Xšaya-ṛšā  (“ruling over heroes”), while the new Persian variant Khashayar.When Xerxes the Great came to the throne he wasn’t planning to invade Greece, even though his father died preparing for it. But soon after Xerxes became king Mardonius, his Commander-in-Chief of the Army and his cousin and brother-in-law, persuaded him to do it. Mardonius’ motives for this were purely for his own gain, as he hoped Xerxes would give him command over the Greek nation after their victory.After Leonidas was killed, Xerxes I ordered for his body to be crucified and his head cut off. But Spartans managed to protect the body of their dead king and bury it on the battlefield. About forty years later his remains were exhumed and returned to Sparta.Xerxes I did not request a submission from Sparta and Athens, as the messengers sent by his father Darius to subdue the proud cities have been thrown into the pits. The Greek historian Herodotus noted “if they wanted earth and water for their king, that was the place to get them from“.Xerxes I was born around 520 BCE under the Persian name Kyshayarsa ('Xerxes' is the Greek iteration), as a member of a proud dynasty. His maternal grandfather, Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. His father, Darius the Great, was the conqueror who had launched a major campaign against Athens in 492 BCE.The Greeks would ultimately win the first Persian War, but Xerxes was raised in a world where empires were growing ever larger, and the Persians were determined to expand their control over Greece. For young Xerxes, the concept of conquering Greece meant ensuring his and his father's.Xerxes the Great had a short temper, as it is testified by his action on Hellespont during his expedition into Greece. While his army was trying to cross Hellespont, a powerful straight between Europe and Asia minor, Persian pontoon bridge was destroyed because of the storm. That infuriated Xerxes who ordered the straight itself whipped 300 times and even threw legcuffs into the water as a symbol of punishment.While Xerxes I was preparing for his Greek campaign he conscripted five sons of Pythias the Lydian, one of his nobleman. To show his loyalty and his best wishes for the expeditions, Pythias hosted Xerxes and his army on their way to Greece. While he was dining with the king Pythias also offered to donate a considerable sum of money for the war effort. Unexpectedly Xerxes declined to take the money, but instead gave some of his treasures to Pythias to reward him for his generosity.  Xerxes I was quite a ladies man and being an almighty king he had no restraints. That’s what lead him to pursue an affair with his brothers Masistes’ wife, but she declined him. Then he entered into an after with her daughter, whom he had married to one of his sons. Xerxes wife found out and asked him to punish the mother of his lover, the Masistes’ wife. That lead to a revolt of Xerxes’ brother, which ended in the death of Masistes’ entire family.Xerxes I is traditionally identified as the Persian king Ahasuerus, husband of the famous Esther, from the Old testaments Book of Esther. Even if this was true, Esther would have been only one of many Xerxes wives, as he reportedly had a harem. His primary wife was Amestris, a noblewoman and a mother of Xerxes heir.When Darius I died both Xerxes I and his elder brother Artobazan contested to be his heir.  Artobazan based his claim upon the fact that he was the eldest son. Xerxes, on the other hand, said he was the first son born after Darius I was crowned. His was also claim helped by the fact that his mother was a daughter of the Cyrus the Great, while  Artobazan’s .At the Battle of Thermopylae, Xerxes defeated Greek warriors. After winning at Thermopylae, Xerxes then took control of Athens with his army. The most popular misconception about the Battle of Thermopylae probably relates to the numbers fielded in the battle. In fact, in many corners of popular culture, the encounter is often depicted as 300 Spartans (aided by their rag-tag group of allies) versus over a million Persians. These numbers, however, are without a shred of doubt exaggerations based on flawed historical accounts, modern-day pop culture sensationalism and of course romanticism. In fact, during the period (circa 480 BC), Sparta alone could have fielded over 8,000 of its free adult citizens as hoplites. But historically they could not bring forth their entire army at the Battle of Thermopylae due to religious observances and the Panhellenic Olympic Games. And while these reasons may seem bizarre to our modern sensibility, ancient Greeks formulated strict rules when it came to religious activities  so much so that the Spartans didn’t even aid the Athenians (in time) during the momentous Battle of Marathon, ten years before Thermopylae.Finally, Greek warriors won the Battle of Salamis against Xerxes in 480 BC. Xerxes I’s empire stretched from India to Egypt and parts of Europe. It was the largest and most powerful Empire in the area at that time.

Xerxes was tricked by a message from Greek politician Themistocles, and attacked the Greek fleet under unfavourable conditions, instead of sending a part of his ships to the Peloponnesus and awaiting the dissolution of the Greek armament. The Battle of Salamis (28 September, 480 BC) was won by the Athenians.After this defeat, Xerxes returned to Asia via the Hellespont, leaving part of his army in Greece under the command of Mardonius. But the following year, after having taken Athens a second time, the Persian army was defeated at Plataea, in a battle that lasted 13 days. At about the same time, what remained of the Persian fleet was destroyed by a Greek fleet under the command of the Spartan general Leutychides off Cape Mycale, north of Miletus. This was not the end of the war between Persia and Greece, but it was the end of the incursions of the Persian army on mainland Greece. Without a fleet, Persia had to abandon control of the sea to Athens.

Around 486 BCE, Xerxes ascended the throne and became emperor of one of the largest empires in the world at that time. While he wanted war with Greece, Xerxes had a few other matters to resolve first.As will happen in empires during successions of power, several uprisings broke out across the Achaemenid lands. Egypt, for example, attempted to rebel against Persian rule and Xerxes was forced to send his military there.At the same time, the Mesopotamian city of Babylon was up in arms. Cyrus the Great had been very compassionate towards this ancient city, but Xerxes wasn't interested in maintaining peace. He marched into Babylon and melted down the golden statue of their patron deity. This was not only an insult to Babylon, but all of Mesopotamia.That statue played a major role in a Mesopotamian religious festival that Cyrus had actually officiated in his time. Babylon would rebel twice more in Xerxes' reign, leading the Persian emperor to lay siege to the city.With Egypt and Babylon roughly pacified, and the rest of his subjects terrified to speak against him, Xerxes was finally able to focus on Greece. He built up a massive army, conscripting troops from across the empire. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Xerxes' army numbered more than 2 million men, the largest in the world at that time. Legend has it that Xerxes' trip to Greece was full of bad omens, all of which were ignored by the emperor.As the Persians made their way from Asia Minor into Greece, they began to meet heavy Greek resistance. The Greek city-states were independent kingdoms, but they had formed a rough coalition to fight off the invaders.One of the first significant battles was fought at Thermopylae, where King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans famously made their stand, but which was a Persian victory. After a concurrent victory at Artemisium, the main road to Athens was clear and Xerxes marched into the ancient city, burning it nearly to the ground in his rage that the Athenians dare resist him.Both Xerxes’ father, Darius the Great and grandfather, Cyrus the Great were revered throughout Greater Asia for their righteous character and social accomplishments.  While Cyrus founded the Achaemnid Dynasty, it was Darius who legitimized it.  Darius partook in many social achievements such as the creation of the Suez Canal, the establishment of a formal judicial system, a uniform monetary system, and initial construction of the Persian Capital of Persepolis.  During the twilight years of Darius’ life, Spartan and Athenian forces attacked and sacked the Persian City of Sardis. (You’ll be hard pressed to find western history books that mentions Greek forces attacked first. This fact seems to be conveniently edited out in most sources.)   Not being one to put up with bullying foreign attacks, Darius retaliated by sending military forces to Greece so they would check themselves before they riggity-wrecked themselves.  Darius knew his time was short so he left his son, Xerxes the throne along with the responsibility of finishing what he began, by completing the construction of Persepolis as well as dealing with the attack on Sardis.  While the majority of retaliating forces were Persian and Median, Xerxes’ military was actually a United Nations Coalition that also comprised of Assyrians, Armenians, Scythians, Israelites, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, Ionians, Phrygians, Elamites, Bactrians, as well as Aeolian Greeks, Aegean Greeks, Pontus Greeks, among others.Modern and ancient scholars often portray Xerxes I as a tyrant. His rule over ancient Egypt was harsh, disregarding local customs and beliefs left and right. Xerxes decided not to follow the ideas set by his predecessors, the notion that ruling with a fair, light hand was the way to keep many nations under one's rule at once. Given the lack of success, Xerxes went his own way, a way that many labeled as decidedly Persian.Xerxes I’s bad reputation comes from the fact that many scholars who wrote about him were Greek. He invaded Greece and conquered a large part of the mainland. This made the Greek historians biased against Xerxes I and more likely to view his actions in a bad light. Some modern scholars are of the opinion that Xerxes I was no better or worse than other Persian emperors.

Xerxes I invaded Greece in 480 B.C. with a large army of infantry and a navy. He conquered the city-states in Northern and Central Greece because they were too small to stand against him. Athens and Sparta led the defense of Mainland Greece. Xerxes I won the Battle of Thermopylae after being held back by a small army led by Spartan soldiers and sacked Athens.Then, the Greek navy defeated the Persian navy, including 200 Egyptian Triremes (a warship with three banks of oars), at the Battle of Salamis. After the navy’s defeat, Xerxes I retreated from the Greek mainland, leaving part of his infantry behind. The Greeks defeated this army and beat the navy again near Ionia. After this, Xerxes I did not try to invade the Greek mainland again.Early in Xerxes I’s reign, Egypt rebelled against Persian rule. He took an army to Egypt to subdue it and left one of his brothers to rule Egypt. Xerxes I’s required all his territories to provide goods or troops for his invasion of Greece. Egypt had to give the navy ropes and provided 200 triremes under the command of King Xerxes's brother.Babylon also rebelled against Xerxes I early in his reign. He defeated the rebels and then the records of his actions are unclear. Some ancient historians claimed that Xerxes I destroyed Babylon’s temples. Other records say that the temples were active after his reign. The records say that he removed a statue from a temple and melted it down but some records say this statue was not of a deity.As the years went by and Xerxes himself grew older, his desire to be king of all dwindled, and he settled into comfort in his three capital cities - Susa , Ecbatana , and Persepolis. Troubles across the world had taken a toll on the Achaemenid Empire, as well as the repeated military losses and changes in the way the world around Persia functioned. But as Xerxes let himself enjoy life to the fullest, his empire suffered. Xerxes I also had to deal with people attempting to usurp his throne. His brother, Masistes, may have been involved with one of these attempts. The records agree that Xerxes I executed Masistes and his family. Yet, they disagree about why this event occurred. Some imply that Xerxes I had an affair with his brother’s daughter and this led to the executions.Others say that the girl asked Xerxes I for a gift that would have granted her family power equal to the king’s. This was a method of usurping power for her family and angered the queen. She started killing the members of Masistes’ family and Xerxes I executed his brother. Xerxes I and his heir, Darius were killed during a palace plot in 465 B.C.The Greeks and the Persians, Leonidas and Xerxes. The wars and their characters have always piqued the interest of historians, and Hollywood has certainly brought the themes of the war to a much wider audience. Many westerners often perceive the Greco-Persian wars as the “good” Greeks against the “evil” Persians, but history is not so black and white. A lot of people know the basics of the wars, from Marathon to Thermopylae and Salamis.It’s as simple as that. Many people look at the Persians as some evil empire that wanted to enslave the Greeks. The Greeks are looked upon as the bastion of freedom, yet the majority of Greek cities practiced slavery of some sort. The Birthplace of Democracy, Athens, had slaves. Sparta had such huge numbers of slaves that they created a whole other social class and culture similar to medieval serfs, but with more cruelty.The Spartans occasionally had to stay away from campaigning because their helots were in danger of rebelling or actually rebelled, the rebellions being excessively violent on both sides.The Persians entered Greece with the largest army the world had yet seen, right? They drank rivers dry, yet people think they were destroyed in the battles of Thermopylae and Salamis. While these battles were certainly epic and morally huge for the Greeks, the fact remained that the Persians still had an army and a navy that outnumbered the Greeks and could have still conquered them.After Salamis, the Persian navy sailed to Ionia in southwest Turkey while the Persians left an army of around 100,000 in Greece under Xerxes’ best general. At the battle of Mycale, the Greek navy sailed to the beached Persian navy and launched an amphibious battle on the slopes of Mount Mycale. The aggressive assault pushed into the Persian camp and effectively destroyed the remnants of the Persian navy.At Plataea, the Greeks mustered a huge army of about 80,000 and fought a chess-match battle with Mardonius. The Greeks were almost caught in a tactical retreat and barely won a hotly contested battle when the Persian general was killed. The Greeks also pillaged the camp and slaughtered those who didn’t flee and run out of Greece altogether.Yes, the Greeks won these battles, but if they would have lost both of these tough battles their situation would have been quite dire. They would have been without a navy and with a scattered army, leaving Mardonius free to ravage Greece with renewed support from an unopposed Persian navy.

During the third year of Xerxes reign, he held a huge festival so that he could display all of his wealth to the high ranking governors and officials of his empire. King Xerxes also had a wife named Queen Vashti, and she was holding a celebration for the women of the empire. As the ceremonies progressed, King Xerxes summoned Queen Vashti so that he could show off her beauty to the people in attendance. Instead of appearing before the king the queen refused to listen to her husband’s request. Since she was disobedient to her King, Queen Vashti was forever banished from his presence.One of the most famous Jewish women from the Old Testament was the beloved partner to Xerxes and Queen of Persia.   The Holy Jewish Holiday of Purim is directly correlated to Esther and Xerxes.   Although Xerxes was a Zoroastrian by faith, he did not force his beliefs upon anyone, including his wife.Esther, whose Jewish name was Hadassah, was forced, along with perhaps thousands of virgin girls from Susa, into King Xerxes harem. Or that the king had banished his first wife, Queen Vashti, for refusing to publicly flaunt her body before his drunken friends. Or that, in response, he had issued a ridiculous kingdom-wide decree that “all the women will respect their husbands, from the least to the greatest” and that “every man should be ruler over his own household.”  Or that under the care of the royal Eunuchs, Esther and the women of the king’s harem each took a turn in the king’s bed to see who would please him best. Or that the women received just one night with the king, after which they were transferred to the eunuchs in charge of the concubines, with the instruction not to return to the king’s chamber unless summoned by name, under the penalty of death.She was the mother of three princes: Darius A (488-475), who was Crown prince in 475 BCE, Hystapes (486-?), who became satrap of Bactria  and Artaxerxes I (485-424) who became king of Persia (475-424). King Xerxes had to send out a decree that women were not to follow her example. He did this to avoid civil unrest that could have resulted from massive domestic abuse and chaos within the empire. This story sets the background for the rise of an extremely beautiful woman named Esther and her godly cousin Mordecai. God had decided to allow the people of Judah to go into captivity to Babylon because of their sins, and Mordecai was a young boy when this incident had taken place. Mordecai had an uncle named Abihail who had a daughter named Hadassah. Now Hadassah was an extremely beautiful young woman, and she was also called Esther. Mordecai had taken her into his home after her father Abihail and her mother had passed away. Esther grew up secure inside of Mordecai’s care, and she also learned about the importance of her Jewish heritage from him as well. The people all over the region of Susa knew about Esther’s beauty. One day King Xerxes decided to find a new queen, and he had appointed agents inside of each province for the purpose of making them responsible for finding beautiful virgin females to bring to the king. Well, this activity took place over a period before they came across Esther. Once Esther was chosen for this task, Mordecai reminded her that she must never tell the king or his servants about her Jewish identity.Esther eventually won the heart of the king and his servants, and she was selected to become the new queen of Persia. Mordecai held a position inside of the king’s palace, and he went their every day to perform his duties. One day he overheard a conspiracy between two of the king’s guards who wanted to assassinate Xerxes. Mordecai alerted the king and the guards were found to be treasonous and were eliminated. King Xerxes appreciated Mordecai’s information, but he didn’t reward him. Xerxes I was assassinated by his royal bodyguard Artabanus, who was of the most powerful men in Persian royal court. He killed Xerxes and his eldest son Darius, in an attempt to dethrone the Achaemenids. He failed in that plan and Xerxes’ other son and heir, Artaxerxes I, avenged his father and brother by killing Artabanus and all his sons.