King of Persia (r. 486-465 b. c.e.)
Born: c. 519 b. c.e.; place unknown Died: 465 b. c.e.; Persepolis (now in Iran)
Also known as: Xerxes the Great; Ahasuerus (biblical); Iksersa; Khsa-yarsan (Persian); Khshayarsha Category: Government and politics
Life Son of Darius the Great, Xerxes (ZURK-seez) served as viceroy of Babylon until his father’s death. Upon ascension to the throne, Xerxes I put down rebellions in Bactria (486 b. c.e.) and Egypt (485-484 b. c.e.), the latter of which delayed preparations to avenge Darius’s defeat at the hands of the Greeks at Marathon (490 b. c.e.).
Xerxes I, seated on a throne, commands the punishment of the sea. (F. R. Niglutsch)
In 481 b. c.e., he ordered preparations to put down the Ionian Revolt and invade Greece. To cross the Hellespont, he ordered the construction of a pontoon bridge, but when a storm destroyed the bridge, he executed the architect and symbolically whipped the waters with chains. The second bridge was completed without mishap, and the Persian army continued, winning victories at Thermopylae and Artemisium (480 b. c.e.). After a naval defeat at Salamis (480 b. c.e.), however, fearing that the news would spark rebellion in the empire, he returned home. Xerxes never attempted military conquest afterward, retiring to his palace and concentrating on architectural pursuits.
Influence In 480 b. c.e., Xerxes mobilized the largest Persian army and navy to date and invaded Greece but suffered a naval disaster at Salamis, curtailing Persian military expansion.
Further Reading
Green, Peter. The Greco-Persian Wars. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
_. Xerxes at Salamis. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1970.
Olmstead, A. T. History of the Persian Empire. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1959.
Porter, Barry. “Xerxes’ Greek Campaign.” Military History 22, no. 4 (July, 2005): 22-72.
Strauss, Barry. The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece—and Western Civilization. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Szemler, G. J., W. J. Dherf, and J. C. Kraft. Termopolylai: Myth and Reality in 480 B. C. Chicago: Ares, 1996.
Wallinga, H. T. Xerxes’ Greek Adventure: The Naval Perspective. Boston: Brill, 2005.
Todd William Ewing
See also: Athens; Greco-Persian Wars; Ionian Revolt; Salamis, Battle of; Thermopylae, Battle of.
World History
