Xerxes I of Persia

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Xerxes I of Persia

Xerxes the Great, also known as Xerxes I of Persia, (; ) was a King of Persia

Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
(reigned 485

485 BC

Sorry, no overview for this topic
–465 BC) of the Achaemenid dynasty

Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire was amongst the first Persian Empires that ruled over significant portions of Greater Iran, and followed the Ancient Iranian peoples Median Empire....
. Xérxes is the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
form of the Old Persian throne name Xšayarša, meaning "Ruler of heroes". The English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
pronunciation is .
name Xerxes (['z?ksi?z]) is, via Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
, from ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
: (?)????? from . The Greek name is recorded in Histotories
Histories (Herodotus)

The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. Written about 440 BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories tells the story of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Achaemenid Empire and the Polis in the 5th century BC....
of Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
and Bibliotheca historica
Bibliotheca historica

[Image:AlexandreLouvre.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Bust of Alexander...
of Diodorus
Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus , was a Roman Greece historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agira in Sicily ....
.

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Xerxes the Great, also known as Xerxes I of Persia, (; ) was a King of Persia
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
(reigned 485
485 BC

Sorry, no overview for this topic
–465 BC) of the Achaemenid dynasty
Achaemenid Empire

The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenid Persian Empire was amongst the first Persian Empires that ruled over significant portions of Greater Iran, and followed the Ancient Iranian peoples Median Empire....
. Xérxes is the Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
form of the Old Persian throne name Xšayarša, meaning "Ruler of heroes". The English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
pronunciation is .
Names and Etymology
The name Xerxes (['z?ksi?z]) is, via Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
, from ancient Greek
Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
: (?)????? from . The Greek name is recorded in Histotories
Histories (Herodotus)

The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. Written about 440 BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories tells the story of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Achaemenid Empire and the Polis in the 5th century BC....
of Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
and Bibliotheca historica
Bibliotheca historica

[Image:AlexandreLouvre.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Bust of Alexander...
of Diodorus
Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus , was a Roman Greece historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agira in Sicily ....
. The name has appeared in many inscriptions in languages spoken in various parts of his vast empire: in Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyption(Demotic), etc.

The alternative English name Ahasuerus is derived from the Latin transliteration of the Biblical Hebrew (???????). This is in turn the Hebrew equivalent of the Babylonian (meaning "Hero among rulers"): both this and the Greek ?????? are transliterations from the Old Persian Xšayarša (also spelt Khsayârshâ). Thus this literary change was created as the name moved across each of the language groups in a westerly direction from Persia until it entered English translations of the Bible. Therefore the name Ahasuerus is equivalent to Xerxes, both deriving from the Persian Xšayarša.

Among the historians, Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
mentions in his history book that Xerxes means warrior. This is however disputed and not accepted by modern scholars. A modern proposal is that "Xerxes" should mean "Hero among rulers".

Early life and accession
Xerxes was son of Darius I of Persia
Darius I of Persia

Darius I or Darius the Great was the son of Hystaspes and Persian Empire from 522 BC to 486 BC. Darius is the dominant Latin language spelling used by the Roman historians....
and Atossa
Atossa

Atossa was a Queen consort of Persian Empire.She was born in 550 BCE, the daughter of Cyrus the Great and a sister of Cambyses II, whom she married....
, the daughter
Daughter

A daughter is a female reproduction; a girl, woman, or female animal in relation to her parents. The male equivalent is a son. Analogously the name is used on several areas to show relations between groups or elements....
of Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great

Cyrus the Great , , also known as Cyrus II of Persia and Cyrus the Elder, was a Persian people Shah . He was the founder of the Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty, an empire, perhaps the most wealthy and magnificent in history....
. After his accession in October 485 BC, he suppressed the revolts in Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
and Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
that had broken out the year before and appointed his brother Achaemenes
Achaemenes (satrap)

Achaemenes was the satrap of Egypt from 484 BC until his death in 460 BC, and a member of the Achaemenid dynasty.According to Herodotus, he was a son of Persian Empire Darius I of Persia by his wife Atossa, and full brother of Xerxes I of Persia....
as governor or satrap
Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Medes and Persian Empire empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic civilization empires....
over Egypt (Old Persian: khshathrapavan). In 484 BC, he took away from Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
the golden statue of Bel (Marduk
Marduk

Marduk was the Babylonian language name of a late-generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon permanently became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi , started to slowly rise to the position of the head of the Babylonian pantheon, a position he fully acqu...
, Merodach), the hands of which the rightful king of Babylon had to take a hold of on the first day of each year, and killed the priest who tried to get in his way. According to Ghirshman he had the statue melted down. This act made him unpopular among the Babylonians, and led to two subsequent rebellions, probably in 484 BC and 482 BC. Therefore unlike his father Darius, Xerxes does not bear the title of King in the Babylonian documents dated from his reign, but rather only by the titles King of Persia and Media
Medes

The Medes were an Ancient Iranian peoples who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran. This area was known in Greek as Media or Medea ....
, Great King, King of Kings (Shahanshah) and King of nations (i.e. of the world).

Darius I (by Atossa)
Xerxes Achaemenes Hystaspes
Masistes Mandane Saundace

Invasion of the Greek Mainland

Darius left to his son the task of punishing the Athenians
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, Naxians, and Eretria
Eretria

Eretria was a polis in Ancient Greece, located on the western coast of the island of Euboea , south of Chalcis, facing the coast of Attica across the narrow Euboian Gulf....
ns for their interference in the Ionian Revolt
Ionian Revolt

The Ionian Revolts were triggered by the actions of Aristagoras, the tyrant of the Ionian city of Miletus at the end of the 6th century BC and beginning of the 5th century BC....
and their victory over the Persians at Marathon
Battle of Marathon

The Battle of Marathon, Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars took place in 490 BC and was the culmination of the first attempt by the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, under King Darius I, to subjugate Ancient Greece....
. From 483 BC Xerxes prepared his expedition: A channel was dug through the isthmus
Isthmus

File:The Spit Bruny Island.jpg File:IsthmusOfPanama.pngAn isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas. Of note, the Isthmus of Panama connects the continents of North America and South America , and the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt connects Africa and Asia ....
of the peninsula of Mount Athos
Mount Athos

Mount Athos is a mountain on the peninsula of the same name in Macedonia , of northern Greece, called in Greek language Agion Oros , or in English, "Holy Mountain"....
, provisions were stored in the stations on the road through Thrace
Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. Today the name Thrace designates a region spread over southern Bulgaria , northeastern Greece , and European Turkey ....
, two bridges were thrown across the Hellespont
Hellespont

Hellespont was the ancient name of the narrow strait, now known by the modern European term 'Dardanelles'. It was so called from Helle , the daughter of Athamas, who was drowned here in the mythology of the Golden Fleece....
. Soldiers of many nationalities served in the armies of Xerxes, including the Assyrians
Assyrians

Assyrians or Assyrian people may refer to :*the Ancient Assyrians*the modern Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac peopleSee also*Assyrian ...
, Phoenicia
Phoenicia

Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, extending to parts of Israel, Syria and the Palestinian territories....
ns, Babylonians, India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
ns, Egyptians
Egyptians

Egyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to the Geography of Egypt, dominated by the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the Cataracts of the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea and enclosed by desert both to the Easte...
, Jews and Arabs. According to the Greek historian Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
, Xerxes' first attempt to bridge the Hellespont ended in failure when a storm destroyed the flax
Flax

Flax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean region to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent....
and papyrus
Papyrus

Papyrus is a thick paper material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland Cyperaceae that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
bridge; Xerxes ordered the Hellespont (the strait itself) whipped three hundred times and had fetters
Fetters

Fetters, shackles, footcuffs or leg irons are a kind of physical restraint used on the foot or ankles to allow walking but prevent running and kicking....
thrown into the water. Xerxes' second attempt to bridge the Hellespont was successful. Xerxes concluded an alliance with Carthage
Carthage

Carthage refers both to an ancient city in present-day Tunisia, and a modern-day suburb of Tunis. The civilization that developed within the city's sphere of influence is referred to as Punic or Carthaginian....
, and thus deprived Greece
Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
of the support of the powerful monarchs of Syracuse
Syracuse, Italy

Syracuse is a historic city in southern Italy, the Capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is noted for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture and association to Archimedes, playing an important role in ancient times as one of the top powers of the Mediterranean world; it is over 2,700 years old....
and Agrigentum. Many smaller Greek states, moreover, took the side of the Persians, especially Thessaly
Thessaly

Thessaly is one of the 13 Peripheries of Greece of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 Prefectures of Greece. The capital of the periphery and traditional Regions of Greece is Larissa....
, Thebes
Thebes, Greece

Thebes is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, Greece, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain....
and Argos
Argos

Argos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese near Nafplion, which was its historic harbour, named for Nauplius ....
. Xerxes set out in the spring of 480 BC from Sardis
Sardis

Sardis, also Sardes , modern Sart in the Manisa province of Turkey, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Lydia, one of the important cities of the Persian Empire, the seat of a proconsul under the Roman Empire, and the metropolis of the province Lydia in later Roman and Byzantine Empire times....
with a fleet and army which Herodotus claimed was more than two million strong with at least 10,000 elite warriors named Persian Immortals
Persian Immortals

The Achaemenid Persian Immortals, usually referred to as the Persian Immortals or The Immortals were an elite force of Persian Empire soldiers who performed the dual roles of both Imperial Guard and standing army during the Achaemenid Empire's expansion and during the Greco-Persian Wars....
. Xerxes was victorious during the initial battles.

Thermopylae and Athens

At the Battle of Thermopylae
Battle of Thermopylae

The Battle of Thermopylae [th?r m?pp?lee] took place over three days during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place simultaneously with the naval battle at Battle of Artemisium, in August or September 480 BC, at the pass of Thermopylae ....
, a small force of warriors, 300 Spartans, and 1000 other Greeks, led by King Leonidas
Leonidas I

Leonidas was a king of Sparta, the 17th of the Agiad line, one of the sons of King Anaxandridas II of Sparta, who was believed to be a descendant of Heracles, possessing much of the strength and bravery that made his ancestor famous....
of Sparta
Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
, resisted the much larger Persian forces, but were ultimately defeated. According to Herodotus, the Persians broke the Spartan phalanx after a Greek man called Ephialtes betrayed his country by telling the Persians of another pass around the mountains. After Thermopylae, Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
was captured and the Athenians and Spartans were driven back to their last line of defense at the Isthmus of Corinth
Isthmus of Corinth

The Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth....
and in the Saronic Gulf
Saronic Gulf

The Saronic Gulf or Gulf of Aegina in Greece forms part of the Aegean Sea and defines the eastern side of the isthmus of Corinth. It is the eastern terminus of the Corinth Canal, which cuts across the isthmus....
. The delay caused by the Spartans allowed Athens to be vacated.

What happened next is a matter of some controversy. According to Herodotus, upon encountering the deserted city, in an uncharacteristic fit of rage particularly for Persian kings, Xerxes had Athens burned. He almost immediately regretted this action and ordered it rebuilt the very next day. However, Persian scholars dispute this view as pan-Hellenic propaganda, arguing that Sparta, not Athens, was Xerxes' main foe in his Greek campaigns, and that Xerxes would have had nothing to gain by destroying a major center of trade and commerce like Athens once he had already captured it. At that time, anti-Persian sentiment was high among many mainland Greeks, and the rumor that Xerxes had destroyed the city was a popular one, though it's equally likely the fire was started by accident as the Athenians were frantically fleeing the scene in pandemonium, or that it was an act of "scorched earth
Scorched earth

A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area....
" warfare to deprive Xerxes' army of the spoils of the city. Unfortunately, regardless of the circumstances the damage was done and Xerxes considered the capture of Athens as the only major mistake in his military career.

At Artemisium, large storms had destroyed ships from the Greek side and so the battle stopped prematurely as the Greeks received news of the defeat at Thermopylae and retreated. Xerxes was induced by the message of Themistocles
Themistocles

Themistocles was an Ancient Athens soldier and statesman. As archon in 493 BC, he convinced the Athenians that a powerful fleet was needed to protect them against the Persians....
(against the advice of Artemisia
Artemisia I of Caria

Artemisia I of Caria became the ruler, after the death of her husband, as a client of the Achaemenid dynasty – who in the 5th century BC ruled as the overlords of Ionia....
of Halicarnassus
Halicarnassus

Halicarnassus was an ancient Greek city on the southwest coast of Caria, Anatolia , on a picturesque, advantageous site on the Ceramic Gulf . It was the site of the Siege of Halicarnassus, between Alexander the Great and the Persian Empire....
) to attack the Greek fleet under unfavourable conditions, rather than sending a part of his ships to the Peloponnesus and awaiting the dissolution of the Greek armies. The Battle of Salamis
Battle of Salamis

The Battle of Salamis , was a naval battle fought between an Alliance of Greece city-states and the Achaemenid Empire of Persia in September 480 BC in the straits between the mainland and Salamis Island, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens....
(September 29, 480 BC) was won by the Athenians. Although the loss was a setback, it was not a disaster as some Greek historians have claimed, and Xerxes set up a winter camp in Thessaly
Thessaly

Thessaly is one of the 13 Peripheries of Greece of Greece, and is further sub-divided into 4 Prefectures of Greece. The capital of the periphery and traditional Regions of Greece is Larissa....
.

Due to unrest in Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
, Xerxes was forced to send his army home to prevent a revolt, leaving behind an army in Greece under Mardonius
Mardonius

Mardonius was a leading Persian Empire military commander during the Persian Wars with Greece in the early 5th century BC....
, who was defeated the following year at Plataea
Battle of Plataea

The Battle of Plataea was the final land battle during the second Persian invasion of Greece. It took place in 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia, and was fought between an alliance of the Ancient Greece city-states, including Sparta, History of Athens, Corinth, Megara and others, and the Achaemenid Empire of Xerxes I....
. The Greeks also attacked and burned the remaining Persian fleet anchored at Mycale
Battle of Mycale

The Battle of Mycale, was one of the two major battles that ended the second Achaemenid Empire invasion of Greece, during the Greco-Persian Wars....
. This cut off the Persians from the supplies they needed to sustain their massive army, and they had no choice but to retreat. Their withdrawal roused the Greek city-states of Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
.
Construction Projects

After the military blunders in Greece, Xerxes returned to Persia and completed the many construction projects left unfinished by his father at Susa and Persepolis. He built the Gate of all Nations and the Hall of a Hundred Columns at Persepolis, which are the largest and most imposing structures of the palace. He completed the Apadana, the Palace of Darius and the Treasury all started by Darius as well as building his own palace which was twice the size of his father's. His taste in architecture was similar to that of Darius, though on an even more gigantic scale. He also maintained the Royal Road built by his father and completed the Susa Gate and built a palace at Susa.
Death
In the year 465 Xerxes is murdered by his counsellor, Artabanus
Artabanus of Persia

Artabanus the Hyrcanian was a Persia political figure during the Achaemenid Dynasty who was reportedly Regent of Persia for a few months .Artabanus probably originated from the province of Hyrcania and reportedly served as the chief official of Xerxes I....
, and is succeeded by Artaxerxes I. Artabanus was Hyrcanian by birth and become the commander of Xerxes' guard. In August, 465 B.C he assassinated Xerxes with the help of Aspamitres. Greek historians give contradicting accounts on the full story. According to Ctesias (in Persica 20), he then accused the crown prince Darius (Xerxes’ eldest son) of the murder; he instigated Artaxerxes (another Xerxes' son), to avenge the parricide. But according to Aristotle
Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
(in Politics 5.1311b), Artabanus killed Darius first and then the king himself. Later on after discovering what he had done and planned for the royal power, Artabanus together with his sons were killed by Artaxerxes I.

In the Bible
The name Xerxes has not traditionally appeared in English bibles, but has rather appeared as 'Ahasuerus'. While in many other more modern translations and paraphrases they have directly listed Xerxes. Xerxes appears three times in the Bible: firstly as Esther
Esther

Esther , born Hadassah, is a queen of the Persian Empire in the Hebrew Bible, the queen of Ahasuerus , and heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther which is named after her....
's husband, followed by a perfect example in the Book of Ezra
Ezra

Ezra was a Jewish priestly scribe who led about 5,000 Babylonian captivity living in Babylon to their home city of Jerusalem in 459 BC. Ezra reconstituted the dispersed Jewish community on the basis of the Torah and with an emphasis on the law....
, listing him as king of Persia in proper order after Cyrus and Darius
Darius I of Persia

Darius I or Darius the Great was the son of Hystaspes and Persian Empire from 522 BC to 486 BC. Darius is the dominant Latin language spelling used by the Roman historians....
(skipping Cambyses
Cambyses

Cambyses is the name of several members of the Achaemenid line of ancient Persian Empire .*Cambyses , son and successor of Teispes of Anshan, father of an earlier Cyrus and great grandfather of Cyrus the Great....
and the short rule of the Magi
Smerdis of Persia

Smerdis, Bardiya or Bardia was a son of Cyrus the Great and the younger brother of Cambyses II, whose name was allegedly usurped by an impostor, a magi reportedly named Gaumata ....
as being unrelated to the events of the book); the third reference comes from the prophecy of Daniel 11:2, foretelling his invasion of Greece. The reference to "Darius the son of Ahasuerus" in is unrelated.

Xerxes is overall portrayed as a just and praiseworthy king in the Bible. Part of this may be due not only to the Jews' belief in the story of Esther, but also to the fact that his destruction of the Babylonians' golden idol
Bel (mythology)

Bel , signifying "lord" or "master", is a title rather than a genuine name, applied to various gods in Babylonian religion. The feminine form is B?lit 'Lady, Mistress'....
may have struck a positive chord in the eyes of Hebrew monotheists who had been slaves of Babylon a few generations earlier.
In the Book of Esther
For these same reasons and due to the historical context of the text, it is also commonly understood and translated that Esther
Esther

Esther , born Hadassah, is a queen of the Persian Empire in the Hebrew Bible, the queen of Ahasuerus , and heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther which is named after her....
's husband Ahasuerus is Xerxes the Great. But the Greek Septuagint
Septuagint

The Septuagint , or simply "LXX", is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the 3rd century BC and 1st century BC in Alexandria....
version of the Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Bible

The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written mostly in Biblical Hebrew with some Biblical Aramaic....
identifies Esther
Esther

Esther , born Hadassah, is a queen of the Persian Empire in the Hebrew Bible, the queen of Ahasuerus , and heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther which is named after her....
's husband as Artaxerxes I (Longimanus), rather than Xerxes himself, as does the Judeo-Roman historian Josephus
Josephus

Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizenship, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70....
. Yet it is now thought that the translators of this portion of the Septuagint
Septuagint

The Septuagint , or simply "LXX", is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the 3rd century BC and 1st century BC in Alexandria....
simply mistook Xerxes the Great for Artaxerxes I (Longimanus).

Children
By queen Amestris
Amestris

Amestris or Amastris was the wife of Xerxes I of Persia, mother of king Artaxerxes I of Persia. Her reputation is very bad among Ancient Greece historians....

Amytis
Amytis

Amytis was a Persian Empire princess, daughter of king Xerxes I and queen Amestris, and sister of king Artaxerxes I. She was given in marriage to the nobleman Megabyzus....
, wife of Megabyzus
Megabyzus

Megabyzus was a Persian Empiren general, son of Zopyrus, satrap of Babylon. His father was killed when the satrapy rebelled in 482 BC, and Megabyzus led the forces that recaptured the city, after which the statue of the god Marduk was destroyed to prevent future revolts....
Artaxerxes I
Darius, the first born, murdered by Artaxerxes and Artabanus
Artabanus of Persia

Artabanus the Hyrcanian was a Persia political figure during the Achaemenid Dynasty who was reportedly Regent of Persia for a few months .Artabanus probably originated from the province of Hyrcania and reportedly served as the chief official of Xerxes I....
.
Hystaspes, murdered by Artaxerxes.
Rodogyne
By unknown wives
Artarius, satrap of Babylon.
Ratashah

Cultural influence

The Persians
The Persians

The Persians is an Classical Athens tragedy by the Classical Greece playwright Aeschylus. First produced in 472 BCE, it is the oldest surviving play in the history of theatre....
, an Athenian tragedy
Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of The arts based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific Poetic tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture....
written by Aeschylus
Aeschylus

Aeschylus was an Ancient Greece playwright. He is often recognized as the father or the founder of tragedy, and is the earliest of the three Greek tragedy whose Play survive extant, the others being Sophocles and Euripides....
in 472 BCE

Baroque operas set to Nicolò Minato
Nicolò Minato

Count Nicol? Minato was an Italy poet, librettist and impresario. His career can be divided into two parts: the years he spent at Venice, from 1650 to 1669, and the years at Vienna, from 1669 until his death....
's libretto on the life of Xerxes I, derived from the Histories
Histories (Herodotus)

The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. Written about 440 BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories tells the story of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Achaemenid Empire and the Polis in the 5th century BC....
of Herodotus
Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
and subsequently adapted by Silvio Stampiglia and others:

Xerse
Xerse

Xerse is an opera by Francesco Cavalli - specifically, a dramma per musica about Xerxes I. The libretto was written by Nicol? Minato, and was later set by both Giovanni Bononcini and George Frideric Handel....
(1654), by Francesco Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli

Francesco Cavalli was an Italy composer of the Baroque music#Early baroque music Baroque music period. His real name was Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni, but he is better known by that of Cavalli, the name of his patron, a Venetian nobleman....
Xerse
Xerse (Bononcini)

Xerse is an opera in three acts by Giovanni Bononcini. It was designated as a dramma per musica. The libretto was written by Silvio Stampiglia after that by Nicol? Minato which had been used for the 1654 opera of the same name by Francesco Cavalli....
(1694), by Giovanni Battista Bononcini
Giovanni Battista Bononcini

Giovanni Battista Bononcini was an Italy Baroque music composer and cellist, one of a family of string players and composers. His father, Giovanni Maria Bononcini , was a violinist and a composer....
Serse
Serse

Serse is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. It was first performed in London on 15 April 1738. The libretto is adapted by an unknown hand from that by Silvio Stampiglia for an earlier Xerse by Giovanni Bononcini in 1694....
(1738), by George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was an England Baroque music composer of Germany birth who is famous for his operas, oratorios, and concerto grosso. His life and music may justly be described as "cosmopolitan": he was born in Germany, trained in Italy, and spent most of his life in England....

Xerxes is one of the major players in Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal is an United States novelist, screenwriter, playwright, essayist, short story writer and politician. Early in his career he wrote the ground-breaking The City and the Pillar , which outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality....
's historical novel Creation
Creation (novel)

Creation is an epic historical fiction novel by Gore Vidal which was published in 1981. In 2002, he published a restored version, adding four chapters that a previous editor had cut....
, which spans the reigns of Xerxes's father Darius I, Xerxes and Artaxerxes I. He is a childhood friend to the main protagonist and narrator Cyrus Spitama.
Xerxes is portrayed, somewhat fancifully, in the Biblical film One Night with the King
One Night with the King

One Night with the King is a film that was released in 2006 in film in the United States.The film follows the plot of the novel "Esther" by Nathaniel Weinreb, including direct quotes and events from the book, although the film is officially based on the novel Hadassah: One Night with the King by Tommy Tenney and Mark Andrew Olsen....
which tells the story of Esther, her romance with Xerxes, and her intercession on behalf of the Jews.
Xerxes is also portrayed, but heavily fictionalized, in the graphic novel 300 and film based on it
300 (film)

300 is a 2007 in film film adaptation of the graphic novel 300 by Frank Miller , and is a fictionalized retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae....
about the battle of Thermopylae. He was depicted as being very tall and bald with chains around his head. There was also a suggestion of asexuality
Asexuality

Asexuality is sometimes considered a sexual orientation describing individuals who do not experience sexual attraction, experience little or no sexual attraction, or lack interest in or desire for sex....
in his appearance, mannerisms and speech

See also

Ahasuerus
Ahasuerus

Ahasuerus is a name used several times in the Hebrew Bible, as well as related legends and apocrypha....

Ancient sources

Modern sources

Further reading

Herodotus, The Persian Wars. Translated by George Rawlinson, Introduction by Francis R.B. Godolphin (1942 edition)
A.T. Olmstead, 1948. History of the Persian Empire (University of Chicago Press) pp. 214ff.
P. Briant, 2002. From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire.
Farrokh, Kaveh (2007). Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1846031087.