The Story of Xerxes I: The Great King of the Persian Empire

Xerxes was one of the greatest monarchs of the Achaemenid Empire and left a lasting mark on the political and cultural landscape of his time. He became immortalized in history for his military campaign, which remains one of the most memorable episodes of the Greco-Persian Wars. Born around 515 BC, Xerxes was the son of Darius the Great, who ruled the Persian Empire from 522 to 486 BC. His mother, Atossa, was the daughter of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. This noble lineage conferred royal prestige upon Xerxes from birth, as his family was directly linked to the history and founding of the empire.

Two decades before Xerxes was born, his father had begun an attempt to expand the Persian Empire toward Greece. However, this endeavor ended in a major defeat against the Greek forces at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Thus, Darius did not have the opportunity to launch a new offensive before he died in the year 486.

Before dying, Darius had chosen Xerxes as his successor to the throne. Although he was not the eldest son—his half-brother Artabazanes had been born before Darius became king—Artabazanes’s mother was a plebeian. Because of this, Xerxes was recognized as having a stronger and more legitimate claim to the throne. Xerxes was crowned and assumed power between October and December of 486 BC when he was approximately 32 years old. He was married to Princess Amestris, the daughter of Otanes, and their children included Darius, Hystaspes, and Artaxerxes I.

From the moment of his coronation, a great responsibility fell upon Xerxes not only to govern the vast Persian Empire but also to complete his father’s unfinished goal of conquering Greece. To achieve this, he assembled a huge military force, considered the largest and best-equipped up to that time. According to Herodotus, Xerxes had the clear objective of finishing what his father had started, but before doing so, he had to address some internal unrest left behind by the previous reign.

His first major challenge was suppressing a revolt in Egypt that Darius had failed to resolve. This uprising had occurred largely due to the imposition of heavy taxes and the forced deportation of artisans for the construction of royal palaces. Using a large army, Xerxes managed to crush the revolt in January 484 BC and subsequently appointed his brother Achaemenes as the new satrap of Egypt.

Soon after, another revolt arose in Babylon. Historically, Babylon held a special status within the Persian Empire, so much so that Xerxes’ predecessors proudly bore the title “King of Babylon.” However, Xerxes acted defiantly and broke these established traditions. He dropped the traditional title, preferring to style himself simply as the king of the Persians and Medes, treating Babylonians merely as subordinates. This shift likely sparked the Babylonian revolts in 484 BC. Following a long siege, Xerxes successfully conquered the city, ordered its fortifications to be destroyed, damaged several temples, and melted down the golden statue of Mardu.

With the empire finally brought into relative peace, Xerxes turned his full attention toward Greece. After four years of meticulous preparation, he gathered an immense number of men, alongside sufficient supplies and weapons. In the spring of 480 BC, Xerxes set sail with a massive fleet and an army that Herodotus estimated at roughly one million men, which included an elite detachment of 10,000 warriors known as the Immortals. Departing from Sardis, they marched toward the pass of Thermopylae on the east coast.

Xerxes played a central role in the ensuing conflict, leading his massive forces into mainland Greece and posing a severe threat to the independent Greek city-states. However, he severely underestimated the determination and skill of the Greek warriors at Thermopylae, initially sending a large part of his army to subdue a surprisingly small defending force. This created an opportunity for effective, legendary resistance under the Spartan king Leonidas. Although the Greek forces demonstrated exceptional bravery and held the pass for three days, a local Greek named Ephialtes revealed a secret mountain path to the Persians, allowing them to outflank the defenders. Following this breakthrough, Xerxes captured Athens, which the Athenians had largely evacuated, and burned the city to the ground.

In September 480 BC, eager for a decisive naval victory, Xerxes was persuaded to confront the Greek fleet in the narrow waters of the Strait of Salamis. Although Artemisia of Carcassonne, an allied commander, advised against the engagement, Xerxes fell right into a clever psychological trap set by the Athenian general Themistocles. Themistocles had sent a false messenger to Xerxes, claiming that the Greek allies were divided and planning to flee, and suggested that blocking the strait would secure an easy victory. Eager for triumph, Xerxes took the bait and ordered his fleet to blockade the narrow channel. The confined space completely neutralized the Persian numerical advantage, allowing the nimble Greek fleet to inflict devastating losses.

Realizing the setback, Xerxes opted for a strategic retreat back to Asia, fearing that the Greeks might destroy the pontoon bridges across the Hellespont. He returned to his capital at Susa, leaving the remainder of the invasion in the hands of his trusted general and cousin, Mardonius. Despite the naval disaster, Mardonius still commanded a colossal land army and attempted to break the fragile Greek alliance through diplomacy and continued warfare. However, the superior tactical skill of the united Greek forces ultimately dashed all Persian ambitions of conquest. At the Battle of Plataea, Mardonius was killed, and the remaining Persian troops, suffering from famine and disease, were forced to retreat all the way back to Sardis with only a fraction of the grand army that had once marched out.

Years later, the Greeks, led by Pausanias of Sparta, launched counterattacks to liberate Greek colonies in Asia Minor. In response, Xerxes began mobilizing a new force to protect his regional interests. However, in 466 BC, a brilliant Greek commander named Cimon achieved an astonishing double victory at the Battle of Eurymedon on the southern coast of Asia Minor, destroying the Persian fleet at sea and subsequently defeating the Persian land forces on the beach on the very same day. This crushing defeat effectively sealed the fate of Persian military ambitions in the Aegean.

With no further hope of expanding his empire, Xerxes redirected his time, energy, and vast resources toward monumental construction projects. He spent exorbitant sums on building magnificent structures in Susa and Persepolis, surpassing even the works of his father Darius, and heavily invested in maintaining the extensive imperial communication networks, notably the Royal Road. However, to fund these grand architectural endeavors, Xerxes implemented crushing taxes and tributes across the provinces. This heavy financial burden generated widespread unrest, resentment, and a deeply unstable political climate among his subjects.

Finally, in August 465 BC, a shocking palace conspiracy shook the Achaemenid Empire to its core. Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard and a powerful court figure, assassinated Xerxes. According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, Artabanus first murdered Xerxes’ eldest son, Darius, and then killed the king himself. Upon discovering the horrific murders of his father and brother, Artaxerxes, Xerxes’ third son, hunted down and executed Artabanus along with his co-conspirators, successfully reclaiming the throne.

Even after his death, Xerxes maintained a heavily tarnished and cruel reputation in Western history, largely shaped by negative accounts from Greek sources like Herodotus. More than a century later, Alexander the Great launched his invasion of Persia with a personal desire for vengeance, specifically targeting Xerxes’ palace in Persepolis as retribution for the burning of Athens. Thus, Xerxes left behind a complex, polarizing legacy as a magnificent yet tyrannical monarch of the ancient world, whose grand ambitions ultimately redefined the course of history.