Portrait: AI-generated imagined likeness
Monarch · Military leader
A king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia who led an expedition to Greece. He succeeded Darius I and led the Second Persian War. He is a central figure in understanding the conflict between the ancient Orient empires and the Greek world.
View in catalogPersis
Birth
Greece
Campaign
Second Persian invasion of Greece
480 BC–479 BC
War · Commander
Map: Natural Earth (PD)
He was the son of Darius I and inherited the throne of the vast Achaemenid dynasty. After ascending the throne, he suppressed rebellions in Egypt and Babylonia and stabilized imperial rule.
In 480 B.C., he launched a major expedition into Greece, defeated Thermopylae, and captured Athens. However, the expedition was ultimately unsuccessful, as they were defeated at the Battle of Salamis.
Xerxes I is often portrayed in Greek sources as an arrogant tyrant. Characteristics that rely heavily on the historical sources of opponents are good material for considering bias in historical narratives.
When you study Xerxes I, you begin to see the Persian Wars not only as a victory story for a small Greek nation, but also as a relationship between a huge multi-ethnic empire and Mediterranean city-states. This can be considered in conjunction with the administrative power of the Achaemenid Dynasty and the narrative of East-West conflict created by Greek historical sources.
