Xerxes

Xerxes on a relief of Darius I the Great. Originally at the north stairs of the apadana of Persepolis, now in the National Archaeological Museum, Tehran (Iran) Xerxes: Achaemenid king of the Persian Empire, ruled from 486 to 465.

Relatives:

• Father: Darius I the Great
• Mother: Atossa
• Wife: Amestris
• Sons: Darius, Artaxerxes, Hystaspes, Achaemenes
• Daughters: Amytis (married to Megabyzus)

Main deeds:

• Accession between 17 November and 1 December 486
• 484: Suppression of the revolts of Šamaš-eriba and Bêl-šimânni in Babylonia and a rebellion in Egypt
• 481: in Sardes
• 480: Greek war: victories at Thermopylae and Artemisium, sack of Athens, setback at Salamis
• 480/479: in Sardes (probably to keep an eye on unquiet Babylon)
• 479: Mardonius defeated at Plataea
• On his return from the west, Xerxes captures Babylon again (?)
• 8 March 473: Date of Esther and Mordecai's saving of the Jews, according to Esther
• Murdered between 4 and 8 August 465

Sources:

• Gandj Nameh: XE
• Ecbatana: XH
• Halicarnassus: vase
• Persepolis: XPa, XPb, XPc, XPd, XPe, XPf ("harem inscription"), XPg, XPh ("daiva inscription"), XPi, XPj, XPk, XPl, XPm
• Susa: XSa, XSb, XSc, XSd, XSe
• Van: XV
• Seals, vase
• Aeschylus, The Persians
• Diodorus of Sicily, Library of World History, Book 11
  
• Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Histories
• Esther
  

Buildings:

• Naqš-i Rustam: Tomb 4 (?)
• Persepolis: Completion of Palace of Darius, north stairs of Apadana, Gate and Stairs of All Nations, Palace of Xerxes, Harem, Southern Buildings, Tripylon

Succeeded by: Artaxerxes I Makrocheir

Compare

• Xerxes killing a Greek hoplite