Xerxes Got a Bum Rap Advent Calendar [15] Quiz

Answer:

Xerxes was born around 518 BC, and was the fourth king of the Achaemenid Empire. Interestingly, he was not the first born son of his father, Darius I. His mother, however, seems to have sealed the deal for Xerxes to be chosen as his father's heir; she was the daughter of Cyrus the Great - THE Cyrus the Great, who is commonly credited with being the founder of the First Persian Empire. In addition, Xerxes was born after his father became King of Kings, so he was "born to the purple". This means that while Xerxes was not the oldest son, he was the oldest born while Darius was king. Since the oldest, Artobazan, was born to a commoner, it seemed like Xerxes was the best choice. Darius was organizing a campaign to Egypt, and had to make a choice before he left. As it turned out, Darius never made it to Egypt, as he was already experiencing ill health; he died in October 486 BC, leaving the Egyptian problem to Xerxes.

Darius had been the one who started the revolt in Egypt with his high taxes and deportation of Egyptian workers to Babylon, however, by the time Xerxes became king it seemed serious enough that he had to lead the army. By early 484 BC, Xerxes had successfully ended the revolt in Egypt, appointed one of his brothers, Achaemenes, as satrap, and returned home. By then there was revolt in Babylon, and the old grudge against Greece left to handle, but his army needed some beefing up before anything else could happen. It would be some time before settling the score with Greece could even be considered.

Two revolts broke out in Babylon - one in June or July 484 BC, which only lasted a couple of weeks; the other began during the summer of 482 BC, and required a lengthy siege of Babylon. Why? Modern historians believe it had to do with the high taxes demanded by the Persians. Whatever the cause, ancient writers said that Babylon was harshly punished. Xerxes dropped his title King of Babylon during this time. It is thought that previous rulers had adopted the title to give Babylon a more honorary status that other locations within the empire. If that was the case, dropping the title was a severe punishment.

In addition, it appears that while he was in Babylon Xerxes also defaced some of the city's temples, including the Temple of Marduk, the city's patron deity. He also was said to have removed the statue of Marduk from the temple and possibly took it from the city. Herodotus said he carried the statue away from the city, while other ancient writers implied that he had it had been melted down. Writings on cuneiform tablets substantiate the fact that Babylon lost its political prestige at the time; it was not to be restored until the conquest of Alexander the Great. (I must say that there has been an amazing amount of discussion in modern times regarding exactly which statue was taken and what Xerxes did, but I think the fact that he did something to punish Babylon has been established).

While his father had been plotting his revenge on the Greeks, Xerxes was the one who carried it out. First, the Xerxes Canal was dug through the base of the Mount Athos Peninsula by his engineer, Atachaees. According to Herodotus, this had been done because the Persians had lost an entire fleet while circumnavigating the peninsula during the first invasion of Greece. Herodotus thought this act was also motivated by Xerxes' pride. It took three years to build the canal.

Xerxes also had two pontoon bridges built across the Persian-controlled Hellespont, which would allow for his troops to cross. Alas, a storm destroyed them before they could be used. In his rage, Xerxes ordered that the builders be beheaded, and the Hellespont be whipped, according to Herodotus, with "300 lashes of a scourge, and that a pair of fetters should be let down into the sea". New bridges were quickly constructed. The invasion had begun!

At the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, an alliance of mostly Spartans and other Greeks, led by Leonidas, tried to hold the mountain pass of Thermopylae to further block the Persian entry into Greece. A group of about 7,000 men blocked a Persian army of undetermined size - some say as many as 120,000-300,000, others say a million - from using the pass for seven days. A Greek traitor, Ephialtes, told the Persians about a path that led behind Greek lines. Leonidas knew his army could not continue the fight. He dismissed all of his men, keeping only about 1,000; most of them fought to the death while trying to prevent Xerxes from passing further into Greece.

Having won - but only with the help from a traitor - Xerxes moved further into Greece. He entered the city of Athens, which had mostly been evacuated already, and killed the remaining people. Then he ordered the destruction of the great polis, burning the entire city. Years later, it would be said that Alexander the Great burned the Persian capital in retaliation for this act.

Many of the Athenians had fled to the island of Salamis, where their fleet was located. Themistocles, one of their generals, argued before a Greek council of war that an attack on the Persian navy would be successful, and it was! The smaller, more maneuverable Athenian ships easily defeated the Persian navy, and Xerxes was forced to withdraw and wait for the weather to change. One more defeat at Plataea sent him home with an army that was considerably smaller. The Persian revenge on Greece had backfired.

When Xerxes returned home, he set to finishing some of his father's building projects. He completed his father's palace at Persepolis, and built a palace about twice its size there for himself, along with a royal tomb. He also saw to it that maintenance was done on the Royal Road, the important trade route that stretched some 1677 miles (2,699 km) from Susa to Sardis.

Xerxes was killed by Artabanus, the commander of his own bodyguards, in August 465 BC. There was such a tangled web, which also resulted in the death of Xerxes' son, Darius, that it is very difficult to sort out what happened. Different historians gave different accounts of the intrigue that took place. Aristolte said that Artabanus first killed Darius, and then fearful of retaliation, he had to kill Xerxes. The Greek historian Ctesias said that Xerxes was killed first and that Artabanus accused Darius of the murder; then one of his brothers killed him for revenge. The exact cause of this intrigue remains unclear.

Was it a simple overthrow motivated by power? Was it somehow related to the exorbitant taxes that Xerxes demanded from his subjects? Did it have anything to do with an affair that Xerxes had with his son's wife? Or the affair with his niece? It could have been caused by the ordered execution of his brother and resulting execution of his brother and his family? That definitely could have weakened his authority with his family and caused his personal life to fall apart. What is known for sure is that Artabanus and one of Xerxes' generals named Megabyzus were in on the plot.

Based on our short study here, some may feel that it is difficult to conclude whether or not Xerxes got a bum rap. He lost some major battles and exorbitantly taxed his subjects, but he wasn't the only ancient ruler to do those things; however, after putting that information together and with the family intrigues, and the blatant examples of poor judgement, I have to decide in my mind that Xerxes probably got from the Babylonians and the Greeks what he deserved.

Cyrus the Great is credited with being the founder of the Persian Empire. The other accomplishments listed - constructing the Royal Road, building Persepolis, establishing the Immortals regiment, and making Zoroastrianism the state religion of the Persian Empire - are all credited to Darius the Great.