In the twenty years between 499BC and 479BC,
Greeks and Persians fought in a series of battles that are known as the Persian
Wars. Those city-states of mainland Greece who formed the Hellenic League to
defend Greece were ultimately victorious, a victory that had hardly seemed
possible in 500BC. The Greeks celebrated the victory in plays, songs,
literature and in their art. In Greek history, the Persian Wars became, for the
Greeks, a heroic struggle against great odds. As the face of the Persian Wars, Xerxes
I, King of Persia, has been characterised at the most enthralling personality
of study from the Persian Wars. Principally, of interest, is his period of
reign as King in the Achaemenid Empire, a dynasty that took its name from Achaemenes, its
founder. The Achaemenid Persian empire was the largest that the ancient world
had seen, extending from Anatolia and Egypt across wester Asia to northern
India and Central Asia
As King of
Persia, Xerxes, unlike his father and Cyrus the Great, Xerxes ruled foreign
lands with a heavy hand. In 485BC, he put down in a revolt in Egypt, and “ruthlessly ignored Egyptian forms of rule
and imposed his will on the rebellious province in a thoroughly Persian style,”
the Iran Chamber society explains. Suppressing numerous revolts in the empire,
many wanted to seek revenge for the great loss that Darius had suffered at the
Battle of Marathon in 490BC, thus the impressionable Xerxes gave way to
pressure from his entourage and threw himself into patient diplomatic and
military preparations for war. However, despite his highly successful
building career, particularly as Persepolis, Xerxes, was regarded with a
perception that did not befit the titles he considered of himself: as an
apparent successful administrator, this counteracts his notoriety and military
ineptitude, impacts his titles and kingship.