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Xerxes the Great, also known as Xerxes I of Persia, (Old Persian: Xšayāršā) (reigned 485–465 BCE) was a Zoroastrian Persian Shahanshah (Emperor) of the Achaemenid Empire. He was the son of Darius the Great and Atossa and a descendent of Cyrus the Great. He succeeded his father in 486 BCE with a very smooth transition of power challenged by no subject nation of the Achaemenid Empire.
He is famous for leading the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BCE. Xerxes set out in the spring of 480 BCE from Sardis with a fleet and army which Herodotus claimed was more than two million strong with at least 10,000 elite warriors named Persian Immortals. Xerxes was victorious during the initial battles.
At the Battle of Thermopylae, a small force of warriors, 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians resisted the much larger Persian forces but were ultimately defeated. According to Herodotus, the Persians broke the Spartan phalanx after a Greek man called Ephialtes betrayed his country by telling the Persians of another pass around the mountains. After Thermopylae, Athens was captured and the Athenians and Spartans were driven back to their last line of defense at the Isthmus of Corinth and in the Saronic Gulf.
According to Herodotus, upon encountering the deserted city of Athens, in an uncharacteristic fit of rage particularly for Persian kings, Xerxes had Athens burned. He almost immediately regretted this action and ordered it rebuilt the very next day. Xerxes considered the capture of Athens as the only major mistake in his military career.
Xerxes was induced by the message of Themistocles (against the advice of Artemisia of Halicarnassus) to attack the Greek fleet under unfavourable conditions, rather than sending a part of his fleet to the Peloponnesus and awaiting the dissolution of the Greek armies. The Battle of Salamis (September 29, 480 BCE) was won by the Greek fleet. Due to unrest in Babylon, Xerxes was forced to send his army home to prevent a revolt, leaving behind an army in Greece under Mardonius who was defeated the following year at Plataea. The Greeks also attacked and burned the remaining Persian fleet anchored at Mycale. This cut off the Persians from the supplies they needed to sustain their massive army, and they had no choice but to retreat.
After the military blunders in Greece, Xerxes returned to Persia and completed the many construction projects left unfinished by his father at Susa and Persepolis. He built the Gate of all Nations and the Hall of a Hundred Columns at Persepolis, which are the largest and most imposing structures of the palace. He completed the Apadana, the Palace of Darius and the Treasury all started by Darius as well as building his own palace which was twice the size of his father's. His taste in architecture was similar to that of Darius though on an even more gigantic scale. He also maintained the Royal Road built by his father, completed the Susa Gate and built a palace at Susa.
In 465 BCE Xerxes was murdered by his counsellor, Artabanus, and was succeeded by his son Artaxerxes I.
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