Xerxes
Episode 13 Xerxes Becomes King
The Persian Empire
Dr John W I Lee (2012)
Film Review
Xerxes was born in 515 BC, son of Darius I’s second wife. Like most Persian nobles, Xerxes had 20 years of military training starting from age five. He learned archery and how to hunt, grow plants and collect herbs. He was also sent to survive in the wilderness.
In 486 BC Darius I departed Persepolis to put down a revolt in Egypt and appointed Xerxes (who had governed Babylonia for a decade) as crown prince over his older half brothers. Darius I died a year later under unclear circumstances. Immediately after assuming the throne, Xerxes departed for Egypt, suppressed the revolt and appointed his brother Achimedes the Egyptian governor. An extremely harsh ruler, the latter only provoked further rebellion.
in 484 BC there was a revolt in Babylon after Xerxes carried off the official statue of the Babylonian god Marduk. Xerxes crushed the revolt and significantly reduced Babylonian autonomy.
Xerxes was notorious for holding lavish banquets hosting thousands guests. The latter dined on wheat, barley, apples, pomegranates, grapes, garlic, onions, capers, ducks geese, grape and palm wine, lamb, beef, turtle doves, ducks geese while entertained by flautists and harpists.
According to Dr Lee, the Greek playwright Aeschylus and the Greek historian Herodotus portray Xerxes as the most decadent and despotic of the Persian kings. However referring to him as Ahasurus, the bibical books of Daniel and Esther speak very favorably of his reign.
The Most Revolutionary Act 