Xerxes I, or Khshayarsha, ruled the Achaemenid Empire from 486 to 465 BCE. He inherited an immense, multi-ethnic realm from Darius I, suppressed revolts in Egypt and Babylon early on, then launched the famous campaign against mainland Greece in 480 BCE. At home he completed and expanded royal building programmes at Persepolis and Susa, leaving inscriptions and architecture that still define Achaemenid court spectacle.
Quick facts
- Reign: 486 to 465 BCE
- Capitals: Persepolis, Susa, Ecbatana, Babylon
- Signature works: Gate of All Nations and the Hadish (Xerxes’ palace) at Persepolis
- Primary sources: Royal trilingual inscriptions and Greek historians, especially Herodotus
- Famous campaign: Second Persian invasion of Greece, 480 to 479 BCE
Arms and armour
Achaemenid military equipment combined imperial iconography with practical kit drawn from many subject peoples.
Core equipment
- Composite bow and quiver, short akinakes sword, spear, and wicker shield used by sparabara formations. Reliefs from Persepolis show archers, spearmen and nobles wearing long tunics with the akinakes at the hip.
- Scale armour in bronze and iron is archaeologically attested from Persepolis. Excavation reports list spearheads, sword blades and fragments of scale armour from the Treasury area.
- Cavalry fought with javelins, bows and short swords. Heavy scale for horse and rider appears in literary sources, though most Achaemenid horsemen likely wore lighter protection suited to skirmishing and pursuit.
Elite troops
- The Immortals were a 10,000-strong guard corps noted by Herodotus, probably Persians with Medes and Elamites, kept at a fixed paper strength and deployed as the king’s core infantry. Their dress and weapons match the courtly guard imagery found at Susa and Persepolis.
What we do not see
- Scythed chariots are largely absent from the Greek campaign narratives and the Achaemenid visual programme at Persepolis, which emphasises foot guards, archers and dignitary escorts rather than chariot warfare.
Battles and military acumen
Securing the empire, 486 to 484 BCE. Xerxes faced major unrest on accession. He crushed revolt in Egypt, reorganised the satrapy, and also suppressed Babylonian uprisings. This consolidation enabled the later Greek expedition.
The Greek campaign, 480 to 479 BCE.
- Preparation and logistics. Years of stockpiling depots across Thrace, inspection at Doriskos, and two headline engineering works: a navigable canal cut across Mount Athos and pontoon bridges over the Hellespont. Recent surveys have confirmed the Athos canal’s line and scale.
- Operations. Victories at Thermopylae and Artemisium opened Attica. Athens was taken and burned, leaving an identifiable destruction layer on the Acropolis. The Persian fleet then fought at Salamis, where restrictive waters neutralised numerical advantage and the Greeks won a decisive victory. Xerxes withdrew to Asia, leaving Mardonius with a picked force, which was defeated at Plataea while the Persian fleet lost at Mycale.
Judging the commander. Xerxes showed formidable capacity for imperial-scale logistics and engineering, moving a vast coalition army with prepared supply chains and remarkable infrastructure. Strategically, the choice to fight at Salamis and the subsequent partial withdrawal ceded initiative to the Greeks. Modern estimates for Persian strength are lower than ancient figures but still point to overwhelming resources that were not converted into a lasting conquest.
Court, ideology and inscriptions
Xerxes’ inscriptions repeat and extend Darius’ royal formulae: piety to Ahura Mazda, legitimate succession, and imperial universalism in Old Persian, Elamite and Babylonian.
- At Persepolis, trilingual texts at the Gate of All Nations explicitly credit Xerxes with building and completing the monument.
- The Ganjnameh rock texts near Hamadan pair nearly identical proclamations of Darius and Xerxes at a key mountain pass used on royal moves to the summer capital.
- The debated Daiva inscription at Persepolis presents Xerxes as restorer of order against rebellion and impiety, and remains central to discussions of his religious policy.
Where to see artefacts from Xerxes’ reign
- Persepolis, Iran. The terrace preserves the Gate of All Nations with Xerxes’ trilingual inscriptions and the remains of the Hadish palace.
- Ganjnameh, near Hamadan, Iran. Two monumental trilingual rock inscriptions, one of Darius and one of Xerxes, carved into Mount Alvand.
- Van Fortress, Türkiye. The high-set trilingual Xerxes inscription on the cliff of Van Castle, begun as a niche by Darius and completed under Xerxes.
- The Met, New York. Jar with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages, an Egyptian alabaster vessel inscribed with “Xerxes, Great King.”
- British Museum, London. Calcite jar fragment with Xerxes’ quadrilingual titulature, and related Achaemenid court pieces.
- Louvre, Paris. Frieze of Archers from Darius’ palace at Susa, a key comparator for Achaemenid guard costume, arms and parade imagery seen under Xerxes.
- ISAC (Oriental Institute), Chicago. Colossal bull head capital from Persepolis’ Hundred-Columns Hall, a signature element of the architectural setting completed across Xerxes’ reign and after.
Latest archaeology and conservation
- Mount Athos canal confirmation. Recent surveys and remote sensing renewed confidence in the line, width and depth of Xerxes’ Athos canal.
- New inscription fragment at Persepolis. In 2022, curators identified a fragmentary Elamite inscription attributed to Xerxes among reserve holdings.
- Persepolis conservation, 2025. Iranian authorities reported restoration work resuming on the Apadana precinct and associated royal monuments, part of ongoing site management that includes areas linked to Xerxes’ court.
- Material culture of war. The Persepolis Treasury excavations remain a touchstone for Achaemenid arms, with published finds of iron weapons and scale armour fragments.
Xerxes’ legacy in perspective
Xerxes ruled at the scale of an empire that touched three continents. In Greece he failed to secure a decisive strategic outcome, yet the campaign reshaped Athenian and Spartan politics and forged a durable Greek memory of Persian power. At home his building works, inscriptions and ritual court life sustained the Achaemenid image of universal kingship. The stones of Persepolis, the cliff texts at Ganjnameh and Van, and the small, exquisite jars carrying his name still carry that message.
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