Makers of History – Xerxes: Biographies of Famous People for Children

Xerxes I of Persia (/ˈzɜːrksiːz/; Old Persian: 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 x-š-y-a-r-š-a (About this sound Khashayarsha (help·info)), meaning "ruling over heroes",[1] Greek Ξέρξης [ksérksɛːs], Hebrew אֲחַשְׁוֵרוֹשׁ Hebrew pronunciation: [ˀaxaʃweroʃ] (519–465 BC), also known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth of the king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire. He ruled from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC at the hands of Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard.


Xerxes I is most likely the Persian king identified as Ahasuerus in the biblical Book of Esther.[2][3][4] He is also notable in Western history for his invasion of Greece in 480 BC. Like his predecessor Darius I, he ruled the empire at its territorial apex, although Xerxes I would briefly manage to conquer even more land of mainland Greece than Darius I through the battles at Thermopylae and Artemisium, overrunning Attica, Boeotia, Euboea, Thessaly,[5] and the rest of mainland Greece to the north of the Isthmus of Corinth,[6] until the losses at Salamis and Plataea which reversed these gains and would eventually end the second invasion decisively.