Xerxes the Great: The God King of Persia

this episode is brought to you by curiosity stream a subscription streaming service that offers over 2 000 documentaries and non-fiction titles unlimited access starting at just 2.99 a month and 30 days for free if you sign up through the link below and use the code biographics more on them in a bit [Music] of all the persian kings xerxes is probably the one best remembered today thanks to his battle with 300 brave little spartans which allowed him to enter the public consciousness in a more broader sense he is known for his invasion of mainland greece which went much further than the military campaign of his father darius he saw it as a duty to fulfill his father's mission of punishing the athenians for their involvement in the ionian revolt in that regard he can be considered successful seeing as he conquered and pillaged athens even though xerxes was ultimately unable to retain his control over greece and he had to retreat back to persia defeated his reign also marks the last period of dominance for the achaemenid empire afterwards the empire's power slowly started to fade its conquering days were over and most of its efforts were focused on keeping the lands it already had until the inevitable day when it collapsed completely under the might of alexander the great [Music] xerxes or cashier if you want the persian name was born circa 518 bc as the first son of darius the great ruler of the economic empire and his wife tosa who was also the daughter of cyrus the man who founded the persian kingdom and by the way we've already done biographics on both darius and cyrus if you haven't seen them please do check them out to get a better understanding of the persian empire and also because xerxes reign picks up where darius has ended in his fight with the greeks just to give you a quick recap ever since the time of cyrus the archamine empire included greek city-states located not in greece proper but on the coast of asia minor modern-day turkey often times these cities were not actually part of the empire but were ruled by tyrants who were named by and completely subservient to the persian king in 499 bc however these cities revolted against darius with the help of a few mainland greek city-states most notably athens eventually darius managed to quell the rebellions but he also swore vengeance on the greek city-states that provided aid and that is how the first persian invasion of greece started in 492 bc the invasion ended in defeat even though darius had the early advantage the persian expedition failed following a decisive athenian victory at the battle of marathon in 490 bc this did not deter darius who started planning a second invasion immediately except that this time he would lead his troops personally something he was unable to do the first time due to his failing health his plans were put on hold though due to another revolt this time in egypt he intended to deal with both problems but he died in 486 bc before solving either one so his successor would have to pick up where he left off obviously we all know that xerxes then became the new king of the achaemenid empire but he did have some competition strictly speaking xerxes was not darius's oldest son he was the oldest son since darius took power and more importantly he was the son of a tosser who had the blood of cyrus the great in her veins but darius had three other sons by a different wife before he became king of them the oldest was art by zanes and he argued that as the eldest child of darius he deserved to be king darius himself was not sure what to do and he took counsel strangely enough from a greek not just any greek but a former spartan king named demiratus who was forced to flee his native land and received asylum in persia the spartan advised darius taking the side of xerxes and arguing that arter zanes would not have the royal prerogative because when he was born both him and his father were still commoners darius was in agreement and named xerxes to be his successor all of this information comes to us courtesy of well who else but good old herodotus and he personally opined that even without demaratus intervention darius was still likely to put xerxes on the throne due to the power and influence of a tosser so sometime in late 486 bc xerxes became the new king and his ascension went smoothly without any challenges he then wrote down the facts in a famous inscription to set the record straight saith xerxes the king other sons of darius there were thus under uhura mazda was the desire darius my father made me the greatest after himself when my father darius went away from the throne by the will of aramazda i became king on my father's throne now that xerxes ruled over the academic empire he had important matters to attend to the greeks would have to wait as first that was the matter of the egyptian revolt this did not prove overly difficult xerxes already had an army at the ready as his father mustered it an anticipation of going to war against athens we do not have too many details about this military campaign but the persian king was able to put down the rebellion in a single expedition in 485 bc he was much harsher with his conquered foes than his predecessors imposing ruthless punishments on the egyptians and leaving his brother arkhamenis behind to govern the province the following year there was another rebellion this time in babylon led by a man named bel shamani again xerxes marched his army and put down this uprising in just a matter of weeks two years later in 482 bc babylon rebelled once more under shamash ariba who declared himself the new king although this revolt was also defeated it proved more durable than the first one and required a month's long siege of the city ancient sources tell us that xerxes was severe in his punishment of babylon and ended the special relationship this once great empire had with the persians up until that point ever since it had been conquered by cyrus babylon was regarded as one of the accommodate empire's greatest possessions the ruler always used the title king of babylon in inscriptions and the persian king also took part in babylonian religious rights every new year by traveling to the city to take the hands of the statue of marduk the babylonian god placed inside the city's main temple the esagila this all ended under xerxes he had the temples pillaged and allegedly even removed the statue of marduk and brought it to persia to be melted down since then he also no longer used the title king of babylon in inscriptions instead referring to himself as king of the persians and the medes now that all the internal strife was dealt with it was finally time to take on the greeks or was it classical sources like herodotus made xerxes to be very undecided regarding the path he should take we cannot say how accurate this portrayal was but it indicated that the king alternated at least three times between war and peace at first xerxes wanted war mainly persuaded by mardonias his cousin and one of his closest allies his arguments were that the greeks had to be punished for what they did to the persians but also that the greek mainland had rich and beautiful lands worthy of no mortal master but the king decided xerxes held an assembly with all his nobles and told them of his plans he said for myself ever since i came to this throne i have taken thought how best i shall not fall short in this honorable place of those that went before me and my thought persuades me that we may win not only renown but a land neither less nor worse but more fertile than which we now possess for this cause i have now summoned you together that i may impart to you my purpose it is my intent to bridge the hellspons and take my army through europe to hellus that i may punish the athenians for what they have done to the persians and to my father he is dead and it was not granted him to punish them and i on his and all the persian's behalf will never rest till i have taken and burnt athens for the unprovoked wrong that its people did to my father and me madonius again spoke up to applaud the king's decision the other noblemen were quiet except for an uncle of xerxes named artabanus who advised him to reconsider years prior artabanus had told darius the same thing when he wanted to go to war against the scythians and now xerxes wanted to do the same against a much more powerful foe an army made up of the most doubty warriors by sea and land the king was greatly angered by artabana saying that it was only because he was his father's brother that he escaped punishment for his insolence it seemed that xerxes had made his decision but that night he had a vision which caused him to change his mind and the next day claimed that he would not march against greece and instead would abide in peace but then the next night he had another vision which offered xerxes a prophecy saying that if he did not lead his armies the things that made him great and mighty would disappear and he would be brought low again this vision so greatly frightened the persian king that he went to his uncle artabanus to tell him about it and then ask him to wear the royal robes and sleep in the royal bed the advisor did so and the same prophetic dream came to him warning again of terrible things that would befall xerxes if he did not go to war and so finally artabanus himself changed his mind and from then on the persian king became intense on invading and conquering greece and look if you're enjoying today's video well then let me tell you about today's sponsor who i think you will also enjoy curiosity stream is a subscription streaming service that offers over 2 000 documentaries and non-fiction titles from some of the world's best filmmakers including exclusive originals now if you're enjoying this video if you're enjoying biographics in general to be honest then why not try out curiosity stream and check out one of their number of documentaries about history's greatest empires look if you like this video you're going to like that as well just go over to their platform punch in empire or empires whatever you like and a lot of options are going to populate for you you will find something that you will enjoy curiosity streams available on many platforms web app roku android xbox one smart tv ios chromecast amazon fire amazon kindle and apple tv and it's available worldwide so none of that geo-restriction nonsense you get unlimited access starting at just 2.99 and for you guys the first 30 days are completely free just sign up through the link below use the promo code biographics and you'll be good to go it's a great way to support the show keeps me making more videos and i couldn't think of a better fit for sponsorship than curiositystream for this channel and let's get back to it even though xerxes had finally made up his mind he did not charge headfirst into battle instead he spent years in preparation the initial challenge was simply getting to greece in one piece first the army had to cross from asia into thrace by traversing the dardanelle strait known back then as hell spawned according to herodotus xerxes had the egyptians and phoenicians built two bridges that connected to sardis the former capital of lydia to another city named abaddos on the other side of the strait however those bridges were broken and swept away by a furious storm so great was the anger of the king when he found out that he not only had the builders executed but also ordered his men to give 300 whiplashes to the hellspont itself and drop a pair of manacles into the water to symbolize that even the sea itself must obey the will of xerxes afterwards he had two pontoon bridges built which proved to be sturdier and more reliable and in 480 bc the persians crossed the strait into europe in this race the army went two ways part by land and part by sea however xerxes was careful to avoid a lethal mistake made by one of his father's generals during the first invasion of greece athos was not a large peninsula but the waters around it were treacherous so when the fleet went around it it was caught in a storm and destroyed to avoid having the same thing happened to him xerxes ordered his men to build a canal through the isthmus had connected the peninsula to the mainland obviously over the course of millennia the xerxes canal was completely buried in sediment but it was actually found recently using aerial photography it remains one of the few traces of the persian invasion of european soil but it also serves as a nice reminder that herodotus occasionally knew what he was talking about and speaking of herodotus the historian claimed that the army assembled by xerxes was the largest in existence unlike anything the world had seen before it contained soldiers from all over asia of 30 different ethnicities and that did not take into account the numerous thracian tribes that xerxes encountered on his way to greece which were added to his numbers either willingly or by force however we cannot provide you with inaccurate as the size of the army is still hotly debated and the estimates are all over the place from a few hundred thousand soldiers as proposed by modern scholars to a few million based on ancient sources either way this was an army that no greek city-state hoped to take on a loan the greeks however had not been dawdling this whole time ever since they repelled the first persian invasion under darius they knew it was only a matter of time before a new one would come the athenians in particular who were xerxes main target had been busy building up their fleet for an unrelated war with another city-state named ajina however in 481 bc when they heard that the persian army was on the move dozens of greek city-states held a council in corinth and decided to put aside all their feuds and deal with this major threat many other city-states wanted no part of it and instead paid tribute to xerxes when he sent fourth ambassadors asking for earth and water hoping that his issues with greece would not involve them only two city-states were never given this option because xerxes omitted them from the start those states were athens and sparta halfway through 480 bc xerxes had his first major encounter and this is the famous one that everybody has heard about the battle of thermopylae where 300 spartans led by king leonidas staged a daring last stand fighting bravely to guard the coastal pass of thermopylae also called the hot gates in the end the vastly superior numbers of the persian army proved too much to overcome and all the spartans fell in battle if you're familiar with this event it's probably because of the movie 300 or the comic book series it was based on however those two helped create a few prevalent myths about the battle of thermopylae and we're not just talking about showing xerxes as a seven foot giant with a thing for gold piercings undoubtedly the biggest myth is that the 300 spartans were there alone in fact they weren't not even close the spartans might have been in charge of the defense but they were joined by about a dozen other greek groups including thespians thebians arcadians and ficians in total there were around six thousand to seven thousand greeks at the battle of thermopylae as for the persians well we don't know a lot more than that certainly as herodotus claims that just their casualties number twenty thousand men a crucial role in the battle was played by ephelaltis this was the spartan who betrayed his people and told xerxes of a secret trail that allowed his soldiers to flank the enemy he was actually real but he was not a deformed spartan who resented his compatriots because he could not fight alongside them he wasn't a spartan at all in fact he was part of a greek group called the mallians who lived in the city-state of trakkus lastly a lot of sources mythologized this battle and portrayed the greeks as willingly undertaking a suicide mission where they knew from the start that they had no chance of winning again this is not true if there were truly only 300 spartans maybe but it would have made absolutely no sense to sacrifice a whole army of 7000 soldiers for no reason this is evidenced by the fact that once the greeks realized that the persians were flanking them most of their remaining forces retreated that is when leonidas and his spartans decided to stay behind and form a rear guard in order to give everyone else time to escape they still were not alone though the thespians and the photians also stayed behind to fight so they deserve some credit too the thebans also stayed but eventually surrendered finally while this is not a myth it is an important aspect that is often forgotten while the land battle of thermopylae was going on the greeks and the persians were simultaneously engaged in an important naval conflict known as the battle of artemisium the bulk of the greek forces was provided by athens since they had the strongest fleet aided by corinth magara ajina chalkis sparta and others the battle was not a crushing defeat for the greeks like the mopoli but they still were able to stop the advance of the persians following these two encounters xerxes had gained control over the regions of euboya boisha and fosus and and most importantly he had a clear route attica where athens was located in september 480 bc xerxes entered athens the city had been mostly abandoned with athenians fleeing to aegina and salamus just a few remained to try and protect the acropolis but they were easily defeated xerxes was finally able to fulfill the vow first made by his father to punish the athenians for their interference in the ionian revolt almost two decades prior he had the city burned and pillaged athenian symbols like the pantheon and the temple of athena were raised to the ground although these would be rebuilt a few decades later by pericles bigger and better than ever so far everything seemed to go in xerxes favor all the remaining greek forces had gathered on the peloponnesian peninsula in the south of greece which on foot could only have been accessed by crossing the narrow isthmus of corinth however the greeks took steps to ensure this would not happen as they destroyed the only road and directed a wall in its place if xerxes were to continue his conquest of greece he would have to do it by water strategically it would have been wiser to wait out the greeks by creating a blockade to surround their navy concentrated around salamis and to allow each group of people to slowly disband and return to their own cities in fact one of the persian king's allies queen artemisia of carrier advised him to do just this however his other generals and indeed xerxes himself were sure of victory with one giant show of force at sea after all his fleet was bigger consisted of better ships and at the tactical advantage the battle of salamis took place sometime in late september 480 bc and it was a shocking and brutal defeat for the persians that completely turned the tide of the campaign in favor of the greeks unfortunately none of the classical sources gave a detailed account of the battle so we don't know what bold and brilliant military strategies the greeks employed to secure the unlikely victory herodotus mainly credits his countrymen for being orderly and determined while the persian army was much more chaotic and disorganized which he sees as the reason that they should come to such an end as befell them to illustrate his point he tells the story of the aforementioned artemisia who while being chased by an athenian trireme rammed and destroyed a friendly ship to convince her pursuers that she was on their side the vessel she sank had on board the king of calendars who died in the water another early casualty at the start of the battle was ariebignies a brother of xerxes and the admiral leading the phoenician fleet whose death caused a lot of panic and loss of morale among the persian navy didorus gives a lot of credit to the athenians for the role they played in the victory which is not surprising considering they accounted for over half of the entire greek fleet also noteworthy were the magerians and the aganetians who were considered the best seamen after the athenians and alone formed the right wing of the greek forces the location of the battle also played an important role the passage inside the strait of salamis was too narrow for the advancing persian line which had to withdraw ships and reorganize mid-battle thus leading to the general chaos and confusion which ended in their downfall this shocking upset forced xerxes to completely reconsider his next move he did not want to spend the winter in greece and then another season campaigning while neglecting the rest of his empire he also feared that the greek navy might make its way up north and destroy the bridges he had built to cross the helspont thus trapping his land army in europe therefore he decided to take a large part of his army and make his way home leaving his elite infantry and his cavalry under the command of his general mardonius to keep the pressure on in mainland greece this strategy did not end well for the persians after winter passed they were on the war path again but so were the greeks who had time to reorganize and strengthen their forces the greek army mainly consisted of spartans athenians and corinthians although over a dozen other cities also contributed soldiers the two sides met at the battle of patea sometime during the summer of 479 bc again it was a triumphant victory for the greeks decisive enough that it drove the persians away from the greek mainland at the same time the greek fleet made its way to asia miner to execute a pre-emptive strike on the remaining persian navy station there instead of a naval battle the persians coerced the greeks into coming on land but this tactic was in vain at the battle of mikhail the greeks delivered a final crushing blow to their opponents effectively ending the persian invasion afterwards the spartans and the rest of the peloponnese sailed home considering their mission a success the athenians and other city-states pressed on with a counter-attack to liberate the greeks in ionia as well it's hard to tell how xerxes perceived his military campaign in greece obviously it didn't end like he wanted but he did accomplish his stated goal which was to punish athens it would have been possible for him to rebuild his army and try again in a few years but from that point on he seemed more concerned with internal matters ensuring that he maintained control over his possessions in the middle east and northern africa he also became a prolific builder during this time mainly in persepolis and susa he completed the unfinished projects of his father and started his own the appendana the gate of all nations the takara palace the citadel the gardens the canals of persepolis they were all finished during the 15 years that followed xerxes did have one last attempt in 466 bc when he tried to regain control of the ionian states in asia minor if he had succeeded he would have likely considered a third invasion but he was defeated at the battle of uramidon by a greek alliance known as the delian league and he gave up whatever plans that he might have had even if he did intend on a new invasion he would not have had the opportunity to go through with it because he was assassinated the following year in 465 bc both xerxes and desire crowned prince darius were killed by an official named artabanus the circumstances are somewhat unclear some sources say that the politician first killed darius and fearing the wrath of xerxes arranged for the king's death as well others say that artabanus first had xerxes guild and made it look like darius was responsible and got him executed either way the king's other son artaxerxes ascended to the throne of persia and upon discovering the treachery of artabanus had him and his sons all executed so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button please also don't forget to check out our fantastic sponsor curiosity stream linked to below and thank you for watching you

Channel: Biographics

Views: 841,938

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler, Xerxes, Achaemenid Persia, Achaeminid Empire, Xerxes the Great, 300 Spartans, Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas of Sparta, Leonidas, Greece vs Persia, Battle of Plataea

Id: OGXl5vYP094

Length: 22min 29sec (1349 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 07 2020