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This chapter provides an overview of the Persian Empire during Xerxes's reign. After ascending the throne, Xerxes set about the business of governing his empire. The Persian Empire had been founded by Cyrus the Great, who became king of Persis in 559 B.C. It was Cyrus who created the system of satrapies, provinces, and regions ruled by a governor or satrap for the Great King. Darius I's accession in 522 represented a turning point in the history of the empire. Darius presents a new vision of the Persian Empire in his palace at Persepolis, not just Iranian but multi-national. It was under him that the Persian Empire reached its largest extent. This chapter describes the extent of the Persian Empire as well as its economy and goes on to discuss its peoples that included Greeks and Jews, Xerxes's imperial staff, the important role of doctors in the palace, and other non-Persians who occupied high positions under Xerxes.

The post-exilic period is often thought to see important developments in the food consciousness of the Israelites, usually in relation to the dietary laws. The importance of the dietary laws only comes to prominence in the Hellenistic period. Alongside this, and also prior to it, there is a growing fascination with the feasting habits of the Persians, which also contributed to the religious consciousness of Second Temple Jews. The Persians indulge in conspicuous consumption, which both fascinates and repels the writers of Jewish narrative. The characterization of the Persians is important for establishing the nature of Jewish identity, which is exhibited in a moderate attitude towards food. Similar ideas in relation to Greek identity are found in the work of Greek historians. In the Jewish writings this theme is combined with the idea of divine judgement at the table. The table, thus, becomes the place at which ungodliness or righteousness is expressed and punished or rewarded.

This chapter describes the development of the myth during the time of the Persian and Roman empires after the “sealing” of the Bible and, later, the destruction of temple in 70 CE. The return of the Judahite exiles from Babylonia under the leadership of Ezra presented the Jews of the Second Temple period with a serious theological problem: if, as promised, God allowed the return of Two tribes of Judah from exile, why didn't He bring back the remaining Ten Tribes. The problem was also geographical: if they did not return, where are they “now”? These two questions gave rise to two paralleling sets of discussions among Jewish and Christian authors and thinkers. The theological one explained that Ten Tribes were exiled to a special place “beyond” the boundaries of this world as part of their special punishment. The geographical discussion delineated the location of that special place. Both Christian and Jewish thinkers promised the return of the tribes, but framed the ultimate return from exile as part of the “end of the days.” In both discussions geographical knowledge produced in the wake of Roman and Persian imperial expansion played a key role.

In comparison with previous empires, the Persian Empire (550–330 b.c.e.) was exceptional in size, coordination, and humaneness. Equally exceptional was the contemporary blossoming of Greek culture. Together the Greeks and Persians generated an economic and cultural continuity extending from India to Italy.

This chapter continues with the pre-Islamic period and explains the tribal background with which the Imamate had to come to terms on Oman, its role in the Yaman–Nizâr civil war, and the alienation of northern Oman from the core of the Ibâḍi state. Basic relationships were rooted in the territorial distribution of Arab migration waves in eastern Arabia and the domination of the Azd and Kinda clans, under whose leadership the first Imamates were set up in southern Arabia. Oman formed part of the Persian Empire and as its importance grew in Indian Ocean trade, it was directly occupied and developed under the name of Mazûn in late Sasanid times. The subject and marginalized status of the Arab tribesmen was a matter for scorn for the over-weaning Hijazis, but gave the Arabs a certain empathy with the peasants and under-privileged. Ibâḍi, like all Khariji ideology, was rooted in the notion of equality before God and this led eventually leading to a remarkable assimilation of the tribes and villagers after the Imamate was established in Oman.

The first fourth-century Persian attack on Egypt most likely took place in 390/89–388/7. Security arrangements, in place by 391/0, involved use of Athens’ new fleet to deter any Spartan initiative in the west and installation on Cyprus of a force under Hecatomnus, the native satrap of Caria, to secure Cyprus and safeguard staging areas in Phoenicia. Despite lengthy preparations and the presence of experienced Persian generals, there is no evidence of any significant Persian-Egyptian battles in Egypt. This is best explained by noting that the Egyptian king, Acoris, faced with a usurper who had gained control of Upper Egypt and Memphis, dared not lose troops in battle and avoided engagement. The Persians, in turn, aware of the debilitating political situation, simply waited in the expectation that internal Egyptian discord would allow them to regain control of Egypt without fighting.

This chapter argues that the anxieties about the propriety and plausibility of the saints’ cult visible in the Latin and Greek material discussed in earlier chapters was also present east of the empire’s frontier on the Euphrates. Christians within the Persian empire appear, in other words, to have debated the saints’ role in Christian piety of the as much as their Byzantine counterparts in late antiquity. Owing to a longstanding tradition of ‘soul sleep’, Persian Christians worried, in particular, about the status of the saints’ souls after death and sought to understand in what sense they retained the ability to intervene in the affairs of the living. With a special focus on the East Syrian tradition, writers under investigation include Ephrem the Syrian, Narsai of Nisibis, Ishai of Seleucia-Ctesiphon and Timothy the Great.

This chapter focuses on Xerxes's invasion of Greece, with Athens as his main target. Xerxes remained confident despite the battering of his fleet and his considerable losses at Thermopylae. Training his sights on the hated city of Athens, Xerxes led his army in sweeping through Phocis and destroyed and plundered the sanctuary of Apollo at Abae. The destruction of sanctuaries was one of the most shocking memories that the Greeks held of the Persian invasion. This chapter examines the Battle of Salamis, which proved to be the savior of the Greeks, as well as Mardonius's campaign, the Battle of Plataea, and the Greeks' war of attrition against Persian positions on the coast of Asia Minor. It also considers the impact of the Greek campaign on Xerxes's ambition to extend the Persian Empire further east.

The introduction describes the geographical setting of the Caucasus, highlighting the region's diversity, from high mountains peaks to arid steppe. It discusses the major ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups, and emphasizes the multiple forms of identity that have been available to Caucasus peoples over the centuries, as they learned to thrive at the intersection of the Russian, Ottoman, and Persian empires. Major groups in the region include the Armenians, Georgians, Chechens, Dagestanis, and Circassians.

This book presents a biography of Xerxes (Khshayarsha, ca. 518–465 B.C.), ruler of the Persian Empire from 486 to 465 B.C. Xerxes does not have a glowing reputation among both historians and moralists. He is remembered mainly as the king who failed to conquer Greece, and is considered the exemplar of the vices that are opposed to the virtues of Alexander the Great. But he also had numerous achievements aside from his twenty-year reign, including one of the greatest building projects of antiquity, the imperial city of Persepolis. Drawing on a variety of specialist fields ranging from archaeology to Achaemenid Studies, this book recreates something of what it was to be the ruler of the largest empire the world had yet seen, in the fifth century B.C., and investigates how the dominant picture of Xerxes that was inherited by the modern world came into being.

Greco‐Persian culture encouraged theological inquiry, codification of law, and a transition from epic poetry to prose historiography. Wide‐ranging pioneering histories were written by Hecataeus, Herodotus, and Hellanicus. The Primary History as a whole – the entire wide‐ranging prose history – fits well into the Persian Empire.

This chapter focuses on Xerxes's accession to the throne as king of the Persian Empire, replacing his father Darius I (the Great). It begins with a background on Darius's rise to power; he had become king of the Persian Empire by unorthodox means. Darius's tale is one of a usurper who caused social and religious upheaval. Darius died while in the process of preparing a second army to invade the Greek mainland. As the king who spread the Persian Empire to its fullest extent and created many of its defining institutions, Darius was a model to emulate. But as Xerxes prepared for his accession he must have looked back at the difficulties his father had encountered on coming to the throne. Xerxes's accession, in the end, was a much more straightforward affair than his father's, helped in part by weak claims from rivals. This chapter first describes Xerxes's education and upbringing before turning to his investiture as king. It also considers the legend that Xerxes invented the game of chess.

This chapter focuses on Xerxes's image as king of the Persian Empire. Everything Xerxes did, at least in public and often in private, was directed at establishing his status as representative of the divine order laid down by Ahura Mazda. His royal progress, his acts of state, his dress and ceremonial, his treatment of petitioners, his mode of dining, his close relationship with the fruitfulness expressed in the idea of the king as gardener, and his administration of justice, all convey the symbolic and religious order of the world. This chapter describes the protocol for people who wanted to gain an audience with Xerxes as well as the king's gift-giving practice, gardening, and typical dinner. It also considers how Xerxes administered justice and the cruelty of Persian punishments.

The sources for state communication in the Persian Empire (c. 550–330 BC) are varied and informative but actual correspondence is scarce. This chapter discusses the primary sources, including the most recent finds from Bactria, and analyzes the role of state communications in holding together the Empire’s diverse and vast territories.

This chapter focuses on Xerxes's religion, with particular emphasis on his mission to establish Zoroastrianism at the expense of all other religions. According to Shahnameh, Xerxes is a strongly religious king, even a man with missionary zeal. It also suggests that Xerxes and his father Darius I represented religious revolution in Iran. To understand Xerxes's religiosity, this chapter examines the intractable problems surrounding the prophet Zoroaster. It then considers the link between Darius and Gushtasp, ruler in Balkh, nowhere near Fars where the Achaemenid kings have their origins. It also discusses problems with the attribution of Zoroastrianism to the Persian kings from Cyrus the Great onwards. Finally, it looks at the role of the Magi in Persian religion, religious toleration in the Persian Empire, and Xerxes's attitude towards the daevas.

This chapter reviews the evidence for the Persian appropriation of symbols of Lydian sovereignty, beginning with earth and water. These elemental symbols of the basis of life prove to be part of the complex of symbols related to the ideology of Asiatic sovereignty centered at Sardis. Earth and water were abstractions of the Lydo-Ionian cosmogony that also found expression in divinity, most directly in Kybebe, Herodotus' “local deity” of the Sardians. She was the Asiatic Mother of the Gods, and the same emissaries from Darius who demanded earth and water of the Athenians in 491 also demanded recognition for this deity among the Athenians. The rejection of both by the Athenians was a decisive moment, arguably the single most decisive moment in determining the course of political, intellectual, and religious history in classical antiquity.

This chapter examines some of the key ways in which the memory of Darius' and Xerxes' campaigns influenced subsequent events (and the ways in which those events were portrayed) until the final overthrow of the Persian empire by Alexander in 330 bc. After examining the background to the enmity between Greece and Persia, the chapter shows how the initial fear of Persian return and the later possibility of alliance with Persia impacted on the relations between individual Greek states. Crucially, the role that a state had played in the wars came to be manipulated for propaganda (most notably in Athens' justification for her imperial dominance). It also illustrates some of the ways in which ambiguity towards Persia manifested itself in the literature and politics of the classical period; seen variously as either potential allies or enemies still waiting to pounce, the Persians were also alternately portrayed as terrifying despotic invaders or effeminate eastern weaklings.