Xerxes

Family: Persian · Role: king · First appears: Book 1 · Chapter 8

Xerxes, king of the Persians, captured Athens after its inhabitants had left and carried off statues as booty. At Branchidæ he took the Milesians’ brazen Apollo, which Seleucus later restored to them, and from Brauron he took a statue of Brauronian Artemis. During his expedition against Greece, Artemisia joined him and displayed great valour at Salamis; his general Mardonius was the son of Gobryas.

At Thermopylæ, Leonidas was defeated after Hydarnes led the Persian army around the Greek flank, and the barbarians passed into Greece. Xerxes and the Medes invaded Greece, but Leonidas and Themistocles later expelled him: Leonidas at Thermopylæ and Themistocles through two sea-fights. After Xerxes’ landing, the Platæans joined the Athenians at sea and repelled Mardonius on their own soil. Xerxes also set Parapotamii on fire. He was the son of Darius and the father of Artaxerxes.