Xerxes
1:
XERXES (PERSON). 1. The Achaemenid king Xerxes I was born in 518 b.c., the first son of Darius and his favorite queen Atossa, born after Darius had come to the throne. He was elevated to official crown prince some years before the death of his father.
The transfer of kingship from Darius to Xerxes in 486 b.c. went smoothly, though at the time Egypt was in revolt. This serious rebellion had begun in June 486 b.c., before Darius’s death, and was successfully suppressed some time before January, 484 b.c. Shortly thereafter Babylon also rebelled, and Xerxes suppressed the uprising with a particularly heavy hand. Local temples were destroyed, the statue of the city-god Marduk may have been carried away, and there is evidence for at least a temporary interruption in the Persian imperial policy of ruling conquered peoples with great tolerance.
The most significant events of the reign of Xerxes involved the Persian invasion of mainland Greece in 480/79 b.c. After massive preparations for the campaign in that part of NE Greece already controlled by the Achaemenids, the Persian army advanced southward down the E coast of the peninsula, supported from the sea by a coordinated advance of their fleet. The first battle of the war took place at the famous pass of Thermopylae. The Persians then marched rapidly southward to capture Athens and burn the Acropolis. The Persian fleet, meanwhile, had suffered considerable damage in a storm at sea, but when it reached the Bay of Salamis it nevertheless outnumbered the challenging Greek fleet led by the Athenians. Legend has it that Xerxes sat on a throne on the cliffside and personally watched the complete defeat of the Persian navy in what was almost certainly the greatest naval engagement in history to date. Xerxes then returned to Asia, leaving the Persian land forces under the command of the general Mardonius. Both armies then went into winter quarters. When good weather returned in 479 b.c., after much maneuvering, the Greeks and Persians came to battle on the field of Plataea. Persian defeat in this battle, after a fairly even fight, came as their morale cracked when Mardonius was slain.
Little is known about Xerxes’ reign during the 14 years before his death. We have almost no sources for these years, either primary or secondary. The great king may have been primarily involved with his massive construction works, particularly at Persepolis. Here he not only meticulously finished works begun by his father, he also greatly enlarged the Persepolis platform and constructed several monumental buildings in his own right, including the Gate of All Nations, the Hall of One Hundred Columns, and his own residential place. Xerxes was assassinated, apparently in a very complicated court intrigue, in 465 b.c.
Traditionally Xerxes has been viewed as a weak king, unable to recover from the reverses his army and navy experienced in Greece. While it is true that under him the expansion of the Achaemenid empire came to an end and, indeed, some contraction of Persian territorial control resulted from defeat in Greece, nevertheless Xerxes may not have been so ineffective as tradition would have it. Certainly he was his dynamic father’s explicit choice for the kingship and the early years of his reign were marked by vigorous action. In the end a proper assessment of his reign is difficult, given our lack of good source materials.
The setting of the book of Esther is at the court of Xerxes I, who is called Ahasuerus in this story. See AHASUERUS and ESTHER, BOOK OF.
2. Xerxes II, son of Artaxerxes I. He was assassinated only a few weeks after the death of his father (424 b.c.).
Bibliography
Dandamaev, M. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Leiden.
Kuhrt, A., and White, S. S. 1987. Xerxes’ Destruction of Babylonian Temples. Pp. 69–78 in The Greek Sources, ed. H. Sancisi-Weerdenburg and A. Kuhrt. Vol. 2 of Achaemenid History. Leiden.
Sancisi-Weerdenburg, H. 1989. The Personality of Xerxes, King of Kings. Vol. 1, pp. 549–61 in Archaeologia Iranica et Orientalis, ed. L. de Meyer and E. Haerinck. Ghent.
Yamauchi, E. M. 1990. Persia and the Bible. Grand Rapids.
T. Cuyler Young, Jr.
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (6:1010). New York: Doubleday.
2:
XERXES niv and nlt rendering of Ahasuerus in Ezra 4:6 and the book of Esther. See Ahasuerus #1.
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (1318). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
3:
XER´XES (zurkʹsēz). The Gk. name of Ahasuerus (which see), husband of Esther. He ruled the Persian Empire from 485 to 465 b.c. According to Esther 1:3, the banquet that led to the deposition of Queen Vashti took place in Xerxes’ third year (483) and the selection of Esther as a new queen in his seventh year (479; Esther 2:16). Between these two events occurred Xerxes’ disastrous campaign in Greece, which resulted in the termination of Persian military actions against Greece. h.f.v.
Unger, M. F., Harrison, R. K., Vos, H. F., Barber, C. J., & Unger, M. F. (1988). The new Unger's Bible dictionary. Revision of: Unger's Bible dictionary. 3rd ed. c1966. (Rev. and updated ed.). Chicago: Moody Press.
4:
Xerxes (zuhrʹksees), the name of several rulers of the Persian Empire. 1 Xerxes I, who ruled 486-465 b.c. and is known from Greek history for his attempts at conquering the Greek mainland. He is probably the ruler referred to in Ezra 4:6 (there called Ahasuerus, from the Persian form of his name), a passage out of chronological context, who received a complaint against the Jews who had returned to Palestine from the Exile. In Dan. 9:1, an Ahasuerus is mentioned as the father of Darius the Mede (but see 2). The Persian ruler of the book of Esther (1:1, etc., there also called Ahasuerus) is presumably based on Xerxes I, but as presented in Esther he is more a legendary than a historical figure. The Greek translators of the Septuagint (and cf. Josephus Antiquities II. 184) consistently render Ahasuerus as Artaxerxes, however. 2 Xerxes II, 425 b.c., who succeeded Artaxerxes I (the son of Xerxes I) but was assassinated almost immediately. He is probably not referred to in the Bible. P.R.A.
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper's Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) (1152). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
5:
Xerxes (Gk. Xerxēs)
Xerxes I, Achaemenid king of Persia, 486–465 b.c.e., who ascended the throne upon the death of Darius I. There is inscriptional evidence to suggest that Xerxes I was the crown prince for some time, and held a coregency with his father (he is noted on the south doorway of Darius I’s private palace). This is notable because there is evidence that Darius had earlier indicated that his eldest son, Artobazanes, would succeed him. However, Darius fathered Xerxes by Atossa, daughter of Cyrus the Great and wife of Cambyses. Among the Persepolis inscriptions, Xerxes himself notes that although he had brothers, he was himself selected by the will of Ahura Mazda (the Zoroastrian patron god of the Achaemenid line) to be the new king. From 498 until his accession 12 years later, Xerxes served as satrap of Babylonia, the second most powerful position in the Persian Empire.
Xerxes is noted for a campaign in Egypt, which may have also involved an invasion of Judah along the way. The revolt in Egypt was finally crushed in January 484. The Greek sources narrate his military preparations for an invasion of Greece, but he was preoccupied with rebellion within his own empire — notably in Babylon. There is some controversy as to Xerxes’ policies toward Babylon. It seems certain that his general, Megabyzus, actually melted down the statue of Marduk as part of the policy of reducing Babylon to compliance. This may have been an example of wider policy, as there is indication that Xerxes treated local temples (often the centers of revolt) severely in his responses to insurrection (and in contrast to the more liberal policies of Darius). His burning of Athens was the celebrated cause of Greek hatred of Xerxes, who passed into Greek lore as a despotic monster. He was defeated by the Hellenic fleet at Salamis in September 480, and again suffered defeat of his army at Plataia in 479. It was undoubtedly as a result of his many failures that he was eventually open to receive a peace delegation led by Kallias, who was sent by the Athenians. The peace negotiations carried on, despite palace intrigues that led to the assassination of Xerxes and the eventual succession of Artaxerxes I to the throne; the latter continued to abide by the short-lived peace agreement as well.
Xerxes, in his later reign, is noted in classical literature for many palace and harem intrigues — some of which may provide the historical “background color” behind the popularity of Hebrew stories such as Esther. Jon L. Berquist, however, suggests that only Malachi may come from the time of Xerxes, and Malachi’s concern with temple offerings may reflect Xerxes’ policy of cutting off funds for local shrines — funds that were generous under his father Darius. Such a financial crisis may be reflected in the concern for “tithes,” temple personnel, and temple power in Malachi.
Bibliography. J. M. Balcer, A Prosopographical Study of the Ancient Persians Royal and Noble c. 550–450 b.c. (Lewiston, 1993); J. L. Berquist, Judaism in Persia’s Shadow (Minneapolis, 1996); J. M. Cook, The Persian Empire (New York, 1983).
Daniel L. Smith-Christopher
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (1401). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
