The meaning of the word xerxes in a concise dictionary of mythology and antiquities. Military History: Xerxes - Persian Invasion Army Who was Xerxes son of Darius 1
In all likelihood, there were several uprisings. Initially, the Babylonians revolted under the leadership of Bel-shimanni. It is possible that this uprising began even under Darius, under the influence of the defeat of the Persians at Marathon. The rebels captured, in addition to Babylon, the cities of Borsippu and Dilbat. In two cuneiform documents found in Borsippa, dated "to the beginning of the reign of Bel-shimanni, king of Babylon and the Countries." The witnesses who signed this contract are the same as those found on the documents of the second half of the reign of Darius and the first year of Xerxes. Obviously, Bel-shimanni rebelled against Darius and took the daring title of "king of the Countries", which had not yet been encroached by the False Buchadnezzers. But two weeks later in July 484 BC. NS. this uprising was suppressed.
Crossing the Hellespont
Warriors of the army of Xerxes. Reconstruction according to the description of Herodotus, archaeological finds and drawings on Greek vases. From left to right: Persian standard-bearer, Armenian and Cappadocian warriors.
Warriors of the army of Xerxes.
From left to right: Chaldean infantrymen formed the first row of the Persian phalanx of archers; Babylonian archer; Assyrian infantryman. The warriors wear quilted jackets stuffed with horsehair - a typical type of oriental armor of that time.
Warriors of the army of Xerxes from Asia Minor. On the left is a hoplite from Ionia, whose weaponry is very reminiscent of the Greek, but it is wearing a soft quilted shell, widespread among Asian peoples (in this case, the Greek cut); on the right is a Lydian hoplite in a bronze cuirass and a kind of frame helmet.
Warriors of the army of Xerxes. Reconstruction according to the description of Herodotus and archaeological finds. From left to right: an Ethiopian warrior armed with a powerful bow, half of his body painted white; infantryman from Khorezm, Bactrian infantryman; Arian cavalryman.
Battle of Thermopylae
Fleet actions
The sack of Attica
Now the Persians could move unhindered to Attica. Boeotia submitted to the Persians, and later Thebes provided them with active support. The land army of the Greeks stood on the Isthmus isthmus, and Sparta insisted on creating a fortified defensive line here to protect the Peloponnese. The Athenian politician, creator of the Athenian fleet Themistocles believed that it was necessary to give the Persians a sea battle off the coast of Attica. To defend Attica at that moment, of course, was not possible.
Furnishings in the State
These failures in the Greco-Persian wars intensified the process of the disintegration of the Achaemenid state. Already under Xerxes, symptoms dangerous for the existence of the power appeared - the rebellions of the satraps. So, his own brother Masista fled from Susa to his satrapy Bactria in order to raise an uprising there, but on the way the warriors loyal to the king caught up with Masista and killed him along with all the sons accompanying him (c. 478 BC). Under Xerxes, intensive construction was carried out in Persepolis, Susa, Tushpa, on Mount Elvend near Ecbatana and in other places. To strengthen state centralization, he carried out a religious reform, which boiled down to prohibiting the veneration of local tribal gods and strengthening the cult of the common Iranian god Ahuramazda. Under Xerxes, the Persians stopped supporting local temples (in Egypt, Babylonia, etc.) and seized many temple treasures.
The murder of Xerxes by conspiracy
According to the testimony of Ctesias, by the end of his life, Xerxes was under the strong influence of the chief of the royal guard Artaban and the eunuch Aspamitra. Probably, the position of Xerxes at this time was not very strong. In any case, we know from the Persepolis documents that in 467 BC. NS. , that is, 2 years before the assassination of Xerxes, famine reigned in Persia, the royal barns were empty and the price of grain rose seven times compared to ordinary ones. To somehow reassure the disaffected, Xerxes removed about a hundred government officials over the course of the year, starting with the most senior ones. In August 465 BC. NS. Artabanus and Aspamitra, apparently not without the intrigues of Artaxerxes, the youngest son of Xerxes, killed the king at night in his bedroom. The exact date of this conspiracy is recorded in an astronomical text from Babylonia. Another text from Egypt says that he was killed along with his eldest son Darius.
Xerxes was in power for 20 years and 8 months and was killed at the age of 55. From the time of the reign of Xerxes, about 20 cuneiform inscriptions in the ancient Persian, Elamite and Babylonian languages have been preserved.
Wives and children
Queen Amestrida
- Darius
- Gistasp, satrap of Bactria
Unknown wives
- Aratry, Satrap of Babylon.
- Ratashap
| Achaemenids | ||
| Predecessor: Darius I |
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Xerxes is the king of Persia and the pharaoh of Egypt, best known for his aggressive campaigns against Hellas. Most of the information about his biography has come down to our time thanks to ancient Greek historians, in particular the works of Ctesias of Cnidus, who lived in Persia for 17 years. Also, archaeologists have deciphered 20 cuneiform inscriptions in the ancient Persian, Elamite and Babylonian languages.
Portrait of Xerxes
The Greeks ridiculed Xerxes, calling him weak and vain. Persian authors praised the king as a wise ruler and victorious warrior. Most of his contemporaries agree that the king was tall, strong in body and enduring, which allowed him to endure the hardships of military campaigns and leave numerous healthy offspring.
Childhood and youth
Xerxes, whose name translates as “Master of Heroes,” was born in 520 BC. On the maternal side, he descended from Cyrus II the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Xerxes was the eldest son of Atossa, daughter of Cyrus II, and Darius I. Of the six sons, King Darius, preparing for his next campaign, chose Cyrus as his heir.
The legal system of ancient Persia did not strictly regulate the order of inheritance of the kingdom, and the transfer of power was usually accompanied by riots and massacres. But in this case, everything went smoothly, the brothers agreed with their father's will, and in November 486 BC, after the death of Darius I, Xerxes I took the throne.
Governing body
Xerxes inherited an empire, parts of which sought to gain independence. Even during the reign of Darius, an uprising broke out in Egypt, which the young king suppressed in 484 BC. Xerxes I removed the treasures from the Egyptian temples, dealt with the local nobility, who supported the rebellion of Psammetichus IV, and appointed his brother Achaemena as the new governor.
The Persian kings who ruled before the Egyptians adopted a new name along with the title of Pharaoh, but Xerxes canceled this tradition. He also refused to worship the gods of Egypt and listen to the advice of the priests.
In Noam Murro's film "300: Rise of an Empire" Xerxes was made a living god, which does not correspond to the historical truth. It was the Egyptians who deified their pharaohs, and for the people of Persia, their despot was the most powerful person, but not a deity.
However, Xerxes had to fight the gods. After the suppression of the uprising in Babylon, the army of the Persian king removed the golden statue of Marduk from the capital of the rebellious province to Persepolis.
The destruction of the supreme idol of Babylon was not only part of the plunder of the city, but also the humiliation of the vanquished. It took the troops of Persia three years to suppress the rebellion, so after the victory, the king gave the order to destroy the city walls and defenses and deprive the Babylonians of the protection of their deity.
Having established his power in the empire, the king begins to prepare a campaign of conquest in Greece. In 492, during a campaign under the leadership of Darius I, the fleet of the Persian commander Mardonius suffered from a storm off the coast of Athos, which caused the retreat.
Xerxes solved the problem of a safe sea route to Greece by ordering a canal to be dug across the peninsula. The channel width allowed two triremes to move simultaneously. A stationary bridge was built across the Strimon River, the Hellespont was crossed with the help of prefabricated pontoon bridges, each of which was more than a kilometer long.
Guarded fortified food warehouses were established in Thrace. Persian diplomats worked in the Persian-friendly countries of Balkan Greece and Carthage. Hellas, composed of autonomous city-states, did not rally in the face of a military threat.
The rulers of Argos and Thessaly took the side of Persia, the inhabitants of Crete and Kerkyra pledged to maintain neutrality. Even in Athens, pro-Persian sentiments were strong. The union of states ready to repulse the invaders was headed by Sparta. The Council of War decided to block the way for the ground forces at Thermopylae, and for the fleet at the island of Euboea.
The position at Thermopylae was a narrow road, squeezed by rocks and sea, so it could be held by a relatively small number of people. An army of 6.5 thousand Greeks was led by the Spartan king Leonidas I. The heroic opposition of the Spartans to the superior forces of the enemy is sung in the epic and continues to inspire writers and screenwriters.
After many small skirmishes, in 479 BC. NS. near the city of Plateia, on the border of Attica and Boeotia, a thirty thousand strong Greek army and twice as many invaders met in battle. Despite the numerical superiority, the Persians were defeated and fled. This battle turned the tide of the war, and later the main struggle unfolded at sea.
In 468 BC. the Greek naval commander Cimon, son of Meltiades, defeated the Persian fleet near the mouth of the Eurymedon River. After this defeat, the Persian fleet no longer entered the Aegean Sea, and Xerxes' plans of conquest were doomed. Failures in the Greco-Persian wars hastened the disintegration of the Achaemenid state. The center, weakened by the wars, was forced to suppress the revolts of individual satrapies of the empire again.
Personal life
The written sources include the name of only one wife of the king. Amestrida, daughter of Onof, gave birth to her husband three sons. The elder received the name Darius in honor of his grandfather and was to inherit his father. The middle Hystaspes later became the satrap of Bactria. Artaxerxes, the younger, took the royal throne after the death of his father and elder brother and ruled Persia in 465-424 BC. NS.
The names of the other wives and concubines of Xerxes did not go down in history, but it is known that the Persian king had three more sons: Artarius, who became the ruler in Babylon, Ratashap and Tifravst, as well as two daughters - Amitis and Rodogun. There were terrible legends about the love affairs of the ruler, incestuous relationships and intrigues at the royal court, one of which was retold by Herodotus.
Xerxes' brother, Masista, was married to a beautiful woman who did not reciprocate the love of the king. Wanting to get closer to an unapproachable woman, Xerxes married his son Darius to the daughter of the Masista. The young woman turned out to be as beautiful as her mother, but much less unapproachable, and became the king's mistress. The jealous Persian queen Amestrida blamed the Masists' wife for everything.
On her husband's birthday, the queen begged for herself as a gift the right to dispose of the life of the one she considered the culprit of the problems, Xerxes did not object much: why would he need a woman who neglects the royal caresses? Amestris killed her rival with particular cruelty, and Xerxes offered his brother a new wife instead of the killed one.
In order to strengthen intra-family ties, it was planned this time to marry Masista to the royal daughter (his niece, respectively), but he refused and tried to escape to Bactria with his sons. The king's warriors caught up with the rebels on the way and killed.
Death
Xerxes lived to the venerable age of 54, twenty of which ruled the Persian empire. If not for the struggle of competitors for power, I would have lived for several more years. By old age, the king became less energetic, fell under the influence of the chief of his own guard Artaban and the eunuch Aspamitra. Crop failure in 467 BC e., led to famine in Persia. The barns were emptied, food prices rose sevenfold, and the population of the satrapies rioted.
Over the course of a year, Xerxes removed more than a hundred officials from their posts, but a change in leadership did not help save the situation. In August 465 BC. NS. Artabanus and Aspamitra, whom the king fully trusted (as far as possible to trust the courtiers), conspired with Artaxerxes, the younger prince, and killed Xerxes while resting at night in the palace. Babylonian, Egyptian and Greek sources retell this event in different ways.
One narrator claims that the conspirators acted on the direct orders of Artaxerxes and immediately killed the king and his heir. The author of another text believes that the eunuch and the head of the guard were accused of the murder of Xerxes Darius, the eldest son of the king, and Artaxerxes executed his brother on false charges.
Memory
- 1962 - the film "300 Spartans"
- 1998 - graphic novel "300" by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley
- 2006 - the film "300 Spartans"
- 2007 - computer game 300: March to Glory
- 2011 - Xerxes Canal on the Chalkidiki Peninsula declared an archaeological park
- 2014 - the film "300 Spartans: Rise of an Empire"
XERXES
(Xerxes, ??????). Persian king (485-465 BC), son of Darius Hystaspes and Atossa, daughter of Cyrus. In 480 he undertook the famous campaign against Greece. He crossed the Hellespont with a huge army, which, according to Herodotus, numbered up to 3 million soldiers. He passed through Macedonia and Thessaly, then penetrated into Central Greece and finally reached Athens, not far from which the great battle of Salamis took place, where the Greeks utterly defeated the Persians. Xerxes failed to conquer Greece and had to return to Persia with the remnants of his army. The Greeks defeated the Persians at Plataea and at Mikal (in Asia Minor). In 465 B.C. Xerxes was killed by the chief of his bodyguards, Artaban.
A Brief Dictionary of Mythology and Antiquities. 2012
See also the interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what XERKS is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- XERXES in the Dictionary of Generals:
(Greek Xerxes) (? -465 BC), the king of Persia (486-465), son of Darius I, suppressed the rebellion of the Egyptians (486-484), after the Babylonian revolt (482) destroyed ... - XERXES in the Dictionary-Directory Who's Who in the Ancient World:
King of Persia (485-465 BC), son of Darius. Xerxes equipped a huge fleet and army to avenge the defeat he had inflicted ... - XERXES in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
(ancient Persian Khshayarshan, Greek Xerxes) (died 465 BC), ancient Persian king in 486-465 BC. NS. from the Achaemenid dynasty. ... - XERXES
Xerxes I (Hshayarsha, Xenojvn) - the Persian king, son of Darius Hystaspes and Atossa, ascended the throne in 486 BC. ... - XERXES in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
- XERXES in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
I (? - 465 BC), king of the Achaemenid state from 486. In 480 - 479 he headed the Persian campaign in ... - XERXES in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
I (? -465 BC), king of the Achaemenid state from 486. Son of Darius I. In 480-479 he led the Persian campaign to Greece, which ended ... - XERXES in Collier's Dictionary:
(c. 519-465 BC), king of Persia. He ascended the throne approx. 486 BC after the death of Darius I. Having suppressed the uprisings in ... - BOOK OF ESFIRI in the Orthodox Encyclopedia Tree:
Open Orthodox encyclopedia "DREVO". The Book of Esther, the biblical book of the Old Testament. Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... - LEONID I
The Spartan king from the clan of Agids, who ruled in 491-480. BC Genus. in 508 B.C. Died 480 ... - DEMARAT in the Handbook of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
The king of the Lacedaemonians from the Eurypontid family, who ruled in 515-491. BC Son of Ariston. According to the testimony of all ancient authors, between Demarat and ... - ALEXANDER I in the Handbook of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
- King of Macedonia, who ruled in 495-450. BC Son of Amynta II. Herodotus tells about the next feat of the young Alexander, the former ... - ATTICA For more information, see the Handbook of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology.
- ARISTIDES in the Handbook of Characters and Cult Objects of Greek Mythology:
ARISTIDES (circa 540-467 BC) (eng. Aristides THE JUST) Aristides came from an impoverished aristocratic family and all his life experienced ... - LEONID I in the biographies of the Monarchs:
The Spartan king of the Agid clan, who ruled in 491-480. BC Genus. in 508 B.C. Died 480 ... - DEMARAT in the biographies of the Monarchs:
The king of the Lacedaemonians from the Eurypontide family, who ruled in 515-491. BC Son of Ariston. According to the testimony of all ancient authors between Demarat ... - ALEXANDER I in the biographies of the Monarchs:
King of Macedonia, who ruled in 495-450. BC Son of Amynta II. Herodotus tells about the next feat of the young Alexander, who was then ... - GRECO-PERSIAN WARS 500-449 BC in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(intermittently) were waged by the ancient Greek city-states for political independence, against Persian aggression. Persian expansion In the 6th century. BC NS. on … - ACHEMENIDES in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB.
- FEMISTOCL in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
(???????????) - the famous Athenian military leader and politician of the era of the Greco-Persian wars. F. genus., Probably about 525 BC Chr. ... - PERSIAN-GREEK WARS in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
(?? ??????) - constitute the most brilliant period in Greek history. The Persian monarchy (see Persia) reached its highest by the end of the 6th century ... - ESTHER in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
one of the famous biblical women of the post-Babylonian period. E. (formerly Gadassah) was a relative and pupil of the Jew Mordecai, who lived in Susa and ... - ACHEMENIDES in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
the name of the ancient Persian royal dynasty from which Cyrus, the founder of one of the world monarchies of the ancient East, originated. A. was originally an industry ...
The life of the ruler consisted of many military victories, but the defeats of Xerxes played a much larger role in history.
Xerxes I was the son of Darius I and his second wife Atossa. His date of birth ranges between 519 and 521 BC. NS. He took his throne in 486 BC. NS. with the help of his mother, who had tremendous influence at the court and did not allow the eldest son of Darius from his first marriage, Artobazan, to reign. After the death of his father, Xerxes inherited a huge Persian empire, whose territory stretched from the Indus River in the east to the Aegean Sea in the west, and from the first rapids of the Nile in the south to the Caucasus in the North. Such a vast kingdom was difficult to hold: anti-Persian uprisings constantly flared up in different parts of the empire. Suppressing them, the new ruler tried to further strengthen his power on the ground, to make it unitary. So, having dealt with the rebellion in the Babylonian kingdom in 481 BC. e., Xerxes ordered to take to Persepolis (the capital of the Achaemenid Empire) a golden statue of the supreme deity and patron saint of Babylon, Marduk. By doing this, he deprived the Babylonians of the opportunity to crown their kings in the presence of their gods and thereby liquidated the Babylonian kingdom, turning it from a vassal state into a grassroots satrapy.
For the ruler of Persia, it was important not only to keep the subordinate lands in check, but also to constantly expand his expansion. Like his father, Xerxes looked to Europe, but the Greeks stood in his way, the history of confrontation with which began under Darius. The origins of the confrontation lay in the uprising of the Ionites in 499 BC. BC, when the city-states of Athens and Eretria aided the rebels and incurred the wrath of the Persians. He set out to take revenge on the Greeks and moved to conquer Athens, but his troops were defeated at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. NS. A few years after his accession to the throne, Xerxes decided to continue his father's work and conquer the Greek city-states. As Herodotus writes in his History, before preparing for the campaign, the tsar said to his nobles: Europe ... There is not a single city and people in the world that would dare to rebel against us. "
The first difficulty on this path was the crossing of the troops of Xerxes through the Hellespont Strait (present-day Dardanelles). For this, pontoon bridges were built near the city of Sista, each more than one kilometer long. When the work was completed, a storm arose at sea and destroyed the structures. The angry king, according to Herodotus, "ordered to give the Hellespont three hundred blows with a whip as punishment, and to lower a couple of fetters into the open sea." At the same time, the heads of the people who were in charge of the construction of the bridges were cut off. Then the bridges were rebuilt and fastened more securely. On the day of crossing the Hellespont, Xerxes asked the Sun God not to interfere with his conquest of Europe and threw precious objects (a sacrificial bowl, a golden goblet and a Persian sword) into the water to appease the sea. This time the Hellespont was calm and the crossing was successful.
The Persian invasion began in 480 BC. NS. from the Battle of Thermopylae. Athens, Sparta and other Greek cities rallied in the face of the "Persian threat." In order to have a real opportunity to resist the superior forces of the enemy, it was decided to meet the enemy at the Thermopylae Gorge, whose narrow passage allowed them to delay the Persians on their way to Hellas. According to various sources, the army of Xerxes consisted of 200 or 250 thousand soldiers. By the beginning of the battle, the Greeks had 5-7 thousand fighters. The alliance of Greek forces was led by the Spartan king Leonidas. For two days he managed to hold back the onslaught of Xerxes' army, but on the third day, the Persians surrounded the army of Leonidas thanks to the betrayal of a local resident named Ephialtes, who showed them a roundabout mountain path. Leonidas, along with 300 Spartans, as well as Thespians (about 700 people) and Thebans (about 400 people, who are usually not mentioned in the legends about three hundred Spartans), remained to fight Xerxes until their last breath. As a result, he and his army were killed, but forever went down in history thanks to the displayed valor. Together with the "300 Spartans", Xerxes went down in history as the main negative hero of this plot.
Xerxes himself wanted to associate his name with the conquest of free Greece. He moved on to Athens. The city abandoned by the inhabitants was captured and plundered. The Acropolis was badly damaged - the statues of the gods were desecrated and destroyed. After that it seemed to Xerxes that Greece was in his hands. However, in the future, the Greeks won important victories at Salamis (480 BC) and Plataea (479 BC). The Persian king, who suffered a crushing defeat both at sea and on land, had to return to Asia - the destroyer of Athens, but not the conqueror of the Greeks.
Returning to his empire, Xerxes decided to dissolve the bitterness of failure with carnal passions. According to Herodotus, at first he "was inflamed with passion" for the wife of his brother Masist, but he could not persuade her to treason. Then he conceived to marry his son Darius to the daughter of the Masistas and thereby become close to the woman he desired. When the son brought his young wife Artaina into the house, he lost interest in her mother and began to indulge in amorous pleasures with his daughter-in-law. Xerxes' wife Amestrida believed that the king's infidelity was rigged by the Masist's wife and decided to destroy her. She arranged so that Xerxes' bodyguards mutilated the unfortunate woman beyond recognition. In response, Matista decided to revolt, but was overtaken by Xerxes and killed.
Xerxes intended to immortalize his name in history not only by military victories. His return from a failed campaign to Greece was also marked by an increased focus on architectural projects at Susa and Persepolis. He began to finish building Apadana Darius, a large and richly decorated audience hall. Its roof was supported by 72 columns with elaborate capitals in the form of lion's or bull's heads. The hall was decorated with reliefs in which delegates from 23 provinces of the Achaemenid empire brought their gifts to Darius. After completing the construction of Apadana, Xerxes built a palace for himself in Persepolis, much larger than his father's palace complex. It was also richly and expertly decorated with sculptures and reliefs.
The fruits of Xerxes' labors were not as durable as he had hoped. In 330 BC. e., almost a hundred years after his death, Alexander the Great, during his Persian campaign, captured and destroyed Persepolis, turning into ruins and the palace of Xerxes and the famous Apadana. The legendary commander did exactly the same as the once Persian king in Athens.
The last years of Xerxes' life were marked by a worsening economic situation in his power. The reason, perhaps, lay in the tsar's ambitious plans to build new temple and palace complexes in Persepolis, on which huge funds were spent. Persepolis sources dating from 467 BC NS. (two years before the death of Xerxes), they say that famine reigned in the city, the royal barns were empty, and the price of grain jumped sevenfold. At the same time, uprisings broke out again in the Persian satrapies, and loud victories were far in the past. It is obvious that Xerxes' position was becoming more and more precarious. The head of the royal guard Artaban decided to take advantage of this. In August 465 BC. NS. he persuaded the eunuch-butler Aspamitra to take him to the king's bedroom. Sleeping Xerxes was stabbed to death in his own bed. Then Artabanus persuaded the youngest son of Xerxes, Artaxerxes, to kill the heir to the throne, his brother Darius. Having done this, Artaxerxes ascended the throne, and soon removed Artaban from his path. who had his own plans for the Persian throne. The new ruler of the Achaemenid state also had a middle brother, Hystaspes. During the palace coup, he was at the post of governor of Bactria. Later, he tried to raise an uprising, but was defeated in two battles and killed in 464 BC. NS.
The reign of Xerxes lasted a little over 20 years. He managed to save and expand his empire a little, but the super task set by him remained unfulfilled. The Greco-Persian wars were fought even before 449 BC. NS. until Artaxerxes signed the Peace of Kallias with the Union of Athens. Hellas did not succumb to the Achaemenids, and Xerxes, instead of the horror of the peoples, experienced the contempt of his subordinates, who took his life. The preservation of independence as a result of the Greco-Persian wars contributed to the flourishing of ancient Greek culture. True, the cohesion of the policies of Xerxes' time was far in the past. Torn apart by internal conflicts, Hellas eventually came under the rule of the Macedonian king. And already from Europe, which Xerxes never conquered, Alexander the Great set out on a campaign against Persia to end the existence of the Achaemenid empire.
Having decided to go to Greece, Xerxes actively set about preparations for the campaign. They were produced on an enormous scale throughout the Persian kingdom. For two whole years (483–481 BC) Xerxes gathered an army. The news of Herodotus about this is probably borrowed from Greek folk traditions and Persian legends, as well as his stories about the mercy of Cyrus; but, even if we greatly reduced the figures he cites as exaggerated by popular fantasy, nevertheless we must say that Xerxes's preparations for the conquest of Greece were colossal. The coastal peoples: the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Cilicians, Cypriots, and especially the Greeks of the Anatolian coast and the islands of the Aegean Sea, prepared warships and transport ships for the army of Xerxes; and experienced craftsmen of peoples skilled in engineering, the Egyptians, Phoenicians and Greeks, were sent to dig an 80-foot canal across the isthmus of the Athos cape near the city of Sana'a so that the fleet could pass here without having to go around the cape, at the end of which storms constantly raged and the ships of the previous expedition were lost; other craftsmen, meanwhile, were building two bridges across the Hellespont (Dardanelles) at the narrowest point of the strait, near the city of Sista; there, from the rocky outcropping of the coast at Madit to Abydos, the width of the strait is only 5,000 feet. Ships were placed across the strait on strong ropes, a platform of logs was laid on the ships, fencing it with railings. On the "White Coast" near the Hellespont and in all Greek cities along the Thracian coast as far as Macedonia, huge reserves of provisions for soldiers and feed for horses and for livestock were prepared, huge herds of which were to follow the army for its food. Xerxes issued a decree that all the peoples of all regions of his kingdom should send an army to march on Greece.
“There was not a single people in Asia that Xerxes would not have led to this war,” says Herodotus. "He ordered some peoples to prepare warships, others to send infantry, or cavalry, or ships to transport horses, or long ships to build bridges, or ships with provisions." Xerxes was so sure of victory that when the Greek scouts were captured in Sardis, tortured by the chief of the troops of that region and condemned to death, he ordered them to be released and to show them all the army. The ships sailing from Pontus (Black Sea) to Greece with loads of bread, he allowed to continue sailing freely, saying that the Persians would use the bread that they would bring to Greece.
1. The channel across the Athos isthmus was dug for three years. Herodotus tells about it this way (VII, 22 and following): “The ships stopped at the Chersonesus city of Eleunt; they brought many warriors of all kinds of tribes; these warriors, compelled to work with whips, dug the canal one by one. The inhabitants of Athos also dug. The work was watched by the Persians Bubar and Artakhei. Where the cape adjoins the mainland, its isthmus is 12 stadia (about 2 versts) wide; it is a plain with small hills. The barbarians divided the work among different nations and drew a canal line quite directly across the isthmus from the city of Sana'a. When the canal was dug, almost all the peoples of the kingdom of Xerxes dug it of the same width both above and below; because its walls were constantly collapsing, and those people did a double job for themselves! Only the Phoenicians showed intelligence and art here, as elsewhere. They dug the width of the channel at the top twice as much as it should have been the width of the bottom of it and made its walls sloping, digging it the lower, the narrower. There is also a meadow there; there they had a market, and they received flour from Asia in large quantities. " The channel had such a width that two triremes could run side by side; the entrance and exit from it were reinforced with dams. The workers who dug the canal also built a bridge over the Strymon.
2. The bridges for the passage of Xerxes' troops across the Hellespont were built in this way: they put fifty-oared ships and triremes in a row; the bridge that was closer to Pontus had 360 of them, and the other bridge had 314, fifty-oared ships were placed obliquely, and triremes along the stream. After setting up the ship, they dropped large anchors, because there is a strong wind there. For the passage of small ships of Xerxes, passages were left in three places. Having set the ships at anchors, they pulled strong ropes through them and pulled them with wooden capstans; the Phoenician ropes were of linen, and the Egyptian ropes were made of biblos. The linen ropes were so thick that an elbow weighed a pound. Pulling the ropes, they made the bridge deck from logs as long as the width should have been for the bridge; the logs were laid tightly to one another and tied with ropes. Planks were laid on the logs, earth was poured onto the plank platform and trampled down firmly. At the bridge that was to the west, a fence was made on both sides so that the one for which this bridge was assigned would not see the sea and would not be afraid. The bridge that was closer to Pontus was intended for the passage of the troops of Xerxes.
In the fall (481), the troops of the eastern and northeastern mountain regions gathered in the Cappadocian city of Kritalla, where Xerxes came to them and led them on the royal road through Comana, Ankira, Pessinunt, Colossus, Colossus, Collateb to the main city of Lydia, Sardis.
In Keleni lived Pythias, the richest man in the world; he made a fine feast for the whole army and placed all his treasures at the disposal of the king; Xerxes rewarded him richly and gave him the title of his friend. On a sycamore of extraordinary beauty, Xerxes hung a gold ornament and left a warrior from the squad of immortals as the guardian of this tree. - Followers of the teachings of Zarathustra had a religious respect for tall and beautiful trees.
In Sardis Xerxes heard that a storm had broken the bridges on the Hellespont; he ordered the heads of the builders to be cut off because they did not know how to do the job firmly. According to the stories of the Greeks, Xerxes ordered to carve the sea: to give the recalcitrant elements 300 blows with a whip and throw shackles into it. Troop bridges were rebuilt and held together with thicker ropes; the sea yielded to the yoke imposed on it.
In the spring of 480, Xerxes' army marched from Sardis to the Hellespont. Then again messengers were sent to Greece to demand that the king be given land and water. Xerxes told them not to travel to Athens and Sparta. The army marched along the coast, through Atarney and Adramitti. In front of Sardis lay on the sides of the road two halves of a dissected human body. This was the eldest son of a Kelenian rich man: Pythias, in the hope of the favor shown to him by Xerxes, asked that one of his five sons, who were in the army, be left for him to supervise the household. Indignant at this request, Xerxes acted as his father Darius at a similar request from Eobaz: ordered to kill the eldest son of the petitioner and put the severed body on the road as a warning to everyone. When the army of Xerxes marched through the land where Troy used to stand, Scamander's water was not enough for this multitude of people and animals to drink. The magicians and the king made a sacrifice of 1000 bulls on the Pergamon hill. According to Herodotus, Xerxes visited the place where Priam's palace stood and listened to stories about the Trojan War. On the Abydos plain, a high stage was built of white stone; Xerxes looked from her at his vast army and navy. He took it into his head to look at an exemplary battle of ships. It was arranged; the victory was won by the Sidonians. Looking out over the Hellespont, covered with ships, the coast and the Abydos fields, covered with an army, Xerxes, according to Herodotus, said that he was happy, and then wept at the thought of the brevity of human life. Artaban, taking advantage of this mood, repeated to him his objections to the campaign against Greece; but they were in vain now, Xerxes appointed him ruler of the state during his absence, and he returned to Susa.
On the day on which the crossing of Xerxes' troops began, the magicians early in the morning made prayers at the bridges, burning incense on the altars, and strewn the road with myrtle branches. When the sun appeared, Xerxes took a golden sacrificial bowl, raised it with a prayer to the sun god so that the conquest of Europe would not meet obstacles, and, according to Herodotus, threw this bowl, a golden goblet and a Persian sword into the waves of the Hellespont.
The first to cross the bridge was a detachment of 10,000 immortals with wreaths on their heads. Troops of different nations followed them. On the second day, Xerxes himself went with the army. Ahead were 1000 mounted and 1000 foot bodyguards, selected warriors, also adorned with wreaths; then they led ten sacred horses, splendidly decorated; behind them rode the sacred chariot of Mithra; she was carried by eight white horses. Xerxes followed her, surrounded by his relatives, companions and friends: there were both Pisistratus and Demarat. The royal retinue was again followed by detachments of horse and foot bodyguards. Stopping on the European coast, Xerxes watched the rest of the army cross the bridge; the troops marched across the bridge for seven days and seven nights between the ranks of people stationed on either side with whips in hand to maintain order.
Having crossed the bridges, the army of Xerxes went along the Thracian Chersonesos past the cities of Kardia and Agora, then turned west to Dorisk; there, on the plain of Gebra, a review was appointed. The fleet, consisting of 1200 triremes, entered the harbor of Enos, at the mouth of the Gebra; transport ships were pulled ashore between the Zone and Salo; there were 3000; for the most part they were sea boats with 30 rowers each. The bridges were ordered to be left intact; their protection was entrusted to the inhabitants of Abydos.
Xerxes' army: Persian standard-bearer, Armenian and Cappadocian soldiers (from left to right)
On the plain near the city of Dorisk, Xerxes' troops were enumerated and divided into detachments. To find out the number of all people participating in the campaign - cavalry, infantry, sailors and servants - they counted 10,000 people, put them close to each other, outlined this place and surrounded by a fence. After that, they began to introduce other people into this fence, as much as fit, and noted how many times this was repeated; the fence was filled 170 times. Thus, according to the story of Herodotus about this account, the number of all the soldiers who went to Greece, together with the huge number of people who were on warships and transport ships or marched with the train, reached an unheard of 1,700,000 people. And then the troops of the Thracians and Macedonians joined them. True, the number of servants was enormous and these people were not warriors; however, the counting method was not accurate; and, of course, his figure was greatly exaggerated by tradition; but nevertheless it must be considered reliable that Xerxes led an army of more than 800,000 men to Greece, and a fleet of 1,200 warships with a crew of up to 250,000 men.
After enumerating the army, distributing it according to tribes and according to the type of weapon, appointing reliable commanders over the detachments from among his relatives and companions, Xerxes made a big review of the entire land army; he rode on a war chariot along the front of infantry and cavalry; the scribe sitting next to him wrote down the names of the tribes; then Xerxes inspected the fleet; he circled it in a fast Sidon ship. No other conqueror, either earlier or later, led so many different peoples to war as was in the army that Xerxes surveyed on the plain of Gebra. The warriors of each nation were in their own national dress and with their own national weapons.
Xerxes' army: Chaldean foot soldiers, Babylonian archer, Assyrian foot soldier (from left to right)
The Persian and Median infantry of the army of Xerxes wore colorful caftans, shalwar and tiaras; her weapons were: a large bow with reed arrows, a short spear and a dagger at the belt. In addition to the Persians and Medes, there were warriors from the tribes that lived in the steppes of Oxus and Yaxartes, the Scythian people of the Saki, armed with a bow and a battle ax; the troops of eastern Iran: the Bactrians, Aryans, Hyrcanians, Parthians, etc. Xerxes also had troops from the banks of the Indus; their clothes were white, made of paper fabric; they had bows and reed arrows; there were smooth-haired Ethiopians, who instead of helmets had the skins of horse heads with ears and manes; their shields were covered with a crane skin. There were the warlike highlanders of the southern and western shores of the Caspian Sea, in wooden helmets, with shields of ox hide. The warriors of the Euphrates and Tigris peoples wore brass helmets with elaborate decorations and linen shells; they were armed with iron-studded clubs. There were also the peoples of the south in the army of Xerxes: Arabs in white clothes with long bows, skillful arrows, Ethiopians in leopard and lion skins, with spears at the end of which instead of iron there was a sharpened gazelle horn, Libyans in leather shells. Xerxes also had the peoples of Asia Minor, long familiar to the Greeks, the Paphlagonians, Cappadocians, Phrygians, in boots with short tops, in woven helmets, with small shields and darts, the tip of which was simply burnt wood; the Lydians, whose weapons were almost the same as those of the Greek; Vithinians in colorful clothes, in reindeer-skin boots, in fox hats. No less varied was the cavalry of Xerxes' army, which numbered 80,000 men. There were Medes and Persians in heavy armor on hot war horses; there were light horsemen of the nomadic Sagardians, who had a leather rope with a noose (lasso) as their only weapon; there is a life of war chariots, drawn by horses and onagra, there were half-naked Arabs on high dromedaries. The army of Xerxes was followed by a myriad of carts and beasts of burden with provisions, many carriages with the concubines of the king and nobles, and many servants.
Xerxes' army: hoplite from Greek Ionia ruled by the Persians, Lydian hoplite (from left to right)
Such was the army, which now went in three divisions to Strimon through the land of the Thracian tribes and the area of the Greek cities of Messembria, Maronea and Abdera, forcing the tribes that lived far from the sea to go with it, and the coastal cities to join their ships to the fleet. Only the warlike Bisalts, who lived in the forests of snow-covered mountains, dared to defend their independence. The population of Greek cities, forced not only to provide ships and troops, but also to treat Xerxes with his companions, to feed the entire army during the march through their lands, was so devastated that they fled, abandoning their homes. The treat was all the more unprofitable because the Persians had a custom of taking all the dishes served on the table. A fleet approached the army of Xerxes in Akanoe; he was now even more numerous than before, since the ships of the Greek cities of the Thracian coast joined him; it now counted 1327 triremes.
The sailors and naval soldiers of Xerxes' troops were also very diverse in clothing and weapons. The Phoenicians wore linen shells; the number of Phoenician ships was 300; the number of Egyptian 200; the Egyptians wore braided helmets and armor; they were armed with iron hooks. The Cypriot kings brought 150 triremes to the aid of Xerxes' army; the kings had bandages on their heads. The number of Cilician ships was 100; the sailors wore helmets and woolen clothes; the weapons of the Cilicians were small round shields of cowhide, darts and swords. The Lycians sent 50 ships; their soldiers had goat skins on their shoulders; Their caps were with feathers: their weapon was a bow with unfeathered reed arrows. The Carians, who had 70 triremes, were armed almost in the same way as the Greeks, and differed from them only in that they had sickles and daggers. All the Greek cities of the Asian coast and islands were also compelled to send their ships; the number of their triremes extended to 427; the entire fleet of European Greece did not have such a number of ships.
Xerxes' army: Ethiopian archer, infantryman from Khorezm, infantryman from Bactria, horseman from Ariana (from left to right)
Xerxes showed great mercy to the people of Akanth for their hard work in digging the canal. From Akanthus, the army of Xerxes went through the mountainous peninsula of Halkidika to the city of Terma. On this path, lions disturbed him: fleeing from the mountains at night, they attacked camels. The fleet, having crossed the canal dug through the Isthmus of Athos, rounded the capes of Sithonia and Pallene and united with the army in the Termeisky Gulf; the army, having safely crossed the mountains, settled along the coast to the mouth of Galiakmon (5 geographical miles from Therma). The Macedonian Tsar Alexander joined with his army to the Persians and began to serve as their guide. Two routes led from Macedonia to Thessaly: one along the coast of Pieria to the mouth of the Peneus and from there along the Tempey valley; the other went through the mountains of Olympus, overgrown with forests and very steep in many places. Both routes presented difficulties that would be almost completely insurmountable if troops were deployed in places convenient for defense. But not only the Macedonians submitted to Xerxes, the Thessalians also submitted, after some hesitation. An army, consisting of the Peloponnesians and Athenians, was sent across the Euboean Strait to the Tempe Valley. The command over him was entrusted to the Spartan Evenet and Themistocles... It consisted of 10,000 hoplites and was intended to protect, with the help of the Thessalians, the passages through the gorges of Olympus. When the Thessalians sent land and water to the Persian king, he was forced to retreat. - The coastal road turned out to be inconvenient for the Persians: in some places the rocks approached so close to the river that there was barely room for a cart to pass; Xerxes had just rode up in a Sidonian ship to look at the mouth of the Peneus. The warriors sent ahead made convenient roads through the mountains and marshes at a distance from the sea; the army passed there through the land of the Perrebians to Lapaph and Gonnes and descended from the mountains into the Peneus valley.
And there stood at the gates of Greece those innumerable armies, about which the Persian old men at Aeschylus say: they went from Susa, went from Ecbatana, from the city of the Kissians, came the horse host; others sailed on ships; the infantry, a select army, also went: cavalry armed with a bow, terrible in appearance, brave in battle, went. Like a swarm of bees, the army of Xerxes went along a rope-fortified bridge across the Gella Strait, daughter of the Atamant, laying a yoke on the sea; - arrows from Mizia, inhabitants of Saint Tmol, warriors of Babylon rich in gold in colorful clothes; rowers from the Nile delta - all went to enslave Greece. A strong ruler of a populous kingdom, a god-like descendant of the golden family, led the immortal warriors to the Greek land. Xerxes sat on an Assyrian war chariot, like a bloodthirsty dragon, and encouraged the troops, skillful in fighting with spears, skillful in archery, with the fiery gaze of black eyes. Who can resist this multitude of people, what bulwark will hold this flood? The Persian people are courageous, the army of Xerxes is irresistible, and it is given to them by fate to win victories and take cities.
