Xerxes King of Persia (486-465 bc). He suppressed revolt in Egypt, perhaps fought successfully in central Asia, but is celebrated for failure in the Graeco-Persian war of 480-479 and the loss of Macedonia, Thrace, and Aegean Anatolia and defeat at the Eurymedon. The expedition against the Greeks (to avenge Marathon but also reflecting an expansionist imperative) was elaborately prepared (roads were improved, a canal cut at Mt Athos, the Dardanelles bridged, and food-dumps established) and large-scale. Herodotus' (see Greek historians) picture of a huge army incorporating every ethnically diverse part of the empire is quantitatively ludicrous, but there are no non-Greek sources specific to the period and views diverge on how to replace it. There is little doubt that it was unwieldy and its logistical demands required a strategy of co-ordinated land-sea advance along the coast that was ill-suited to Greek topography. There is also a suspicion that too much reliance was placed on expected Greek disunity. The campaign foundered at Salamis, where the Persian fleet fought on the defenders' terms, while Plataea again illustrated the advantage Greek hoplites had over Persian infantry when numerical superiority and cavalry mobility were neutralized by terrain.
Bibliography
- Briant, P., History of the Persian Empire (forthcoming), trans. from French orig. (1966)
— Christopher Tuplin
