WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.660 Okay, so if I say the name Xerxes, I want you 00:00:02.660 --> 00:00:04.919 to be completely honest with me. What is the 00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:08.060 very first image that hits your brain? Don't 00:00:08.060 --> 00:00:10.939 overthink it. I think for about 90 % of people 00:00:10.939 --> 00:00:14.279 listening right now, it is undeniably Rodrigo 00:00:14.279 --> 00:00:17.539 Santoro from the movie 300. Oh, absolutely. You 00:00:17.539 --> 00:00:19.640 know the look I'm talking about? Nine feet tall, 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:23.129 voice like thunder. Gold body paint, piercings 00:00:23.129 --> 00:00:25.850 in places that look incredibly painful. And sitting 00:00:25.850 --> 00:00:28.289 on that massive mobile throne carried by slaves, 00:00:28.449 --> 00:00:31.730 the ultimate god -king vibe. Exactly. Yeah. It 00:00:31.730 --> 00:00:34.250 is a fantastic piece of cinema villainy. I mean, 00:00:34.289 --> 00:00:36.670 you just love to hate him. He is the perfect 00:00:36.670 --> 00:00:40.030 foil for the rugged underdog Spartans. But here 00:00:40.030 --> 00:00:43.030 is the problem. What's that? That image has done 00:00:43.030 --> 00:00:45.369 a really, really good job of erasing the actual 00:00:45.369 --> 00:00:48.390 human being. It turns a complex historical figure 00:00:48.390 --> 00:00:51.280 into... Well, a cartoon monster. And that's our 00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:53.619 mission today. We are going to strip off the 00:00:53.619 --> 00:00:56.299 gold paint and the nose rings and look at Xerxes. 00:00:56.500 --> 00:00:59.159 I Xerxes the Great as he actually was. Because 00:00:59.159 --> 00:01:01.119 when you dig into the sources, you find out that 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:03.079 the guy who ruled the Achaemenid Empire from 00:01:03.079 --> 00:01:07.879 486 to 465 BC wasn't just some screaming tyrant. 00:01:07.959 --> 00:01:10.340 No, not at all. He was an administrator, a builder, 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:13.280 a religious devotee, and honestly, a guy dealing 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:16.359 with a surprising amount of family drama. It's 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:19.019 a soap opera on an imperial scale. Yeah. And 00:01:19.019 --> 00:01:20.859 we have to remember the canvas we are painting 00:01:20.859 --> 00:01:23.799 on here. He controlled a territory that stretched 00:01:23.799 --> 00:01:27.930 from India to Ethiopia. This was the superpower 00:01:27.930 --> 00:01:31.150 of the ancient world. The absolute undisputed 00:01:31.150 --> 00:01:33.730 superpower. So we've got a massive stack of sources 00:01:33.730 --> 00:01:36.030 on the table today. We have the classic Greek 00:01:36.030 --> 00:01:38.930 historians like Herodotus, who we should note 00:01:38.930 --> 00:01:41.349 are basically writing war propaganda for the 00:01:41.349 --> 00:01:43.290 other side. Right. That's a huge grain of salt 00:01:43.290 --> 00:01:44.950 you have to take with everything he says. But 00:01:44.950 --> 00:01:47.010 we also have modern scholarship, archaeological 00:01:47.010 --> 00:01:50.260 records from Persepolis, and even some... some 00:01:50.260 --> 00:01:52.420 biblical connections. Right. And the goal is 00:01:52.420 --> 00:01:54.579 to see if we can find the middle ground. Was 00:01:54.579 --> 00:01:57.680 he the hubristic madman the Greeks described? 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:01.079 Or was he a misunderstood stabilizer of a massive 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:04.299 empire who just happened to lose a very famous 00:02:04.299 --> 00:02:06.700 naval battle? Let's start with the origin story, 00:02:06.879 --> 00:02:09.199 because in monarchies, usually succession is 00:02:09.199 --> 00:02:11.039 simple. You're the eldest son, you get the crown, 00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:14.159 everyone bows. But with Xerxes, it wasn't that 00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:16.879 clean, was it? Not at all. And understand why 00:02:16.879 --> 00:02:19.560 Xerxes gets the job. You have to look at his 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:23.319 family tree. It is a tangled web. His father 00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:25.759 is Darius the Great, obviously a titan of Persian 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:28.120 history in his own right. Right. But his mother, 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:31.840 his mother is the real power player here. Atassa. 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:34.889 Her name was Atassa. And she's the key. Okay, 00:02:34.949 --> 00:02:37.789 so why is she the linchpin? Because Atassa was 00:02:37.789 --> 00:02:40.650 the daughter of Cyrus the Great. Ah, the founder. 00:02:40.930 --> 00:02:43.110 The George Washington of the Persian Empire. 00:02:43.430 --> 00:02:46.430 Precisely. See, Darius was a great king, but 00:02:46.430 --> 00:02:49.289 he wasn't a direct descendant of Cyrus. He seized 00:02:49.289 --> 00:02:52.229 power after a chaotic period, a crisis with the 00:02:52.229 --> 00:02:54.830 Magian usurper. He came from a collateral branch 00:02:54.830 --> 00:02:57.439 of the family. So while he had the power... He 00:02:57.439 --> 00:02:59.840 needed legitimacy. He needed that direct link 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:02.159 to the founder. So he marries into the bloodline. 00:03:02.259 --> 00:03:04.759 He marries Cyrus's daughter, Atassa. That's a 00:03:04.759 --> 00:03:06.699 classic move. Marry into the bloodline, you want 00:03:06.699 --> 00:03:08.520 to claim. And by doing that, he cements his own 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:11.659 rule. Exactly. So when Xerxes is born, he is 00:03:11.659 --> 00:03:14.099 the first biological bridge between the new dynasty 00:03:14.099 --> 00:03:16.460 of Darius and the founding dynasty of Cyrus. 00:03:16.639 --> 00:03:18.879 He represents the unification of the empire's 00:03:18.879 --> 00:03:21.879 history. Okay, so he has the right blood. But 00:03:21.879 --> 00:03:24.319 didn't Darius have other kids? I assume a king 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:27.490 of kings has a... a busy household he did he 00:03:27.490 --> 00:03:30.370 had an older son named artobazon and artobazon 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:32.930 had a very solid argument for the throne which 00:03:32.930 --> 00:03:36.490 was what he said i am the eldest son of darius 00:03:36.490 --> 00:03:40.210 by all laws of nature and custom the throne is 00:03:40.210 --> 00:03:43.530 mine that sounds standard i was here first so 00:03:43.530 --> 00:03:46.150 how does xerxes jump the line he used the legal 00:03:46.150 --> 00:03:48.509 argument that historians call being born in the 00:03:48.509 --> 00:03:51.340 purple Born in the purple. I've heard that phrase 00:03:51.340 --> 00:03:53.620 usually regarding Roman emperors or Byzantine 00:03:53.620 --> 00:03:57.520 rulers. What did it mean in 500 BC Persia? Well, 00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:00.379 the argument was incredibly technical. Artabazan 00:04:00.379 --> 00:04:03.120 was born when Darius was just a nobleman, a subject 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:05.560 of the previous king. Xerxes, however, was the 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:08.340 first son born after Darius had actually become 00:04:08.340 --> 00:04:11.520 the king of kings. Ah, so the argument is Artabazan 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:14.039 is the son of a subject, but Xerxes is the son 00:04:14.039 --> 00:04:16.740 of king. Exactly. It feels like a lawyer finding 00:04:16.740 --> 00:04:19.389 a loophole in the contract. Technically, your 00:04:19.389 --> 00:04:21.110 father wasn't king when you were born, so you're 00:04:21.110 --> 00:04:23.910 just a commoner's kid. That is a total technicality. 00:04:24.009 --> 00:04:26.829 It is. And there's a funny, almost cinematic 00:04:26.829 --> 00:04:29.889 anecdote that Xerxes was actually coached on 00:04:29.889 --> 00:04:32.829 this argument by an exiled Spartan king named 00:04:32.829 --> 00:04:34.990 Demorandus, who was living in the Persian court 00:04:34.990 --> 00:04:37.230 at the time. A Spartan helping a Persian become 00:04:37.230 --> 00:04:40.069 king? That is deeply ironic considering what 00:04:40.069 --> 00:04:42.790 happens later. It is. Demorandus apparently told 00:04:42.790 --> 00:04:45.110 him, in Sparta, the son born during the reign 00:04:45.110 --> 00:04:48.160 takes precedence. Xerxes loved that logic. But 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:51.319 while the legal argument was clever, modern scholars, 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:53.800 people like Richard Stoneman, they think the 00:04:53.800 --> 00:04:56.730 real deciding factor was simply Atassa. Mom pulled 00:04:56.730 --> 00:04:59.009 the strings. She was the daughter of Cyrus. She 00:04:59.009 --> 00:05:01.490 held immense influence in the court. Darius knew 00:05:01.490 --> 00:05:03.810 that picking her son would lock down the dynasty's 00:05:03.810 --> 00:05:06.350 legitimacy and prevent any questions about his 00:05:06.350 --> 00:05:08.810 right to rule. It was the safe political move. 00:05:08.970 --> 00:05:12.269 And it worked. It did. So in 486 BC, as Darius 00:05:12.269 --> 00:05:14.069 is preparing his tomb and getting ready for a 00:05:14.069 --> 00:05:16.689 campaign in Egypt, he officially named Xerxes 00:05:16.689 --> 00:05:20.329 his successor. And the brother, Artibazon. Does 00:05:20.329 --> 00:05:22.170 he launch a civil war? Because that's usually 00:05:22.170 --> 00:05:24.069 what happens in these stories. Surprisingly, 00:05:24.069 --> 00:05:27.819 no. The transition is incredibly smooth. It speaks 00:05:27.819 --> 00:05:30.459 to how stable the empire was at that moment and 00:05:30.459 --> 00:05:34.060 how powerful Atassa was. Xerxes steps up. No 00:05:34.060 --> 00:05:36.439 one draws a sword and he begins his reign. So 00:05:36.439 --> 00:05:39.300 he secures the bag. But let's look at his qualifications. 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:42.839 We tend to think of these ancient kings as spoiled 00:05:42.839 --> 00:05:45.500 bracks who just inherit the world and sit around 00:05:45.500 --> 00:05:47.819 eating grapes. Right. But the source material, 00:05:48.060 --> 00:05:51.019 specifically a Greek text called the First Alcibiades, 00:05:51.339 --> 00:05:54.819 it outlines a pretty rigorous education system 00:05:54.819 --> 00:05:57.579 for Persian princes. Oh, it was brutal. It wasn't 00:05:57.579 --> 00:05:59.560 just sit on a cushion. It was a system designed 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:02.680 to build a specific type of leader. Until age 00:06:02.680 --> 00:06:05.040 seven, the boy is raised in the harem, mostly 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:07.829 by eunuchs. He's shielded from the world. Kept 00:06:07.829 --> 00:06:09.829 safe. But at age seven, he gets tossed into the 00:06:09.829 --> 00:06:12.550 deep end. Exactly. At seven, he leaves the women 00:06:12.550 --> 00:06:14.350 and the eunuchs and enters the world of men. 00:06:14.509 --> 00:06:17.410 He learns to ride and hunt. And for the Persians, 00:06:17.490 --> 00:06:19.829 riding wasn't just transportation. It was an 00:06:19.829 --> 00:06:22.769 identity. Being a horse lord was central to their 00:06:22.769 --> 00:06:25.209 culture. Then at 14, it shifts again, right? 00:06:25.290 --> 00:06:29.279 Right. At 14, the real education begins. He is 00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:32.199 assigned four specific teachers, all chosen from 00:06:32.199 --> 00:06:34.920 the highest aristocracy. And I love the breakdown 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:37.120 of what they taught because it tells you exactly 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:39.500 what the Persians valued in a ruler. Break it 00:06:39.500 --> 00:06:42.060 down for us. What are the four majors? The first 00:06:42.060 --> 00:06:44.319 teacher teaches him to be wise, which effectively 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:46.779 means theology, understanding the Zoroastrian 00:06:46.779 --> 00:06:49.160 religion, the struggle between good and evil, 00:06:49.259 --> 00:06:52.319 and his duty to the god Ahura Mazda. So he's 00:06:52.319 --> 00:06:55.160 a philosopher king in training? In a way, yes. 00:06:55.550 --> 00:06:58.329 The second teacher teaches him to be just, specifically 00:06:58.329 --> 00:07:00.490 to tell the truth. Truth -telling was a big deal 00:07:00.490 --> 00:07:03.110 in Persian culture. Huge. In the inscriptions 00:07:03.110 --> 00:07:05.389 of Darius and Xerxes, they constantly referred 00:07:05.389 --> 00:07:09.689 to the lie or draga as the ultimate enemy. Lying 00:07:09.689 --> 00:07:11.970 was considered the worst sin because it destabilizes 00:07:11.970 --> 00:07:15.290 reality. So a king must speak truth. Okay, wisdom 00:07:15.290 --> 00:07:17.529 and justice. What's next? The third teacher taught 00:07:17.529 --> 00:07:20.350 him prudence, which means self -control, not 00:07:20.350 --> 00:07:22.689 being ruled by your appetites. A king cannot 00:07:22.689 --> 00:07:25.790 be a slave to food, drink, or desire. And the 00:07:25.790 --> 00:07:28.009 fourth teacher, the fourth taught him to be brave. 00:07:28.170 --> 00:07:30.529 There's a specific quote about that bravery training 00:07:30.529 --> 00:07:32.470 that stood out to me in the notes. It felt very 00:07:32.470 --> 00:07:35.230 modern in a way. Yes. The teacher taught him 00:07:35.230 --> 00:07:38.949 that fear for a Persian is the equivalent of 00:07:38.949 --> 00:07:42.949 slavery. Fear is slavery. That is a heavy mindset 00:07:42.949 --> 00:07:45.790 to drill into a teenager. It creates a psychological 00:07:45.790 --> 00:07:49.550 armor. If you are afraid, you are no better than 00:07:49.550 --> 00:07:52.319 a servant. You lose your agency. So you must 00:07:52.319 --> 00:07:55.060 conquer fear to be a master. It explains a lot 00:07:55.060 --> 00:07:56.639 of his later behavior, doesn't it? Yeah, you 00:07:56.639 --> 00:07:59.060 cannot show weakness or you are enslaving yourself. 00:07:59.420 --> 00:08:02.500 Exactly. And on top of that moral training, from 00:08:02.500 --> 00:08:05.379 age 16 or 17, they did 10 years of mandatory 00:08:05.379 --> 00:08:08.120 national service. Actual military service. Yes, 00:08:08.120 --> 00:08:11.279 actual military service. Physical training, archery, 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:14.620 sleeping outdoors, hunting lions. So by the time 00:08:14.620 --> 00:08:17.279 Xerxes takes the throne at age 32, he is physically 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:20.629 hardened. religiously educated, and trained in 00:08:20.629 --> 00:08:23.449 statecraft. He's not a soft prince. He's ready, 00:08:23.569 --> 00:08:25.550 and he needed to be, because the moment he sits 00:08:25.550 --> 00:08:27.610 on the throne, the empire starts shaking. It's 00:08:27.610 --> 00:08:30.110 like the subject nations were waiting for Darius 00:08:30.110 --> 00:08:32.629 to die to see if the new kid was tough. That 00:08:32.629 --> 00:08:35.289 is exactly what happened. His father Darius had 00:08:35.289 --> 00:08:38.169 died right in the middle of preparing to suppress 00:08:38.169 --> 00:08:41.590 a revolt in Egypt. So Xerxes inherits a war on 00:08:41.590 --> 00:08:44.600 day one. And Egypt isn't a small problem. That's 00:08:44.600 --> 00:08:46.879 the breadbasket of the empire. You lose Egypt, 00:08:47.100 --> 00:08:49.759 you lose the grain. Exactly. And this is where 00:08:49.759 --> 00:08:52.019 we see Xerxes differ from the party boy image. 00:08:52.179 --> 00:08:54.340 He doesn't delegate this. He doesn't send a general 00:08:54.340 --> 00:08:58.779 while he stays in Susa. In January 484 BC, roughly 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:01.480 a year after taking the throne, he personally 00:09:01.480 --> 00:09:04.320 leads the army to Egypt. He goes himself. He 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:06.879 goes himself. He crushes the revolt swiftly and 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:10.080 ruthlessly. And then he installs his own brother, 00:09:10.220 --> 00:09:13.389 Achaemenes, as the satrap. The governor. Keeping 00:09:13.389 --> 00:09:16.269 it in the family. Always. You trust blood more 00:09:16.269 --> 00:09:18.529 than you trust bureaucrats. But this diversion 00:09:18.529 --> 00:09:21.610 to Egypt was costly. It drained resources and 00:09:21.610 --> 00:09:23.429 it delayed the plans his father had made for 00:09:23.429 --> 00:09:25.909 invading Greece. But first things first. Right. 00:09:25.970 --> 00:09:28.929 And once Egypt was handled, a much closer and 00:09:28.929 --> 00:09:31.909 perhaps more symbolic problem exploded. Babylon. 00:09:32.029 --> 00:09:34.450 Babylon. The great city. It feels like Babylon 00:09:34.450 --> 00:09:36.649 was always revolting against someone in the ancient 00:09:36.649 --> 00:09:39.090 world. It was the New York City of antiquity. 00:09:39.320 --> 00:09:42.259 massive, wealthy, culturally dominant, and very, 00:09:42.299 --> 00:09:46.379 very proud. In 484 and 482 BC, two different 00:09:46.379 --> 00:09:49.100 rebel leaders, Belshamani and Shamash Ereba, 00:09:49.220 --> 00:09:51.940 seized the city. They were likely angry about 00:09:51.940 --> 00:09:54.440 tax increases to pay for Xerxes' building projects 00:09:54.440 --> 00:09:57.000 or maybe the deportation of their craftsmen. 00:09:57.279 --> 00:09:59.379 This leads us to one of the most famous villain 00:09:59.379 --> 00:10:02.320 Xerxes stories, the story that he hated Babylon 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:05.279 so much he melted down their god. The statue 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:07.899 controversy, yes. If you read the later Greek 00:10:07.899 --> 00:10:10.299 writers like Herodotus or Strabo, they claim 00:10:10.299 --> 00:10:13.360 Xerxes was so furious at the revolt that he sacked 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:15.519 the temples and melted down the massive solid 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:18.679 gold statue of Marduk, the patron god of Babylon. 00:10:18.980 --> 00:10:21.600 Which sounds like the ultimate sacrilege. I conquered 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:23.580 you and now I'm turning your god into coins. 00:10:23.820 --> 00:10:26.759 It's a very comic book villain thing to do. narrative 00:10:26.759 --> 00:10:30.120 perfectly, but modern historians are very, very 00:10:30.120 --> 00:10:32.299 skeptical about this. Why? Is it just that it 00:10:32.299 --> 00:10:34.320 sounds too convenient, a little too on the nose? 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:36.799 Well, there's that. But practically speaking, 00:10:37.139 --> 00:10:40.320 the statue of Marduk was essential for the legitimacy 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:43.779 of the ruler of Babylon. The king had to take 00:10:43.779 --> 00:10:46.519 the hands of Marduk during the New Year festival 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:49.899 to be recognized as the rightful king. If you 00:10:49.899 --> 00:10:52.450 melt the god, you can't be king. It would be 00:10:52.450 --> 00:10:54.370 shooting yourself in the foot. So if he didn't 00:10:54.370 --> 00:10:55.970 melt the god, where did the story come from? 00:10:55.990 --> 00:10:58.970 Was it just pure propaganda? It's likely he removed 00:10:58.970 --> 00:11:01.350 a different statue from the temple complex. Maybe 00:11:01.350 --> 00:11:03.850 a statue of a previous human king or a high priest, 00:11:03.970 --> 00:11:06.190 something like that. But over time, the story 00:11:06.190 --> 00:11:10.309 warped into he melted Marduk. However, he did 00:11:10.309 --> 00:11:12.529 punish them. He did something very subtle but 00:11:12.529 --> 00:11:15.029 very humiliating. What was that? Up until this 00:11:15.029 --> 00:11:17.250 point, the Persian emperor had the specific title, 00:11:17.389 --> 00:11:20.029 King of Babylon. It was a way of saying Babylon 00:11:20.029 --> 00:11:22.559 was special. a separate kingdom held by the emperor, 00:11:22.700 --> 00:11:24.320 distinct from the rest of the empire. Right. 00:11:24.539 --> 00:11:26.519 Xerxes dropped that title. He just stopped using 00:11:26.519 --> 00:11:29.360 it. He stopped using it. He absorbed Babylon 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:32.440 into the main empire and split its massive territory 00:11:32.440 --> 00:11:35.519 into smaller, boring administrative units. Wow. 00:11:35.659 --> 00:11:37.899 So he didn't destroy their god. He did something 00:11:37.899 --> 00:11:39.919 worse for their ego. He made them irrelevant. 00:11:40.360 --> 00:11:42.519 You're just a province now. You're just a zip 00:11:42.519 --> 00:11:45.159 code. Exactly. It was a bureaucratic demotion. 00:11:45.340 --> 00:11:48.220 It shows a cold, calculating administrative mind. 00:11:48.590 --> 00:11:51.610 Not a hot -headed madman. He stripped them of 00:11:51.610 --> 00:11:54.529 their political identity. Okay, so he's pacified 00:11:54.529 --> 00:11:57.429 Egypt with the sword. He's humbled Babylon with 00:11:57.429 --> 00:12:00.389 the pen. Now he turns his eyes to the big one. 00:12:00.470 --> 00:12:03.570 The one his father couldn't finish. Greece. The 00:12:03.570 --> 00:12:05.570 invasion of Greece. This is the centerpiece of 00:12:05.570 --> 00:12:08.740 his reign. His father, Darius, had been embarrassed 00:12:08.740 --> 00:12:11.139 at the Battle of Marathon years earlier. It was 00:12:11.139 --> 00:12:13.299 a stain on the Achaemenid honor. And there was 00:12:13.299 --> 00:12:16.120 pressure on him to fix that. Oh, immense pressure. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:18.639 He felt a filial duty, and he had his cousin, 00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:21.940 General Mardonius, whispering in his ear. Mardonius 00:12:21.940 --> 00:12:23.720 plays the devil on the shoulder here, doesn't 00:12:23.720 --> 00:12:26.340 he? Very much so. Mardonius accused Xerxes of 00:12:26.340 --> 00:12:29.059 being timid if he didn't attack. And you have 00:12:29.059 --> 00:12:32.240 to remember the training. Fear is slavery. You 00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:34.080 can't let your cousin call you a coward in the 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:36.940 royal court. So the machine starts turning. We 00:12:36.940 --> 00:12:38.700 have to talk about the scale of this invasion. 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:42.379 Because the logistics are mind -boggling for 00:12:42.379 --> 00:12:46.159 480 BC. It wasn't just an army. It was a migration. 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:48.820 It was an attempt to overwhelm the world with 00:12:48.820 --> 00:12:51.700 engineering. He didn't just want to invade. He 00:12:51.700 --> 00:12:53.840 wanted to change the geography to suit his needs. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:56.820 First, let's talk about the Mount Athos Canal. 00:12:57.279 --> 00:12:59.539 This is the peninsula where the Persian fleet 00:12:59.539 --> 00:13:01.980 had been wrecked by storms years before, right? 00:13:02.120 --> 00:13:05.360 Yes. Mount Athos is notorious for bad weather. 00:13:05.379 --> 00:13:07.740 It's a ship killer. So Xerxes looks at the map 00:13:07.740 --> 00:13:10.320 and says, we aren't sailing around it. We are 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:13.120 going through it. He digs a canal? He orders 00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:14.940 a canal dug through the neck of the peninsula. 00:13:14.980 --> 00:13:17.320 We're talking about moving tons of earth, employing 00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:19.799 thousands of laborers for years just to give 00:13:19.799 --> 00:13:22.240 his ships a safe lane. That is a massive flex. 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:24.639 It's terraforming. It is. It's a statement. I 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:26.559 will reshape the earth to ensure my victory. 00:13:26.909 --> 00:13:28.929 But the real sharestopper is the Hellespont, 00:13:29.070 --> 00:13:31.330 the stretch of water separating Asia from Europe. 00:13:31.429 --> 00:13:33.769 He wanted to walk his army across the sea, literally. 00:13:34.490 --> 00:13:37.690 He commissioned two bridges made of boats' pontoons. 00:13:38.590 --> 00:13:40.909 Hundreds of ships lashed together with heavy 00:13:40.909 --> 00:13:43.909 cables made of flax and papyrus, paved with planks 00:13:43.909 --> 00:13:48.070 and earth. A bridge between continents. And this 00:13:48.070 --> 00:13:50.529 leads to the moment that everyone cites as proof 00:13:50.529 --> 00:13:53.759 of his insanity. The whipping of the sea. The 00:13:53.759 --> 00:13:56.899 infamous whipping. So a storm destroys the first 00:13:56.899 --> 00:13:59.120 version of the bridge before the army can cross. 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:03.059 Xerxes is furious. Herodotus tells us he ordered 00:14:03.059 --> 00:14:05.480 the Hellespont to be whipped 300 times with chains, 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:08.120 and he threw a pair of fetters' handcuffs into 00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:10.419 the water. I mean, come on. Ordering the ocean 00:14:10.419 --> 00:14:12.179 to be whipped? That sounds like a toddler having 00:14:12.179 --> 00:14:15.139 a tantrum. Just with more power. Bad water. Bad. 00:14:15.379 --> 00:14:17.500 That is certainly how the Greeks framed it. Look 00:14:17.500 --> 00:14:20.019 at this barbarian hubris, thinking he can enslave 00:14:20.019 --> 00:14:22.980 nature. It fits their narrative of the mad despot. 00:14:23.019 --> 00:14:25.019 But there's another way to read it. Let's put 00:14:25.019 --> 00:14:26.659 on our deep dive hat for a second. Think about 00:14:26.659 --> 00:14:29.720 his army. It isn't just Persians. It's multi 00:14:29.720 --> 00:14:32.659 -ethnic. You have Egyptians, Phoenicians, people 00:14:32.659 --> 00:14:35.000 from cultures where rivers and seas were considered 00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:37.879 deities or spirits. If the sea god just destroyed 00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:39.879 your bridge, your troops might be terrified. 00:14:40.200 --> 00:14:42.220 They might think the omens are terrible and refuse 00:14:42.220 --> 00:14:45.860 to cross. So Xerxes steps up and says, don't 00:14:45.860 --> 00:14:48.019 worry about the sea god. I'm the bigger boss. 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:52.549 Exactly. It's performative. He is punishing the 00:14:52.549 --> 00:14:55.730 unruly element to show his troops that he is 00:14:55.730 --> 00:14:58.470 the supreme authority. He is demonstrating that 00:14:58.470 --> 00:15:01.789 even nature is subject to the great king. It's 00:15:01.789 --> 00:15:04.149 theater for morale. That makes so much more sense 00:15:04.149 --> 00:15:07.370 than just he lost his mind. It was a ritual to 00:15:07.370 --> 00:15:09.730 calm the troops and assert his own divine -like 00:15:09.730 --> 00:15:11.909 power over the elements. And it worked. They 00:15:11.909 --> 00:15:13.690 built the second bridge and the army crossed. 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:16.279 Let's talk numbers for a second. Herodotus says 00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:18.559 he marched a million men into Greece. That can't 00:15:18.559 --> 00:15:20.840 be right. No, it's physically impossible. They 00:15:20.840 --> 00:15:23.500 would have drunk entire rivers dry. The logistics 00:15:23.500 --> 00:15:26.500 of feeding a million men in 480 BC just didn't 00:15:26.500 --> 00:15:29.460 exist. Modern espits put it closer to 60 ,000 00:15:29.460 --> 00:15:32.960 combatants plus support staff. Still huge. A 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:35.059 massive force for the time. Oh, massive. It was 00:15:35.059 --> 00:15:37.539 a moving city. And at the core of that city were 00:15:37.539 --> 00:15:39.720 the immortals. The best brand name in military 00:15:39.720 --> 00:15:43.330 history. It really is. The 10 ,000 elite shock 00:15:43.330 --> 00:15:47.970 troops. The branding was brilliant. If one died, 00:15:48.169 --> 00:15:50.850 another immediately stepped into his place, so 00:15:50.850 --> 00:15:52.669 the unit always appeared to be at full strength. 00:15:52.929 --> 00:15:54.870 To the enemy, it looked like they couldn't be 00:15:54.870 --> 00:15:57.789 killed. So this massive steamroller hits Greece. 00:15:58.190 --> 00:16:00.970 We know about Thermopylae, the 300 Spartans, 00:16:00.990 --> 00:16:03.830 Leonidas. We don't need to retell the movie scene 00:16:03.830 --> 00:16:06.850 by scene, but the key takeaway there for Xerxes 00:16:06.850 --> 00:16:08.769 wasn't the fighting, it was the intelligence, 00:16:09.029 --> 00:16:11.940 right? Right. From Xerxes' perspective, Thermopylae 00:16:11.940 --> 00:16:14.740 was a traffic jam. He waited for days, assuming 00:16:14.740 --> 00:16:16.419 the Greeks would run away when they saw his numbers. 00:16:16.759 --> 00:16:19.519 When they didn't, he got frustrated. But he didn't 00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:22.480 win Thermopylae by just overpowering them. He 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:25.100 won because a local Greek, Phialtes, showed him 00:16:25.100 --> 00:16:26.700 the path around the mountain. Which the Greeks 00:16:26.700 --> 00:16:28.960 called betrayal, and Xerxes probably called good 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.600 reconnaissance. Exactly. Xerxes was pragmatic. 00:16:31.659 --> 00:16:34.139 He took the win and kept moving. And this is 00:16:34.139 --> 00:16:35.799 the part people forget because of how the war 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:38.480 ends. He actually achieved his primary goal. 00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:42.039 What was the goal? To punish Athens. To burn 00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:45.480 it. And he did. He marched into Athens. The people 00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:47.779 had fled to the island of Salamis, but the city 00:16:47.779 --> 00:16:50.299 was there for the taking. He burned the Acropolis. 00:16:50.419 --> 00:16:53.049 He destroyed the Temple of Athena. Is there proof 00:16:53.049 --> 00:16:55.269 of this, or is it just a story the Greeks told 00:16:55.269 --> 00:16:57.850 to make him look bad? Oh, there is proof. Archaeologists 00:16:57.850 --> 00:17:00.809 call it the Persichet, the Persian debris. It's 00:17:00.809 --> 00:17:03.330 a layer of destruction in Athens that dates precisely 00:17:03.330 --> 00:17:08.930 to 480 BC. Broken statues, scorched stones. When 00:17:08.930 --> 00:17:10.529 they excavated the Acropolis, they found the 00:17:10.529 --> 00:17:12.589 statues the Persians knocked over buried in the 00:17:12.589 --> 00:17:15.250 ground. He literally left a scar on the city 00:17:15.250 --> 00:17:18.430 that defines archaeology there today. So he wins. 00:17:18.450 --> 00:17:20.529 He's standing in the ashes of his enemy's capital. 00:17:20.650 --> 00:17:22.890 He has avenged his father. Why didn't he just 00:17:22.890 --> 00:17:26.569 go home? Hubris. Or maybe bad advice. The Athenian 00:17:26.569 --> 00:17:29.210 fleet was still intact nearby at Salamis. And 00:17:29.210 --> 00:17:31.769 Xerxes was advised by Queen Artemisia, the only 00:17:31.769 --> 00:17:33.710 female commander in his navy, by the way. She's 00:17:33.710 --> 00:17:36.529 a fascinating character. Absolutely. A ruler 00:17:36.529 --> 00:17:39.210 in her own right from Halicarnassus. And she 00:17:39.210 --> 00:17:42.480 told him, You have the city. You have won. Don't 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:44.759 fight them at sea. The Greeks are better sailors. 00:17:44.920 --> 00:17:47.539 Just wait them out. They are trapped on an island 00:17:47.539 --> 00:17:50.200 with no food. They will scatter. That sounds 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:52.920 like solid, prudent advice. It was perfect advice. 00:17:53.539 --> 00:17:56.519 But Xerxes wanted the knockout blow. He wanted 00:17:56.519 --> 00:17:59.859 to crush them completely. And he fell for a trap 00:17:59.859 --> 00:18:03.200 set by the Athenian leader Themistocles, who 00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:05.299 sent a fake message saying the Greeks were panicking 00:18:05.299 --> 00:18:07.359 and trying to escape. And Xerxes took the bait. 00:18:07.539 --> 00:18:10.039 He took the bait. He sent his massive fleet into 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:12.619 the narrow straits of Salamis. And just like 00:18:12.619 --> 00:18:15.759 at Thermopylae, the terrain mattered. In the 00:18:15.759 --> 00:18:18.079 open ocean, the Persian numbers were an advantage. 00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:20.140 In the narrow straits, they were a liability. 00:18:20.500 --> 00:18:22.599 The ships were tripping over each other. The 00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:25.000 smaller, more agile Greek triremes tore them 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:27.359 apart. And Xerxes is watching this from a throne 00:18:27.359 --> 00:18:29.720 set up on a hill, just watching his navy get 00:18:29.720 --> 00:18:32.559 decimated. Watching his fleet be destroyed. And 00:18:32.559 --> 00:18:35.680 suddenly, the strategic situation flips. If the 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:38.039 Greeks control the sea, they can sail the Hellespont 00:18:38.039 --> 00:18:39.880 and destroy that bridge of boats. And if the 00:18:39.880 --> 00:18:42.779 bridge is gone? Xerxes and his army are trapped 00:18:42.779 --> 00:18:45.890 in Europe. cut off from supply lines in hostile 00:18:45.890 --> 00:18:48.589 territory. It's a nightmare scenario. So the 00:18:48.589 --> 00:18:51.109 retreat begins. He makes the calculated decision 00:18:51.109 --> 00:18:53.529 to retreat. He takes the bulk of the army back 00:18:53.529 --> 00:18:56.210 to Asia to protect the emperor's person himself 00:18:56.210 --> 00:18:59.950 and to ensure the bridge is held. He leaves Mardonius 00:18:59.950 --> 00:19:02.630 behind with a smaller force to try and hold the 00:19:02.630 --> 00:19:05.109 territory. Which didn't go well for Mardonius. 00:19:05.250 --> 00:19:08.009 No. Mardonius gets killed the next year at the 00:19:08.009 --> 00:19:10.859 Battle of Plataea, and that's it. The Persian 00:19:10.859 --> 00:19:13.940 invasion is over. It's treated as this huge humiliation 00:19:13.940 --> 00:19:16.099 in Western history books, the salvation of Western 00:19:16.099 --> 00:19:19.640 civilization. But from Xerxes' perspective... 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:23.140 Was it a total failure? He did what he set out 00:19:23.140 --> 00:19:25.059 to do. That's the nuance we need to see. No, 00:19:25.119 --> 00:19:27.299 it wasn't a total failure. He burned Athens. 00:19:27.539 --> 00:19:29.559 He punished the people who insulted his father. 00:19:29.720 --> 00:19:32.359 He looted the temples. He expanded the empire's 00:19:32.359 --> 00:19:34.980 borders firmly into Thrace and Macedonia. He 00:19:34.980 --> 00:19:37.440 went home and told his people, I conquered. I 00:19:37.440 --> 00:19:39.900 punished the wicked Greeks. And because he controlled 00:19:39.900 --> 00:19:42.259 the propaganda, that became the official story 00:19:42.259 --> 00:19:45.140 in Persia. He spun the narrative. Mission accomplished. 00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:49.819 And honestly, he never went back to war. After 00:19:49.819 --> 00:19:53.619 479 BC, the warrior king retires and a new figure 00:19:53.619 --> 00:19:56.960 emerges, the builder king. Let's talk about that 00:19:56.960 --> 00:19:58.859 because when he gets back to Persia, he doesn't 00:19:58.859 --> 00:20:01.519 sulk. He starts building on a scale that dwarfs 00:20:01.519 --> 00:20:05.000 even his father. He focuses on Persepolis, the 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:07.500 ceremonial capital. He wants to turn it into 00:20:07.500 --> 00:20:10.319 a wonder of the world. His palace was twice the 00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:12.240 size of his father's. What are some of the highlights 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:14.799 of his construction phase? The gate of all nations. 00:20:15.079 --> 00:20:18.049 Just the name tells you the ambition. It was 00:20:18.049 --> 00:20:20.769 a colossal entry point with giant -winged bulls 00:20:20.769 --> 00:20:23.329 -le -masu. The idea was that dignitaries from 00:20:23.329 --> 00:20:25.650 India, Africa, and Europe would walk through 00:20:25.650 --> 00:20:28.450 this gate and feel physically small. They would 00:20:28.450 --> 00:20:30.309 feel the weight of the empire before they even 00:20:30.309 --> 00:20:32.950 saw the king. And the Hall of 100 Columns. Yes, 00:20:33.069 --> 00:20:34.990 one of the largest rooms in the ancient world. 00:20:35.309 --> 00:20:37.329 And we have to remember, these weren't bare stone 00:20:37.329 --> 00:20:39.789 ruins like we see today in museums. Right, we 00:20:39.789 --> 00:20:42.710 picture them as beige and dusty. They were technicolor. 00:20:42.789 --> 00:20:44.789 We're talking glazed bricks and bright blues, 00:20:44.890 --> 00:20:48.180 yellows and greens. Lapis lazuli. Gold plating 00:20:48.180 --> 00:20:50.599 on a wall, cedar wood from Lebanon. It was a 00:20:50.599 --> 00:20:53.099 sensory overload of wealth. It was his way of 00:20:53.099 --> 00:20:55.500 saying, I may have lost a naval battle in Greece, 00:20:55.579 --> 00:20:57.920 but look at this. Who is the real master of the 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:00.400 world? It's projecting power through architecture. 00:21:00.660 --> 00:21:03.839 A very loud, very expensive message. Exactly. 00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:06.539 He's saying, my resources are infinite. It's 00:21:06.539 --> 00:21:08.380 a very effective way to keep the nobles in line 00:21:08.380 --> 00:21:10.819 and the tributaries paying up. But while he is 00:21:10.819 --> 00:21:13.200 building these beautiful palaces, the atmosphere 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:16.170 inside the palace starts to get dark. We're entering 00:21:16.170 --> 00:21:19.650 the final act of Xerxes' life, and it feels like 00:21:19.650 --> 00:21:22.250 a conspiracy thriller. It really does. The last 00:21:22.250 --> 00:21:25.069 years of his reign, starting around 465 B .C., 00:21:25.069 --> 00:21:27.829 are murky. We see famine in the empire. We see 00:21:27.829 --> 00:21:29.890 economic trouble. The grain prices are spiking. 00:21:30.009 --> 00:21:32.450 And inside the court, the sharks are circling. 00:21:32.730 --> 00:21:34.730 Introduce us to the villain of this final act. 00:21:35.150 --> 00:21:37.450 Artabanus. Not to be confused with the brother 00:21:37.450 --> 00:21:40.019 Artabazan. Artabanus was the commander of the 00:21:40.019 --> 00:21:42.599 royal bodyguard. He was a Hyrcanian. This is 00:21:42.599 --> 00:21:44.880 the guy trusted with the king's safety, the most 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:47.180 powerful official in the court. He had risen 00:21:47.180 --> 00:21:49.339 through religious connections and harem politics. 00:21:49.720 --> 00:21:53.660 And in August of 465 BC, he decides to make a 00:21:53.660 --> 00:21:56.980 move. How does it go down? It's brutal. With 00:21:56.980 --> 00:21:59.559 the help of a eunuch named Aspemiders, Artabanus 00:21:59.559 --> 00:22:02.380 assassinates Xerxes in his bedchamber. Just like 00:22:02.380 --> 00:22:05.240 that. The king of kings, ruler of millions, the 00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:07.700 man who whipped the sea, stabbed in his own bedroom. 00:22:08.180 --> 00:22:11.599 It's a quiet and glorious end. But Artabanus 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:14.420 doesn't stop there. This is where it gets confusing, 00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:17.059 the hoodoonit aspect. He has killed the king, 00:22:17.200 --> 00:22:19.589 but he needs a cover story. We have a couple 00:22:19.589 --> 00:22:20.970 of versions of this from ancient historians, 00:22:21.230 --> 00:22:23.150 but the most dramatic one comes from Destesius. 00:22:23.349 --> 00:22:25.809 What does Destesius say happened? He says Artabanus 00:22:25.809 --> 00:22:28.809 went to Xerxes' younger son, Artaxerxes, and 00:22:28.809 --> 00:22:30.789 told him, your older brother, the crown prince 00:22:30.789 --> 00:22:32.950 Darius, has murdered your father to seize the 00:22:32.950 --> 00:22:35.349 throne. He frames the crown prince. Exactly. 00:22:35.490 --> 00:22:38.089 He plays on the younger brother's fear and ambition. 00:22:38.430 --> 00:22:41.750 He tells Artaxerxes, he killed father and you 00:22:41.750 --> 00:22:44.950 are next. So Artaxerxes, blinded by rage and 00:22:44.950 --> 00:22:47.670 grief, goes and executes his own brother, Darius. 00:22:48.170 --> 00:22:50.529 So Artabanus manages to wipe out the king in 00:22:50.529 --> 00:22:53.410 the air in one swoop, using the spare as the 00:22:53.410 --> 00:22:55.529 weapon. It's Machiavellian. It's Game of Thrones 00:22:55.529 --> 00:22:58.089 long before George R .R. Martin. Eventually, 00:22:58.109 --> 00:23:00.950 the truth comes out and Artabanus realizes he's 00:23:00.950 --> 00:23:03.250 been played. He kills Artabanus in a violent 00:23:03.250 --> 00:23:06.710 struggle, but the damage is done. Xerxes is dead. 00:23:06.890 --> 00:23:09.720 His eldest son is dead. and the empire is in 00:23:09.720 --> 00:23:12.359 chaos. It's a tragic end. You start with that 00:23:12.359 --> 00:23:14.900 high -minded education, truth is justice, fear 00:23:14.900 --> 00:23:17.559 is slavery, and you end up being stabbed in the 00:23:17.559 --> 00:23:19.839 dark by your own bodyguard, leaving a legacy 00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:22.720 of family kinslaying. It is. And that instability 00:23:22.720 --> 00:23:25.500 nearly broke the empire. It was only saved because 00:23:25.500 --> 00:23:27.619 a general named Megabiasus decided to switch 00:23:27.619 --> 00:23:29.660 sides and support the Achaemenids against the 00:23:29.660 --> 00:23:32.079 conspirators. But this moment marked a shift. 00:23:32.279 --> 00:23:34.480 The Persian empire became less about the warrior 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:36.319 king on the battlefield and more about harem 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:39.460 intrigues and court politics. So Xerxes is gone, 00:23:39.660 --> 00:23:43.579 but his image, his image takes on a life of its 00:23:43.579 --> 00:23:45.579 own that has very little to do with the actual 00:23:45.579 --> 00:23:48.980 man. Almost immediately, the Greeks control the 00:23:48.980 --> 00:23:51.900 narrative. Aeschylus writes the play The Persians 00:23:51.900 --> 00:23:54.559 just seven years after the invasion. It's the 00:23:54.559 --> 00:23:57.400 oldest surviving play in history. And in it, 00:23:57.420 --> 00:24:00.900 he paints Xerxes as this effeminate, emotional, 00:24:01.319 --> 00:24:04.460 incompetent despot who cries and rips his clothes. 00:24:04.829 --> 00:24:06.950 And that stuck. That became the version of Xerxes 00:24:06.950 --> 00:24:09.329 that the West inherited. It stuck hard. It became 00:24:09.329 --> 00:24:11.549 the template. Herodotus picked it up. Later Roman 00:24:11.549 --> 00:24:14.130 writers picked it up. And then we had the biblical 00:24:14.130 --> 00:24:16.569 connection. The Book of Esther. Right. Xerxes 00:24:16.569 --> 00:24:18.509 is widely identified as King Ahasuerus in the 00:24:18.509 --> 00:24:21.450 Bible. The king who banishes his first wife, 00:24:21.569 --> 00:24:24.029 holds a massive drinking party, marries Esther, 00:24:24.150 --> 00:24:26.470 and ultimately saves the Jewish people from a 00:24:26.470 --> 00:24:29.049 plot to destroy them. Is that historically accurate? 00:24:29.230 --> 00:24:31.589 Did he marry an Esther? That is a subject of 00:24:31.589 --> 00:24:34.220 fierce debate. Many scholars consider the Book 00:24:34.220 --> 00:24:36.660 of Esther to be a historical romance, a fictional 00:24:36.660 --> 00:24:39.500 story set in a real historical setting. We don't 00:24:39.500 --> 00:24:41.720 have Persian records of a Queen Esther. We know 00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:43.980 his chief wife was Amestris, who was a powerful 00:24:43.980 --> 00:24:46.500 figure in her own right. But the characterization 00:24:46.500 --> 00:24:49.299 fits. Well, the character of Ahasuerus, wealthy, 00:24:49.500 --> 00:24:52.619 powerful, a bit temperamental, susceptible to 00:24:52.619 --> 00:24:55.519 advice from his courtiers, it fits the vibe of 00:24:55.519 --> 00:24:58.079 the Xerxes the Greeks described. And then fast 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:00.140 forward a few thousand years and we have Handel 00:25:00.140 --> 00:25:03.140 writing an opera about him. Circe? Which opens 00:25:03.140 --> 00:25:05.500 with one of the most famous arias in opera history, 00:25:05.900 --> 00:25:08.539 Ombre Maifu. Isn't that the one where he sings 00:25:08.539 --> 00:25:11.839 a love song to a tree? It is. He is singing about 00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:13.920 how much he loves the shade of a plane tree. 00:25:14.039 --> 00:25:15.920 It's actually quite beautiful music, but again, 00:25:15.960 --> 00:25:18.460 it paints him as this whimsical, slightly detached 00:25:18.460 --> 00:25:21.640 figure, not a battlefield commander. And finally, 00:25:21.640 --> 00:25:25.180 we land on Frank Miller and 300, the giant with 00:25:25.180 --> 00:25:27.160 the nose ring chain. The ultimate distortion. 00:25:27.420 --> 00:25:29.619 And you know, that movie really angered people 00:25:29.619 --> 00:25:32.390 in Iran. They saw it as an insult to their heritage, 00:25:32.569 --> 00:25:35.690 reducing a complex geopolitical ruler, a man 00:25:35.690 --> 00:25:38.829 who built laws and roads and cities, to a grotesque 00:25:38.829 --> 00:25:41.849 monster. So let's wrap this up. We've unpacked 00:25:41.849 --> 00:25:44.609 his life. We've seen the born in the Purple Prince, 00:25:44.869 --> 00:25:47.630 the ruthless general, the bridge builder, the 00:25:47.630 --> 00:25:51.589 sea whipper, and the assassination victim. When 00:25:51.589 --> 00:25:52.910 you step back and look at the whole picture, 00:25:53.009 --> 00:25:56.410 was he mad? Or was he just a guy with a really, 00:25:56.490 --> 00:25:59.170 really difficult job? I think mad is the lazy 00:25:59.170 --> 00:26:01.690 answer. It's the easy answer the Greeks gave 00:26:01.690 --> 00:26:04.009 us. But when you look at the whipping of the 00:26:04.009 --> 00:26:06.529 sea, the burning of Athens, the massive gates 00:26:06.529 --> 00:26:10.049 at Persepolis, it wasn't insanity. It was performance. 00:26:10.329 --> 00:26:13.670 Performance of power. Exactly. He ruled a massive, 00:26:13.750 --> 00:26:17.089 fracturing, multi -ethnic empire that was constantly 00:26:17.089 --> 00:26:19.269 trying to pull itself apart. He had to be larger 00:26:19.269 --> 00:26:21.210 than life. He had to be terrifying to the elements 00:26:21.210 --> 00:26:23.750 and ruthless to rebels. He had to be wealthier 00:26:23.750 --> 00:26:26.160 than imagination. It was a calculated political 00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:28.900 strategy to hold it all together. So the god 00:26:28.900 --> 00:26:31.339 -king thing wasn't because he delusionally thought 00:26:31.339 --> 00:26:34.279 he was a god, but because he needed his subjects 00:26:34.279 --> 00:26:37.359 to believe he was untouchable. Precisely. And 00:26:37.359 --> 00:26:40.380 for the most part, it worked. The empire survived 00:26:40.380 --> 00:26:43.200 him for another 130 years. He maintained the 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:45.680 structure his father built. He wasn't the failure 00:26:45.680 --> 00:26:48.240 the Greeks painted him to be. He was a stabilizer. 00:26:48.589 --> 00:26:50.309 who perhaps flew a little too close to the sun 00:26:50.309 --> 00:26:52.829 in Greece. That is a fascinating shift in perspective. 00:26:52.869 --> 00:26:55.529 Not a monster, but a man playing a monstrously 00:26:55.529 --> 00:26:57.630 difficult role. If you ever get the chance to 00:26:57.630 --> 00:27:00.269 see photos of the ruins of Persepolis, look at 00:27:00.269 --> 00:27:02.269 the Gate of All Nations. You can still see the 00:27:02.269 --> 00:27:04.589 ambition there. It's the other side of the story, 00:27:04.730 --> 00:27:07.990 carved in stone. I love that. A calculated ruler 00:27:07.990 --> 00:27:10.730 using performative cruelty. Definitely something 00:27:10.730 --> 00:27:13.269 to chew on the next time you watch 300. That's 00:27:13.269 --> 00:27:16.230 it for this deep dive into Xerxes' Eye. We hope 00:27:16.230 --> 00:27:18.049 you learned something new about the man behind 00:27:18.049 --> 00:27:19.589 the myth. Thanks for listening.