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	Xerxes: A Persian Life

Richard Stoneman
Yale University Press, Aug 15, 2015 - Biography & Autobiography - 288 pages
 0 Reviews

Xerxes, Great King of the Persian Empire from 486–465 B.C., has gone down in history as an angry tyrant full of insane ambition. The stand of Leonidas and the 300 against his army at Thermopylae is a byword for courage, while the failure of Xerxes’ expedition has overshadowed all the other achievements of his twenty-two-year reign.
  
 In this lively and comprehensive new biography, Richard Stoneman shows how Xerxes, despite sympathetic treatment by the contemporary Greek writers Aeschylus and Herodotus, had his reputation destroyed by later Greek writers and by the propaganda of Alexander the Great. Stoneman draws on the latest research in Achaemenid studies and archaeology to present the ruler from the Persian perspective. This illuminating volume does not whitewash Xerxes’ failings but sets against them such triumphs as the architectural splendor of Persepolis and a consideration of Xerxes’ religious commitments. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of a man who ruled a vast and multicultural empire which the Greek communities of the West saw as the antithesis of their own values.


 		 
	


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XERXES: A Persian Life
User Review  - KirkusStoneman (Pindar, 2014, etc.) sorts through millennia of literature and histories to try to reveal Xerxes, the powerful ruler of the Achaemenid Empire. The author sets a difficult task, and he cites a ... Read full review





Selected pages

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Contents
	Introduction
	1
	  	
	chapter one Accession
	17
	  	
	chapter two The Persian Empire
	35
	  	
	chapter three The Image of a King
	69
	  	
	chapter four The Religion of Xerxes
	88
	  	
	The Cornerstone ofGreek Freedom
	109
	  	
	The Wooden Walls
	139
	  	
	chapter seven Persepolis
	160
	  	



	Conclusion
	210
	  	
	Appendix 1 Xerxes in Opera and Drama
	219
	  	
	Appendix 2 The Birth of Persian Kings
	223
	  	
	Appendix 3 The Chronology of Xerxes Advancethrough Greece
	226
	  	
	Abbreviations
	229
	  	
	Notes
	230
	  	
	Bibliography
	258
	  	
	Index
	268
	  	






More	chapter eight Family Romances
	181
	  	
	chapter nine Assassination
	195
	  	



	Copyright
	
	  	





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		Xerxes: A Persian Life
Richard Stoneman
Limited preview - 2015

	






Common terms and phrases
according to Herodotus Achaemenid Aelian Aelian VH Aeschylus Ahura Mazda Alexander Alexander’s Amestris ancient apadana Artabanus Artaxerxes Artemision Asia Athenian Athens Atossa Babylon Babylonian Bactria battle Book of Esther Briant Brosius brother building Cambyses campaign century Cimon commander Couperus Ctesias Cyrop Cyrus Darius daughter death Demaratus depicted described Diod Diodorus Esfandiyar eunuchs father Ferdowsi FGrH fleet garden Gaumata gods gold Greece Greek Gushtasp harem Hellespont Herodotus Herzfeld historians Hystaspes inscription interpretation Iranian king’s Kuhrt land later Leonidas Llewellyn-Jones Magi magus Mardonius Masistes mother Ottoman palace Pasargadae Pausanias perhaps Persepolis Persian court Persian Empire Persian king Plataea Plut Plutarch queen reign reliefs religion revolt royal ruler Salamis Sancisi-Weerdenburg Sardis Sassanian satrap says seems Shahbazi Shahnameh ships Spartan Stoneman story Strabo Susa temple Themistocles Thermopylae throne tomb tradition tree tribute troops Vidal Wiesehöfer wife women writing Xenophon Xerxes Zoroaster Zoroastrian



About the author (2015)
Richard Stoneman is Honorary Visiting Professor, University of Exeter, and the author of numerous books. He lives in Devon, UK.



Bibliographic information

	Title	Xerxes: A Persian Life
	Author	Richard Stoneman
	Edition	unabridged
	Publisher	Yale University Press, 2015
	ISBN	0300216041, 9780300216042
	Length	288 pages
	Subjects	History
 › Ancient
 › General


Biography & Autobiography / Historical
History / Ancient / General
History / Asia / Central Asia
	 	 
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