Xerxes

Xerxes hand Prosecution Building Programs * Economic bloodline was related to his excessive building programs. * scour though his building programs were impressive he neglected other parts of the empire. * Olmstead Xerxes was much interested in completing the smart as a whip structures begun by his father than he was in testing the formidable war machine machine. * Josef Wieshofer Persepolis was one of his favourite past times, was barely independent of Darius style, was an imitation of standards. * Xerxes spent coarse time, energy and resources on massive edifice programs. granger Fo prevail Policy * ill to expand into Greece was a lack of military ability. * He sent a squadron of ships to give up the channel before Salamis which resulted in the take place being unmake. * Battle of Salamis lack of truth within his navy and land troops. * no matter of how big and revolutionary the military was, Xerxes shut up failed. * Didnt actually get involved, sit and watche d. Religious Policy * Sacrilege destroyed temples (Egypt and Babylon), melted down the statue of boron Marduk. Xerxes was a apparitional fanatic who deviated from the religious gross profit of his predecessorshe has become a icon for religious bigotry, fanatically interfering in sacred matters where his predecessors had kept a distance. Granger * Wasnt a pragmatic religious ruler killed priests, took their land, melted down the statue of Bel Marduk resulted in the discontinuation of the New forms Festival. * Babylonian people resented the reign of Xerxes and did non consider him their king and archaeologic evidence after this incident, Xerxes ceased calling himself the major power of Babylon.Relationships * Werent strong with the aristocracy was kill by a member of his nobility Character * Various ancient sources shoot him with impetuosity, arrogance, sadism, madness and gulibilty. * small, blubbering, ruled by women and eunuchs, inhuman in victory, spineless in defeat . classic propaganda * deeply flawed ruler, one to cost passion rather than reason. William Culican and Augustine Alletz Comparison to separate Kings * The classics liked to compare Xerxes with other Iranian kings to highlight his faults.In their comparison with Darius and Cyrus, Xerxes is hardly the paladin among kings as he is named in Persian inscriptions. Rather, he is the bad king, the ruthless despot, not at all in the usance of the good and just Persian kings of the past. * Xenophon Describes Cyrus as modest, tolerant and wise and the hero of Persia. Whereas Xerxes is interpret as an ambitious, often cruel and magisterial Oriental ruler, described as a courtly womaniser, concerned only with Persian expansion and greatness. Concluding Statement Greek sources agree on his bad rule, as yet though they are bias, this viewpoint is support up by Roman and forward-looking sources. * Rodgers as Xerxes had failed in war and in civil organization so likewise did Xerxes fail to surpass his great predecessor. * His megalomaniac motives, his move to master nature and ignore the gods, the sacrilegious destruction of foreign temples, his apparent stale disregard for the lives of his men and his mutilation of Leonidas body, together with his mania of luxury.