Xerxes I c.520-465BC
King of Persia

He succeeded his father, Darius I in 486BC. He subdued the rebellious Egyptians, then (484) marched on Greece with a vast army drawn from all parts of the empire, and a fleet furnished by the Phoenicians. A bridge consisting of a double line of boats was built across the Hellespont, and a canal cut through Mount Athos. His immense force reached Thermopylae, but was defeated by Leonidas (480). Xerxes then destroyed Athens, but was defeated in the naval battle of Salamis (480). He withdrew to the Hellespont, but his hopes of conquest died with the fall of his general, Mardonius, at Plataea (479). He then withdrew to Persia (Iran), where he added monuments to his capital at Persepolis. Xerxes, possibly the Ahasuerus of Ezra 4.6 and Esther 1-10, was later murdered by Artabanus.

Bibliography: Peter Green, Xerxes at Salamis (1970)