Modern and Ancient Interpretations of Xerxes Essays

As the king Xerces started ruling, the beginning of the decline of tolerance and the Persian Empire as a whole began. Although we do not have the exact facts from this late time period, historians have studied Greek depictions of “increasing brutality and repression of the later Achaemenid kings, provoking violent uprisings among the subject people.” (Day of Empire pg. 21) The pivotal point of failure occurred when Darius III took the power of the Empire. During this time, “growing intolerance, unrest, and violence” (Day of Empire pg. 21) was happening amongst the subject peoples. As more and more people were conquered, the Persian Empire had so many diverse people that there was no unity amongst the Persian Empire. Soon, the whole empire came to a fall when Alexander of Macedon began to conquer cities and replace the Persian

Although Odysseus is one of the most well known greek heros in the world, he is also very controversial among the people as well. In the book, “The Odyssey” written by Homer, Odysseus made some choices that makes the readers question his role as a leader. In “The Odyssey”, it tells the story about Odysseus’ long journey home from the Trojan War. Along the way, Odyssey has extended his times away from home by making unintelligent decisions that led him to encounter one disaster after another. Although Odysseus has some positive attributes, he is a poor leader for the following reasons: he is too cocky and overconfident, he make careless decision, and finally, he is very selfish.

There are several incidents in the primary source, which portray Xerxes as being superstitious and oppressive. He is very irrational pertaining to many of the examples in the primary source; he states that the Greeks “have so foolish a manner of warfare.” He is blind at seeing how determined the Spartans are at winning, which is very illogical and stubborn of him not knowing his enemies strengths. The incident when Xerxes says,

Odysseus should be trusted as head of an army seeing that he can not even remain loyal to his men or word by returning them to their residence.

In 356 B.C.E., a boy named Alexander was born. He grew up to be a great child, with his dad being the king of Macedonia,but, when Alexander was very young, his father had been assassinated so he had to inherit the power (BGE) . By that time, his father had taken over Greece and was planning on going east to conquer Persia, which Alexander had taken over as the new king. After many rough wars, Alexander had finally taken over Persia, and was known as Alexander the Great (BGE, Doc A). Even after Alexander had taken over Persia, he kept pushing all the way east until his army had to tell him to stop. So, was Alexander as excellent as people say? Alexander was excellent because he had leadership, courage, and had many remarkable achievements over his time. By these measures, Alexander was great because of his military strategies, his strive to spread Greek culture,

Xerxes was a man of power. The Great King of Persia, his empire encompassed the majority of the known world. On his invasion of Greece in the spring of 480BCE, he reportedly commanded a horde of over two million men. Even the Greek oracle at Delphi encouraged prudence in face of such an overwhelming force (7.140). Thus the question arises of why such an army failed to compel Greece into submission. I will explore this with focus on the key battles and the important factors, most notably the timing of the attack, the quality of his expeditionary force and Xerxes’ personal faults.

Alexander the so-called ‘Great’ was a legendary conqueror who in his short lifetime was able to overthrow the Persian Empire, the most powerful kingdom at that time. He was born in 356 BCE to King Philip and Queen Olympia of Macedonia. Alexander’s warring career jumpstarted at the age of 20 in the year 336 BCE, due to the assassination of his father in which he inherited his father’s kingdom. Over the span of 11 years, Alexander and his small fleet of men of about 40,000 took over and ruthlessly conquered the Persian Empire. Sadly, this conquest was short-lived by Alexander’s sudden death in the year 323 BCE, in which his unstable kingdom with a lack of a structured governmental system quickly broke apart in the period of 10 years. Therefore, because of the cruel and the disorganized nature of the way Alexander the ‘Great’ conquered and maintained the Persian Empire, he does not deserve to be referred as ‘Great’.

In 486BC Xerxes has become the successor of Darius 1. It is stated from the inscription at Persepolis that Xerxes has treats his people based on their service and loyalty, rather than their religion and ethnicity. Xerxes have both negative and positive relationship between the non-Persians and Persians.

Do you ever wonder if Alexander the great was great? Alexander was great because he’s a military genius and an inspiring leader, and he speared culture. Alexander the great wasn’t always great. He did stuff in little time too.

Alexander gained lots of respect from many people. Although he did become a king at the age of 20, he learned to respect other cultures and have leadership over his army (BGE). Alexander was born in 356 BCE in a kingdom along the edge of northern Greece called Macedonia. His father King Philip and mother Olympia, wanted alexander prepared for his kingship. They resolved this by hiring a philosopher named Aristotle to teach him many academic subjects. Was Alexander great or not great? Alexander was magnificent because he had amazing leadership skills, he made many remarkable achievements, and he had creativity. By these measures Alexander was successful because he took leadership of his troops, he also had remarkable achievements because ruled over an empire at the age of 20, and creativity that kept porous puzzled while making noises to distract Porus’s troop.

He shows the heroic qualities of sacrifice, strength, leadership, comedy,loyalty, and insight. He shows sacrifice through his going to Thermopylae to buy time for his people to prepare for war. He shows strength by not turning back, and instead fighting the Persians to save his people. He shows leadership through leading 300 sires (Men with sons) to fight for time, and inspiring them to stay and fight with him. He shows comedy through this quote “When Xerxes wrote again, "Hand over your arms," he wrote in reply, "Come and take them."”.Another quote that shows his comedy is this "When someone said “Because of the arrows of the barbarians it is impossible to see the sun," he said, "Won't it be nice, then, if we shall have shade in which to fight them?"”. He is loyal because when offered by Xerxes to join the Persians, and be given all of Greece he said “If you had any knowledge of the noble things of life, you would refrain from coveting others' possessions; but for me to die for Greece is better than to be the sole ruler over the people of my race.". He also shows by joining his men in all of the fighting. He shows insight through this quote “Leonidas, are you here to take such a hazardous risk with so few men against so many?" he said, "If you men think that I rely on numbers, then all Greece is not sufficient, for it is but a small fraction of their numbers; but

The first incidents of Oedipus’ arrogance and pride were when he went to the Oracle of Delphi about his lineage. Even though the Oracle did not answer the question about his lineage, the Oracle did give him a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. Thinking that he was doing the right thing by putting as much distance between his parents and himself, it was arrogance and pride that ruled him. He believed that he could out run the gods and defy prophecy. Another example of Oedipus’ arrogance was when he was forced off the road by another chariot; he lost his temper when the old man angered him causing the death of the old man and his aides. Because of his intelligence and his keen sense being able to solve riddles; again, his arrogance was when he solved the riddle of the Sphinx. The Sphinx was so distraught that

Themistokles and Xerxes are both leaders in the movie “300: Rise of an Empire” but they do have their share of differences. Themistokles is the leader of the Greek army while Xerxes is the leader of the Persian army. Thermistokles army consisted of warriors that lived to fight battles while Xerxes army consisted of everyday citizens such as craftsman. Xerxes was a leader that was not caring of his men and would continue fighting knowing that many were dying off while Themistokles was the complete opposite and would actually care about his men and formed relationships with them. This is important as a good leader because it makes it easier for the people under the leader to try and do a better job as they have a connection with their leader

Odysseus has escaped death and monsters time after time and his sometimes heroic but bold actions turned him into a hero for the Greeks. There were as many disadvantages as there were advantages for Odysseus and whomever followed him throughout his voyage. He consistently wanted more and usually picked fighting over being logical and safe, therefore resulting in many casualties due to his forward behavior. Many may think Odysseus’ crafty and impulsive nature, how he almost always had a need for things that would be beneficial to him in the end (if he lived that is), even though they were usually risky, and how/what he did to cause so many redundant casualties, and how that all would have led to his downfall if he didn’t have luck on his side.

Aeschylus' play, The Persians, took place at the Persian Royal Palace in Susa. It depicted the emotional response of the Persian Elders, the Queen Mother Atossa, a herald, King Xerxes, and the ghost of Darius upon hearing the news of the Persian defeat at the Battle of Salamis against the Greeks. The play began with a conversation amongst the Persians elders about their war with the Greeks. They possessed grave trepidations because of a lack of news from the front. This fear stemmed from the great risk King Xerxes took by calling all the heroes and soldiers of the Persian Empire to fight in Greece. At first, they were confident of their victory, describing their forces as an "unconquerable ocean of men". However, their fear persisted of their forces' decimation.