Sykes' History of Persia - Heritage Institute

^ CHAPTER
Combat of Greeks with Persians.
(From the Temple of Athenae—Nike Frieze.)
XVII
THE REPULSE OF PERSIA BY HELLAS
A King sate on the rocky brow
Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis ;
And ships, by thousands, lay below,
And men in nations— all were his !
He counted them at break of day —
And, when the sun set, where were they ?
Byron.
The Accession of Xerxes^ 485 b.c.— According to Persian
custom, Darius had many wives. Among them was the
daughter of Gobryas, one of his fellow-conspirators in the
attack on the false Gaumata. By her he had three children,
the eldest of whom, Artabazanes, had long been regarded
as heir to the throne. But Atossa, daughter of Cyrus,
ranked supreme, and her influence on the old king was so
strong that just
before his death he nominated as his
successor her son Khshayarsha, better known by his Greek
name Xerxes, and he ascended the throne without opposition.
The new monarch, the Ahasuerus of the book of
Esther, was famous for his radiant beauty and superb
physique, but he was indolent, weak, and easily swayed by
his advisers. Voluptuous and fond of luxury, he had no
desire for
glory, and to these defects in his character
Greece, in all probability, owed her salvation. From the
first he was inclined to treat the failure in Hellas as of no
importance ; but Mardonius insisted that the prestige of
Persia would suffer, and remonstrated with such effect that
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