Richard Stoneman - Xerxes: A Persian Life

Copyright 2015 Richard Stoneman

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stoneman, Richard.

Xerxes: a Persian life/Richard Stoneman.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-300-18007-7 (cl: alk. paper)

1. Xerxes I, King of Persia, 519 B.C.465 B.C. or 464 B.C. 2. IranKings and rulersBiography. 3. IranHistoryTo 640. I. Title.

DS283.S76 2015

937.705092dc23

[B]

2015017637

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Frontispiece: Seal of Xerxes from Dascyleion. After Kaptan 2002.

Contents

Illustrations

P LATES

M APS

T ABLES

1 Frontispiece to Colley Cibber, Xerxes (London 1736).

2 The Treasury Relief, Tehran Museum. The king (probably Xerxes, but possibly Darius), seated, receives petitioners. Behind him stand a guard and a priest.

3 The petitioner, perhaps the hazarapati, or another court dignitary.

4 Pasargadae: view from Tell-i-Takht. The Zendan-i-Suleiman is in the nearer distance, and in the far distance the Tomb of Cyrus.

5 The Zendan-i-Suleiman (Prison of Solomon) at Pasargadae. The purpose of the building is unknown but it may have been used in coronation ceremonies.

6 The Qaaba of Zoroaster at Naqsh-i-Rustam, near Persepolis. This building, which stands before the tombs of the kings, is a better-preserved version of the Zendan-i-Suleiman at Pasargadae. Its purpose is likewise obscure.

7 Relief from the Tripylon at Persepolis: lion attacking bull, possibly a symbol of Now Ruz, the spring festival when the sun enters Taurus.

8 A gold armlet from the Oxus Treasure, an Achaemenid hoard found near the River Oxus in the 1870s; now in the British Museum. Such armlets were favourite gift items and are frequently depicted on the Persepolis reliefs.

9 Gold rhyton (pouring vessel), Achaemenid or later.

10 Hunting relief from Celaenae, now in the anakkale Museum.

11 Relief of musician and warriors from the Polyxena tomb, now in the anakkale Museum.

12 Takule, the stone tower; an Achaemenid-period tomb hewn from solid rock outside the town of Foa (Phocaea), Turkey. Perhaps it was the tomb of a satrap?

13 The Greek face of the trilingual inscription from the Leton (sanctuary of Leto) near Xanthos, Turkey. It records a dedication in Greek by the king of Kaunos in 337 BC .

14 Coins of the Persian Empire.

(a) Silver siglos depicting the king as archer.

(b) Silver coin of Shapur I: reverse, depicting a fire-altar.

(c) Coin of Mazaeus, the satrap of Babylon who surrendered to Alexander the Great; reverse, with the lion and bull motif.

15 Tiled floor in the palace of Darius I at Susa.

16 The tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae.

17 Hunting relief from Taq-e-Bostan near Kermanshah; Sassanian period.

18 A Magus, or Zoroastrian priest, wearing a bashlik (hooded cap) and carrying a barsom (bundle of twigs).

19 The king before a fire-altar: from the tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e-Rustam.

20 This cypress tree at Abarkuh, allegedly planted by Zoroaster (like the one that once grew at Persepolis), is still the object of, not reverence exactly, but excursions to admire its beauty.