Early in his reign, Xerxes focused on restoring control in Egypt, where a usurper had governed for about two years; this consolidation helped stabilize the empire before renewed campaigning in the Aegean.
Darius I died in October 486 BCE, and Xerxes I succeeded him as Great King, inheriting a vast Achaemenid empire and his father’s unfinished plans to subdue Greece.
In 484 BCE, Xerxes used harsher measures than Darius had in Egypt, ravaging the Nile Delta to crush resistance and reassert imperial authority.
In July 484 BCE, revolts broke out in Babylonia, with rival rebel claimants proclaimed in different cities; Persian forces defeated the uprising by October and restored control.
To reduce naval risk on the invasion route, the Xerxes Canal across the Athos peninsula was completed in 480 BCE, allowing Persian ships to bypass dangerous waters near Mount Athos.
For the 480 BCE invasion, Xerxes ordered two pontoon bridges across the Hellespont (Dardanelles) to move the army from Asia into Europe—an engineering feat famously described by Herodotus.
After crossing into Europe in April 480 BCE, the Persian army marched through Thrace and Macedonia toward Greece, supported by prepared depots and coordinated fleet movements.
In August 480 BCE, Greeks attempted to block Xerxes at Thermopylae and simultaneously contest Persian sea power at Artemisium. Persian forces ultimately broke through on land, while the naval fighting at Artemisium ended without halting the invasion.
After Thermopylae, Athens was evacuated and then taken by Persian forces in September 480 BCE; Xerxes ordered the city torched, with major destruction on the Acropolis.
In late September 480 BCE, the Greek fleet won a decisive victory at Salamis, undermining Persian naval support for operations in southern Greece and contributing to Xerxes’ decision to withdraw with much of his army.
Following Salamis, Xerxes returned to Asia with a substantial portion of his forces, leaving the general Mardonius to continue the war effort in Greece into 479 BCE.
In late August 479 BCE, the allied Greek army defeated the Persian force at Plataea, a decisive land victory that effectively ended the Persian attempt to hold mainland Greece.
Around the same time as Plataea, Greek forces defeated Persians at Mycale (late August 479 BCE), destroying the Persian camp and contributing to renewed Ionian resistance and the effective end of the invasion’s momentum.
In August 465 BCE, Xerxes was assassinated in a palace conspiracy involving Artabanus (commander of the royal bodyguard) and a eunuch, precipitating a violent succession crisis resolved by Artaxerxes I.
Reign of Xerxes I and the Second Persian Invasion of Greece (486–465 BCE)
