Xerxes I

In 486 BC, Xerxes I took the throne as King of Persia. He was born to King Darius I and Queen Atosa in 520 BC and was given the name Khashayar. Xerxes is the Greek transliteration of the name Khashayar shah, and it means "king of heroes."

The empire that Xerxes was at the reins of was set into place by King Cyrus just two decades before Xerxes himself was born. With the later help of Xerxes' father Darius the Great, the empire before Xerxes encompassed a large strip of land from present-day Libya all the way towards the Hindu Kush in what is now Afghanistan .

Before Xerxes had taken the throne after his father, rebellions had been breaking out in Egypt and Babylon; he quelled both swiftly and set up a strict rule held by his brother Achaemenes. Because Xerxes had succeeded where his predecessors had failed by keeping Egypt from breaking free of the Achaemenid Empire, he did what he could to bring Babylon under his thumb as well.

His rule over ancient Egypt was harsh, disregarding local customs and beliefs left and right. Xerxes decided not to follow the ideas set by his predecessors, the notion that ruling with a fair, light hand was the way to keep many nations under one's rule at once. Given the lack of success, Xerxes went his own way, a way that many labeled as decidedly Persian.

In 480 BC, Xerxes led his armies into the invasion of Greek, the Northern part of which fell a few short months later during the summer. The Persians were then unable to take down the Grecian armies at Thermopylae but marched on Athens and did their best to burn down the Acropolis. After the Persian fleet were defeated during the Battle of Salamis, Xerxes  returned home to take care of his responsibilities there, leaving a man named Mardonius in charge.

With Xerxes gone and Mardonius at the helm of the Greek invasion, the Persian army suffered three more losses before Mardonius was killed around 479 BC. Despite repeated attempts in later years, the Persians could not repeat their success against the Greeks again.

As the years went by and Xerxes himself grew older, his desire to be king of all dwindled, and he settled into comfort in his three capital cities -- Susa , Ecbatana , and Persepolis . Troubles across the world had taken a toll on the Achaemenid Empire, as well as the repeated military losses and changes in the way the world around Persia functioned. But as Xerxes let himself enjoy life to the fullest, his empire suffered. 

In 465 BC, Xerxes was assassinated, most likely by the order of one of his sons. Artaxerxes is believed to have been behind the assassination; either way, he took the throne following his father's death.