AR Siglos

Struck: 486 – 420 B.C.
Mint: Lydia, Sardis(?)
Size: 15.9mm
Weight: 5.35g
Die Axis: 0°
Grade: gF
Ref: Carradice Type III A/B

Obv: Great King advancing right, holding bow and scepter; countermark at elbow.
Rev: Incuse punch.
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Xerxes I was the fourth king of the Achaemenid Empire and ruled from 486 until his murder in 465 BC. His father Darius was defeated by the Greeks at the battle of Marathon (490 B.C.), and 10 years later Xerxes assembled a vast army to invade Greece and avenge his father's defeat.

Xerxes crossed the Hellespont (now called the Dardanelles) and methodically overran Greece. He won a costly victory at Thermopylae, the famous battle which ended with 300 Spartan warriors defying the entire Persian army. After Thermopylae, Athens was captured and the Athenians were driven back to their last line of defense at the Isthmus of Corinth and in the Saronic Gulf. The Persian invasion ended in disaster when Xerxes' navy was routed by the Greek fleet at Salamis in September of 480. Xerxes retreated to his palace in Persepolis, leaving behind an occupying army which was defeated by the Greeks shortly thereafter.

Persia remained a formidable nation but Xerxes largely withdrew from active political life, devoting himself to what Herodotus called "the intrigues of the harem" and became involved in many construction projects including the Gate of All Nations, the Hall of One Hundred Columns and many other projects that had been left unfinished by his father. In 465 BC, Xerxes was murdered by Artabanus, the commander of the royal bodyguard and the most powerful official in the Persian court. Artabanus then accused the Crown Prince Darius, Xerxes' eldest son, of the murder and persuaded another of Xerxes' sons, Artaxerxes, to avenge the patricide by killing Darius. Artaxerxes then ascended to the Persian throne.