Xerxes I reigned for twenty-one years.
Details
Primary person: Ahasuerus
*EXTRA-BIBLICAL SOURCES:
- Babylonian contract tablets dated to “Year 21 of Xerxes” appear until mid-465 BC (around August), after which tablets dated to “Year 1 of Artaxerxes” begin, indicating Xerxes’ death in the summer of 465 BC. Some tablets note a brief period of instability, possibly due to the assassination.
- Ptolemy’s Canon lists Xerxes I’s reign as 21 years, ending in 465 BC, with Artaxerxes I succeeding him.
- Herodotus’ Histories does not explicitly describe Xerxes’ death, as his account focuses on the Greek wars (480–479 BC) and ended before 465 BC.
- In his Persica, preserved in fragments by later authors like Photius, Ctesias describes Xerxes’ assassination by a courtier, Artabanus, in a palace conspiracy.
- In his Library of History (Book 11.69), Diodorus provides a later account of Xerxes’ assassination, attributing it to Artabanus, who briefly usurped power before Artaxerxes I’s rise.
- The Persepolis Fortification and Treasury Tablets are administrative records continue under Xerxes until his death until mid-465 BC, after which Artaxerxes I’s tablets begin. This transition supports Xerxes’ death in 465 BC.
[Shulman date p143]