# Murder of Xerxes I
The murder of [Xerxes I](https://www.edgepedia.org/xerxes-i) was the assassination of the Achaemenid King of Kings in August 465 BC, carried out in his bedchamber at [Persepolis](https://www.edgepedia.org/persepolis) by Artabanus, the commander of his guard, in a palace intrigue that also cost the life of the crown prince Darius.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) • [2](https://achaemenica.org/articles/xerxes-i) • [3](https://www.thoughtco.com/xerxes-king-of-persia-4771152) The killing ended Xerxes' twenty-one-year reign, placed his younger son [Artaxerxes I](https://www.edgepedia.org/artaxerxes-i) on the throne, and led within months to the execution of Artabanus and his sons.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) • [12](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Artaxerxes-I) • [13](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Artaxerxes)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date | August 465 BC[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) • [2](https://achaemenica.org/articles/xerxes-i) |
| Place | The king's bedchamber at Persepolis[3](https://www.thoughtco.com/xerxes-king-of-persia-4771152) • [5](https://archaeologist.ir/2024/08/12/xerxes-the-great-the-powerful-persian-king-whose-death-destroyed-an-empire/) |
| Principal killer | Artabanus (Artapanus), a Hyrcanian and commander of the royal guard, with the eunuch chamberlain Aspamitres[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) • [2](https://achaemenica.org/articles/xerxes-i) |
| Outcome | Artaxerxes I, a younger son, took the throne; Artabanus and his sons were killed[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) • [4](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artaxerxes-i/) |
| Age of the victim | About fifty-four years old[7](http://ebsco.com/research-starters/history/xerxes-i/) |
## Background and causes
Xerxes I, son of Darius I and [Atossa](https://www.edgepedia.org/atossa), had reigned since 486 BC as the fifth king of the [Achaemenid Empire](https://www.edgepedia.org/achaemenid-empire).[7](http://ebsco.com/research-starters/history/xerxes-i/) In the last years of his reign he was under the strong influence of Artabanus, a Hyrcanian by birth who was his favorite and the commander of his guard.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) The Greek accounts differ on Artabanus' motive. In the version of [Aristotle](https://www.edgepedia.org/aristotle), Artabanus first had the crown prince Darius killed and then murdered the king himself, fearing Xerxes' punishment.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) In the version of Ctesias and Diodorus, Artabanus killed the king first and then framed Darius for the parricide, so that Artaxerxes would eliminate his elder brother; Justin presents the murder as driven by ambition for the throne.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) • [8](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Artabanus) • [5](https://archaeologist.ir/2024/08/12/xerxes-the-great-the-powerful-persian-king-whose-death-destroyed-an-empire/)
## Course of events
The killing took place at night in the king's bedchamber in the late summer of 465 BC, in the twenty-first year of the reign.[2](https://achaemenica.org/articles/xerxes-i) • [3](https://www.thoughtco.com/xerxes-king-of-persia-4771152) Ctesias names the eunuch as Aspamitres, while Diodorus calls him Mithridates.[3](https://www.thoughtco.com/xerxes-king-of-persia-4771152) • [1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) • [2](https://achaemenica.org/articles/xerxes-i)
The near-contemporary record is a Babylonian astronomical tablet, BM 32234, which notes under the month Abu, of Xerxes, that "his son killed him"; Abu was the fifth month of the [Babylonian calendar](https://www.edgepedia.org/babylonian-calendar), corresponding to late July and early August.[2](https://achaemenica.org/articles/xerxes-i) • [6](https://doi.org/10.34096/rihao.n26.17177) The tablet names no Artabanus and places the deed in the hands of one of Xerxes' own sons.[6](https://doi.org/10.34096/rihao.n26.17177)
In the Ctesias version, Artabanus and Aspamitres then went to Artaxerxes the same night and persuaded him that his elder brother Darius had murdered their father; Artaxerxes rushed to Darius' house and killed him.[2](https://achaemenica.org/articles/xerxes-i) • [6](https://doi.org/10.34096/rihao.n26.17177) In Aristotle's chronology the order was reversed, with Darius killed before the king.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) What the versions share is that the designated heir Darius was killed in the coup, framed for his father's murder, and that a younger son survived to take the throne as Artaxerxes I.[2](https://achaemenica.org/articles/xerxes-i)
## Outcome and losses
The dead were Xerxes himself, his eldest son and heir Darius, and, within months, Artabanus and his sons.[12](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Artaxerxes-I) • [13](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Artaxerxes) Artaxerxes I, son of Xerxes and Queen Amestris, ascended the throne.[4](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artaxerxes-i/) When Artaxerxes became king, real power was in Artabanus' hands, and Greek chronographers even reckoned Artabanus as a king who ruled for seven months; other accounts state that he controlled the Achaemenid state for seven months.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) • [10](https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/people_artabanus.html) Other reference works treat the seven-month kingship as a misunderstanding by the Greek chronologists.[4](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artaxerxes-i/) • [11](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1827-artaxerxes)
Artabanus then decided to remove Artaxerxes and seize royal power, but was discovered and killed together with his sons.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) The accounts of his fall differ. In Diodorus, Artabanus gathered his sons to kill the king, struck him with a sword, and the lightly wounded Artaxerxes fought back and killed him in single combat.[6](https://doi.org/10.34096/rihao.n26.17177) • [10](https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/people_artabanus.html) In Justin, the fellow conspirator Baccabasus revealed the truth, and the king disarmed Artabanus by proposing an exchange of armor before killing him.[6](https://doi.org/10.34096/rihao.n26.17177) In Ctesias, Megabyzus, Artabanus' companion in the plot and the king's brother-in-law, betrayed the conspiracy; Aspamitres was executed, and in a battle three of Artabanus' sons were killed while Megabyzus was gravely injured but saved by a Greek physician.[6](https://doi.org/10.34096/rihao.n26.17177) • [4](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artaxerxes-i/) • [11](https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1827-artaxerxes)
## Consequences and political influence
The murder transferred the throne from the designated heir to a younger son and ended the direct line of Xerxes' own rule; Artaxerxes I reigned from 465 to 425 BC.[4](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artaxerxes-i/) • [12](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Artaxerxes-I) The fall of Artabanus was followed by a rebellion in Bactria, attributed by Ctesias to the satrap Artabanus and by Diodorus, more plausibly in Iranica's view, to the king's brother Hystaspes, who asserted a claim to the throne; the revolt was defeated in two battles.[4](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artaxerxes-i/) • [13](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Artaxerxes) Artaxerxes' reign was later disturbed by further insurrections, most dangerously the rebellion of Egypt under Inaros with Athenian assistance, restored to Persian rule by Megabyzus between 460 and 454 BC.[12](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Artaxerxes-I) Xerxes' building program, cut short by the assassination, was completed under Artaxerxes I.[14](https://www.worldhistory.org/trans/fa/1-359/)
## Historians' assessment
The Greek accounts of the murder are late, unreliable, and disagree with one another on the eunuch's name, on whether Artabanus was a eunuch or a general, and on who instigated the deed; the assassin Artabanus son of Artasyras must also be kept apart from Xerxes' uncle of the same name.[9](https://www.the-persians.co.uk/artaxerxesI.htm) • [2](https://achaemenica.org/articles/xerxes-i) A further disagreement concerns the killer's identity. [The Babylonian](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-babylonian) tablet BM 32234 says only that "Xerxes' son killed him", and the author of the RIHAO study argues that Artapanus, who could not have been a son of Xerxes, may have been a scapegoat, with Artaxerxes and his party the real culprits.[6](https://doi.org/10.34096/rihao.n26.17177) The established reference works, by contrast, attribute the assassination to Artabanus on the basis of Ctesias, Aristotle, Diodorus, and Justin.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/) • [8](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Artabanus) The murder is dated to August 465 BC, without a specific day.[1](https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/)
## References
1. ARTABANUS (Old Persian proper name), Encyclopaedia Iranica. https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artabanus-achaemenid/
2. Xerxes I (r. 486–465 BCE), Achaemenica. https://achaemenica.org/articles/xerxes-i
3. Biography of Xerxes, King of Persia, Enemy of Greece, ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/xerxes-king-of-persia-4771152
4. ARTAXERXES I, Encyclopaedia Iranica. https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artaxerxes-i/
5. خشایارشا بزرگ: پادشاه قدرتمند ایرانی که مرگش یک امپراتوری را ویران کرد, archaeologist.ir. https://archaeologist.ir/2024/08/12/xerxes-the-great-the-powerful-persian-king-whose-death-destroyed-an-empire/
6. Artapanus: The Kingkiller and the Kingmaker, RIHAO 26. https://doi.org/10.34096/rihao.n26.17177
7. Xerxes I, EBSCO Research Starters. http://ebsco.com/research-starters/history/xerxes-i/
8. Artabanus, Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Artabanus
9. Xerxes continues as Great King despite defeat, the-persians.co.uk. https://www.the-persians.co.uk/artaxerxesI.htm
10. Artabanus (d.465/464 BC), History of War. https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/people_artabanus.html
11. Artaxerxes I, Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1827-artaxerxes
12. Artaxerxes I, Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Artaxerxes-I
13. Artaxerxes, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Wikisource. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Artaxerxes
14. خشایارشای اول, World History Encyclopedia (Persian). https://www.worldhistory.org/trans/fa/1-359/
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › Other history › Middle East and North Africa › Achaemenid period (550 to 330 BC)*
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