Latest / The Achaemenid Empire: Persia's Golden Age of Power — Fexingo History
Xerxes at the Hellespont: Myth vs Reality
In this episode of The Achaemenid Empire: Persia's Golden Age of Power, Lucas and Luna dive into the famous story of Xerxes ordering the Hellespont to be whipped. They explore the historical sources, separating Herodotus' dramatic account from archaeological and contextual evidence. What really happened at the strait in 480 BCE? Lucas explains the logistics of building the pontoon bridges — the Phoenician and Egyptian ships, the cables, the storms — and how Xerxes' reaction fits into Achaemenid royal ideology. They discuss the role of the Magi, the concept of hubris in Greek vs Persian…
The skinny
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