Xerxes the Great, also known as Xerxes I of Persia, (Old Persian: π§ππΉπ πΌππ ; XΕ‘ayΔrΕ‘Δ) (reigned 485β465 BC) was a Zoroastrian Persian Shahanshah (Emperor) of Achaemenid Empire. Xerxes was the son of Darius the Great and Atossa and a descendent of Cyrus the Great. He succeeded his father in 486 BC with a very smooth transition of power challenged by no subject nation of the huge Achaemenid empire.