Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

I will rule you the same.

And I think that's that's kind of an interesting thing.

And I think he can say that with...

genuine honesty because he's been trained for governance by his father.

So about 14 years ago, we discovered amidst the archive from Persepolis, a tablet that hadn't been translated before.

And it's a document which talks about reserves of food and drink

being sent to the Satrapal Palace in Parthia, in northeastern Iran, from central Iran.

And that's where Xerxes is serving his time as a governor.

So I think that what the great kings tended to do was to test their sons by giving them important satrapies to look after.

So we see Xerxes going through this period of

I suppose, an apprenticeship, really, you know, governing a large and important province.

So we know that he has that kind of background.

The other thing I think he does, you know, after his father's death is to provide his father with a fitting funeral as well.

And that's a very important thing to do is to bury, you know, your ancestor, your father in particular.

And we know that Darius's cortege travelled from Susa to Persepolis where he's buried.

in this great kind of catafalque.

And there was sort of a period of mourning declared across the empire.

And we know that Xerxes establishes a cult for the worship of his father as well.

Persian kings weren't gods.

They didn't see themselves as gods.