Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

So what does a mistress do?

Well, interestingly, she doesn't punish the girl because she's the mistress of Xerxes and kind of untouchable.

But instead, she brings the girl's mother, my sister's wife, to court.

And she has her guards mutilate her, chops off her nose, her lips, her ears, cuts off her breasts, and throws those to the dogs, and then sends this poor woman in this mutilated state back to my sister's house.

And of course, the woman dies thereafter.

But Maesthetes has seen what has happened.

And then there's an open rebellion between these two brothers in which Maesthetes is then killed.

So this is the background to Xerxes' final years.

Chaos within the royal family equals chaos within the empire.

You know, things will only decline sharply.

And maybe it's because of this.

that Ocus and this group of eunuchs do what they do.

Xerxes is murdered in his bed.

That's where he is.

And actually Xenophon writes about the frequency of assassination in Persia.

He says, nowhere is a king more susceptible to the knife than when he's in his bed, in his bath, or drunk.

And this is the way that Xerxes, great Xerxes, is killed in his bed.

They're the shadow of their former selves.

And what's interesting, you know, when...

He is succeeded by Ocus, who takes the throne name Artaxerxes, becomes Artaxerxes I, okay?