Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

So this is a real motif of Xerxes' earliest inscriptions, constantly, son of Darius, an Achaemenid, son of Darius, an Achaemenid.

He keeps on saying this all the time.

And he builds on his father's reputation quite literally.

So around about 519 BC, we know that Darius started the big, big building project at Persepolis.

Okay.

So, you know, this becomes one of the sort of state palaces, a kind of ceremonial center for the empire.

This is Darius's baby.

It comes from his mind, and he builds… Like the famous Apadana today, I think.

That's right, exactly, exactly.

So Apadana is one of Darius's buildings.

And this is all on a platform, a tacht, which is sort of 30 metres off the ground.

I mean, it's one of the most spectacular ruins of antiquity.

It's an incredible sight to walk.

Originally, during Xerxes' lifetime, the entranceway to that platform was in the south of the Tacht.

Xerxes decided that he was going to enlarge that, and he changes the access.

He blocks off the old access of his father, and he builds a new gateway with a double staircase on the eastern side, which goes up to this most enormous gateway, which he calls the Gate of All Lands or the Gate of All Peoples.

and it's flanked with two bulls on one side and two human-headed winged bulls on the other side, very Assyrian in its look.

And this becomes the portal through which all of these dignitaries and diplomats come every year in the springtime to give their offerings to the great king, to give him their gifts, their diplomatic exchanges, to hear the king's speeches, to show their loyalty to him.

So you get...

with the creation of that, a kind of real sense of confidence