Tristan Hughes

Right, yes.

And Iona are the Greeks, are they?

I was going to ask, do we know anything about his relationship with all of these half-brothers?

And is that how Xerxes portrays himself during this period?

You know, this idea that he's a young, active, energetic ruler.

Yes, the great old Darius is dead, but rejoice, we've got a young, new ruler on the throne now and he's going to continue it.

No, it seems like he really does succeed in that potentially troublesome, immediate years taking the throne in that succession time.

During that time, do we know who was closest to him?

I mean, is his mother still around and influencing him?

Do we know much about the harem of Persian rulers, including Xerxes?

Do we know much about its composition?

Is that the blue blood idea?

Yeah, I suppose.

And how important were eunuchs to Xerxes' rule and indeed to Persian rule?

So they're tied to the king.

And we hear them with Xerxes, do we?

Yes, we do.

You mentioned Cnidus there in passing.

So that's part of the Greek world, but it's on the western coast of Turkey, isn't it?

So it's within the sphere of Persian influence.