He excelled all the other Persian kings in the arts of peace.

To him, and him alone, the Empire owed its organization.

He was a skilful administrator, a good financier, and a wise and far-seeing ruler.

Of all the Persian princes he is the only one who can be called "many-sided." He was organizer, general, statesman, administrator, builder, patron of arts and literature, all in one.

Without him Persia would probably have sunk as rapidly as she rose, and would be known to us only as one of the many meteor powers which have shot athwart the horizon of the East.
Xerxes, the eldest son of Darius by Atossa, succeeded his father by virtue of a formal act of choice.