Xerxes I

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Darafsh · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

king of the Achaemenid Empire

c. 518 BC – 465 BC · 53 years · Susa · Middle East

Son of Darius I who led the great invasion of Greece in 480 BC, defeated at Salamis and Plataea.

Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 5th century BC

Portrait: Darafsh · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Contemporaries around the world

Europe

Pythagoras — Greek philosopher and mathematician, 52 years older
Leonidas I — king of Sparta, 22 years older
Sophocles — Athenian tragic playwright, 21 years younger
Pericles — Athenian statesman, 23 years younger
Phidias — ancient Greek sculptor, 38 years younger
Themistocles — Athenian statesman and admiral, 6 years older

Middle East

Darius the Great — King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, 32 years older
Herodotus — ancient Greek historian, 34 years younger
Heraclitus — Greek philosopher, 17 years older

Asia

Confucius — Chinese philosopher, 33 years older
Gautama Buddha — founder of Buddhism, 45 years older
Sun Tzu — Chinese military strategist, 26 years older

The world in their lifetime

c. 509 BC Founding of the Roman Republic — aged 9, Europe
508 BC Cleisthenes' reforms and the birth of democracy — aged 10, Europe
490 BC Battle of Marathon — aged 28, Europe
c. 483 BC Death of the Buddha — aged 35, Asia
480 BC Battle of Thermopylae — aged 38, Europe
479 BC Death of Confucius — aged 39, Asia