Gates of Fire

by

Steven Pressfield

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Gates of Fire makes teaching easy.

King Xerxes I Character Analysis

Xerxes is the King of Persia. At the beginning of the novel, his forces are overrunning Greece. Having conquered most of Asia, he now has ambitions to overrun Europe as well, beginning with Greece. When Xeo is found and brought to him, Xerxes wishes to hear the full story of the Spartans—both their tactics and their characters. Xerxes comes to trust in Xeo’s account because he knows that, unlike his other advisers, Xeo has nothing to gain from him. Unlike his foil, Leonidas, Xerxes remains aloof from his men, motivating them with fear instead of love. Though Xerxes’s forces prevail at Thermopylae, they are soundly defeated by Greece the following year.

King Xerxes I Quotes in Gates of Fire

The Gates of Fire quotes below are all either spoken by King Xerxes I or refer to King Xerxes I. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cities, Identity, and Belonging Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

What kind of men were these Spartans, who in three days had slain before His Majesty’s eyes no fewer than twenty thousand of His most valiant warriors? Who were these foemen, who had taken with them to the house of the dead ten, or as some reports said, as many as twenty for every one of their own fallen? What were they like as men? Whom did they love? What made them laugh? His Majesty knew they feared death, as all men. By what philosophy did their minds embrace it? Most to the point, His Majesty said, He wished to acquire a sense of the individuals themselves, the real flesh-and-blood men whom He had observed from above the battlefield, but only indistinctly, from a distance, as indistinguishable identities concealed within the blood- and gore-begrimed carapaces of their helmets and armor.

Related Characters: Gobartes the Historian (speaker), Xeones, King Xerxes I
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Listen to me, brothers. The Persian is not a king as Kleomenes was to us or as I am to you now. He does not take his place with shield and spear amid the manslaughter, but looks on, safe, from a distance, atop a hill, upon a golden throne […] His comrades are not Peers and Equals, free to speak their minds before him without fear, but slaves and chattel […] The King has tasted defeat at the Hellenes’ hands, and it is bitter to his vanity. He comes now to revenge himself, but he comes not as a man worthy of respect, but as a spoiled and petulant child, in its tantrum when a toy is snatched from it by a playmate. I spit on this King’s crown. I wipe my ass on his throne, which is the seat of a slave and which seeks nothing more noble than to make all other men slaves.

Related Characters: King Leonidas (speaker), King Xerxes I
Page Number: 117
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

Put this fatigue-spawned dream from your mind, Your Majesty. It is a false dream, a phantasm. Let the Greeks degrade themselves by resort to superstition. We must be men and commanders, exploiting oracles and portents when they suit the purposes of reason and dismissing them when they do not […] If you retire now, Lord, the Greeks will say it was because you feared a dream and an oracle.

Related Characters: Artemisia (speaker), King Xerxes I, King Leonidas, Mardonius
Page Number: 194
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

High above the armies, a man of between thirty and forty years could be descried plainly, in robes of purple fringed with gold, mounting the platform and assuming his station upon the throne […] He looked like a man come to watch an entertainment. A pleasantly diverting show, one whose outcome was foreordained and yet which promised a certain level of amusement. He took his seat. A sunshade was adjusted by his servants. We could see a table of refreshments placed at his side and, upon his left, several writing desks set into place, each manned by a secretary.

Obscene gestures and shouted insults rose from four thousand Greek throats.

Related Characters: Xeones (speaker), King Xerxes I, King Leonidas
Page Number: 248
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

I will tell His Majesty what a king is. A king does not abide within his tent while his men bleed and die upon the field […] A king does not command his men’s loyalty through fear nor purchase it with gold; he earns their love by the sweat of his own back and the pains he endures for their sake. That which comprises the harshest burden, a king lifts first and sets down last. A king does not require service of those he leads but provides it to them. He serves them, not they him […] That is a king, Your Majesty. A king does not expend his substance to enslave men, but by his conduct and example makes them free.

Related Characters: Xeones (speaker), King Xerxes I, King Leonidas
Page Number: 360
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Gates of Fire LitChart as a printable PDF.
Gates of Fire PDF

King Xerxes I Quotes in Gates of Fire

The Gates of Fire quotes below are all either spoken by King Xerxes I or refer to King Xerxes I. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cities, Identity, and Belonging Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1 Quotes

What kind of men were these Spartans, who in three days had slain before His Majesty’s eyes no fewer than twenty thousand of His most valiant warriors? Who were these foemen, who had taken with them to the house of the dead ten, or as some reports said, as many as twenty for every one of their own fallen? What were they like as men? Whom did they love? What made them laugh? His Majesty knew they feared death, as all men. By what philosophy did their minds embrace it? Most to the point, His Majesty said, He wished to acquire a sense of the individuals themselves, the real flesh-and-blood men whom He had observed from above the battlefield, but only indistinctly, from a distance, as indistinguishable identities concealed within the blood- and gore-begrimed carapaces of their helmets and armor.

Related Characters: Gobartes the Historian (speaker), Xeones, King Xerxes I
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

Listen to me, brothers. The Persian is not a king as Kleomenes was to us or as I am to you now. He does not take his place with shield and spear amid the manslaughter, but looks on, safe, from a distance, atop a hill, upon a golden throne […] His comrades are not Peers and Equals, free to speak their minds before him without fear, but slaves and chattel […] The King has tasted defeat at the Hellenes’ hands, and it is bitter to his vanity. He comes now to revenge himself, but he comes not as a man worthy of respect, but as a spoiled and petulant child, in its tantrum when a toy is snatched from it by a playmate. I spit on this King’s crown. I wipe my ass on his throne, which is the seat of a slave and which seeks nothing more noble than to make all other men slaves.

Related Characters: King Leonidas (speaker), King Xerxes I
Page Number: 117
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

Put this fatigue-spawned dream from your mind, Your Majesty. It is a false dream, a phantasm. Let the Greeks degrade themselves by resort to superstition. We must be men and commanders, exploiting oracles and portents when they suit the purposes of reason and dismissing them when they do not […] If you retire now, Lord, the Greeks will say it was because you feared a dream and an oracle.

Related Characters: Artemisia (speaker), King Xerxes I, King Leonidas, Mardonius
Page Number: 194
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 24 Quotes

High above the armies, a man of between thirty and forty years could be descried plainly, in robes of purple fringed with gold, mounting the platform and assuming his station upon the throne […] He looked like a man come to watch an entertainment. A pleasantly diverting show, one whose outcome was foreordained and yet which promised a certain level of amusement. He took his seat. A sunshade was adjusted by his servants. We could see a table of refreshments placed at his side and, upon his left, several writing desks set into place, each manned by a secretary.

Obscene gestures and shouted insults rose from four thousand Greek throats.

Related Characters: Xeones (speaker), King Xerxes I, King Leonidas
Page Number: 248
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 35 Quotes

I will tell His Majesty what a king is. A king does not abide within his tent while his men bleed and die upon the field […] A king does not command his men’s loyalty through fear nor purchase it with gold; he earns their love by the sweat of his own back and the pains he endures for their sake. That which comprises the harshest burden, a king lifts first and sets down last. A king does not require service of those he leads but provides it to them. He serves them, not they him […] That is a king, Your Majesty. A king does not expend his substance to enslave men, but by his conduct and example makes them free.

Related Characters: Xeones (speaker), King Xerxes I, King Leonidas
Page Number: 360
Explanation and Analysis: