King Xerxes The King

Once a king is dead another shall take his place, as has been repeated throughout history. No different was the succession of the great King Darius after his death, his son Xerxes comes to power, to take his father’s place and rule the vast empire of Persia. What makes the rise to prominence of Xerxes so controversial is that Xerxes is the third born son of Darius which would normally name him third in line in competition with his two older brothers. So why was the third born son Xerxes chosen over the others to reign King? Two theories can be retrieved from this mystery, was it that Xerxes had a direct blood link to Cyrus the Great? Or was it that Xerxes was first born after Darius’s rise to the throne and that it was the will of the divine
That the Xerxes mother and her link to Cyrus the Great was only an advantage in Ahura-Mazda's claim of Xerxes to be the divine ‘King of Kings’. Xerxes expresses this claim of divinity on a block of Limestone at persepolis “Saith Xerxes the king: had other sons of Darius there were, [but]... thus unto Ahura-Mazda was the desire, Darius my father made me the greatest after himself.” This is thus showing Xerxes grand claim that Ahura-Mazda himself gives the consent of Xerxes right, and it is something Xerxes repeats and repeats because as with every new King there is always the naysayers that believe against the new rule, so Xerxes took the god of Persian Empire and used him in propaganda to enforce his ruling because it would be spiritual suicide for them to dismiss the ruling of their own god. This propaganda of Xerxes claiming his divinity can be found on the the Old Persian text known from three slabs of stone from Persepolis and the citadel of Pasargadae stating “A great god is Ahuramazda, who created this earth, who created yonder sky, who created man, who created happiness for man, who made Xerxes king, one king of many, one lord of many.” Thus Xerxes is crushing any disbeliefs that he does not hold right to