Monday 6 September 2021

The empire on which the sun never sets

Before launching his invasion of Greece in 480 BC, Persian Emperor Xerxes made a speech in which he said, “We shall extend the Persian territory as far as God's heaven reaches. The sun will then shine on no land beyond our borders.” In his Histories, Herodotus has talked about this speech by Xerxes. During the Age of Imperialism, Xerxes’s ambition to create an empire on which the sun never set became an inspiration for the Spanish and the British.

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