Talk: Persian King

I haven't played CoO, so if I'm missing a plot element from the game that implies this king as having a hatred of Spartans in particular, please point it out. But with that said, I don't see the lack of any Spartans fighting at Marathon as any indication that this king isn't based on Darius I. Comparing the Persian King to the two historical Persian kings in question, one can see that the Persian King has more in common with Darius (who attempted to attack Athens directly via a naval invasion of Attica, just like the in-game Persian King) than he does Xerxes (who bridged the Hellespont and marched west through Thrace and south through Macedonia and Thessaly to engage the Greeks at the Hot Gates). While the Persian King can be based off either man, when saying which one he's "most likely" based on, I think more attention should be paid to the fact that his method of invasion is almost identical to Darius' in 490 BC rather than just Xerxes "fighting the Spartans" 10 years later. Using the logic of the latter, the Persian King could be based on anyone from Xerxes to Perikles to Epaminondas to Alkibiades to Philopoemen since they all "fought the Spartans". In addition to that, compare the Persian King in-game to carvings and other images of Darius and Xerxes and you can see that he actually physically resembles Darius. Ghost Leader 01:43, September 7, 2011 (UTC)