What ruling dynasty did the Persian Empire belong to during Xerxes' reign?

During Xerxes’ reign, the Persian Empire belonged to the Achaemenid dynasty. The dynasty was founded by Cyrus the Great in the sixth century BCE and created the largest empire the world had yet seen at its height.

Xerxes I ruled from 486 to 465 BCE. He inherited the empire from his father, Darius the Great, and continued the Achaemenid effort to subdue the Greek mainland. His invasion led to the battles of Thermopylae and Salamis in 480 BCE. Although Xerxes captured Athens, the Persian campaign ultimately failed to conquer Greece.

The other options refer to later Iranian or Hellenistic ruling houses. The Seleucid Empire emerged after Alexander the Great’s conquests, while the Parthian and Sassanid dynasties ruled Persia much later. The Achaemenid Empire is also sometimes called the First Persian Empire, helping distinguish it from those later states.

The dynasty ended when Alexander defeated Darius III in 330 BCE. Its legacy survives in monumental sites such as Persepolis, where inscriptions and reliefs reveal the empire’s multiethnic administration and royal ideology.