Taking the 480 BC destruction of the invading Persian forces as its starting point, Aeschylus's 'Persians' shows the lamenting Persian Queen, mother of Xerxes, far away from the battlefield as she learns of the evisceration of the men of her kingdom. Bit by bit news reaches her of her son's defeat, how the Greeks won out against the Persians superior numbers, and how none of the survivors have hope of returning to their homeland; all but Xerxes, whose final fate is to witness the collapse of a kingdom his failure has destroyed.