Stele of Xerxes from the Hierothesion of Antiochus I.

This relief of "Xerxes I" comes from the west terrace of the hierothesion of King Antiochus I of Commagene at Nemrud Dagı. Antiochus I presented Xerxes and other Achaemenid kings as his ancestor, alongside Seleucid and Armenian kings, as well as Alexander the Great. However, the style of these reliefs is noteworthy: 'the best preserved ancestor relief represents Xerxes I but in an entirely fictional costume for an Achemenid king', despite the presentation of the Achaemenid past as a model for the Commagenean present (see R. R. R. Smith and A. Ertuğ, Gods of Nemrud... (Istanbul, 2012) pp. 28-30 and pl. 40). The whole site is fascinating and provides invaluable insight not only into the psychology of a minor Hellenistic ruler (whom Oswyn Murray once compared to Ozymandias (O. Murray, 'Ozymandias, King of Kings Heinrich Dörrie: Der Königskult des Antiochos von Kommagene im Lichte neuer Inschriften-Funde' The Classical Review 16.1 (1966), 105-108)), but into the nature of "reception" and its proximity to (what is often called) propaganda.