Ahashwerosh

• The in the mentioned Persian King, is (Ahasuerus).
• According to the story, he was a very weak and corrupt, despotic ruler already in the third year of his reign, drawn into court intrigues, great feasts and drinking parties; his advisors were busy with mainly personal questions as "what shall we do to the Queen Vashti according to the law because she has not performed the bidding of the King Ahashuerus by the chamberlains?" (Est. 1:15), a harem with women keepers, his women were not allowed to enter the King's court without being called by him, the trangressor was to be put to death, a megalomaniac minister who had completely control over the King decisions, and without any difficulty received the King's ring to sign commands to cool his own personal hatred toward the Jews, then under influence of a women's beauty, , and wine, he was ready to give away the half of his kingdom, and revoke his former decision.

• Who of all the Persian Kings could this be?

  Xerxes I

• Xerxes the son and successor of Darius I, born in 519 B.C.
• Ruled the Persian empire from 486 till his death in 465 B.C.
• The first years of his reign, he was busy uniting the empire, confronted an Egyptian rebellion, destroyed the temple of Marduk in Babylon, changed his title from "King of, King of Egypt, King of Babylon", to "King of Mede and Persia", at the instigation of his cousin and brother-in-law Mardonius, invaded Greece to take revenge for the affront his father Darius had suffered at the hands of the Greeks at Marathon in 490 B.C. In this war, for which preparations took three years, he was victorious in the battles at Thermopilae, Solomis, and Platae, but was finally defeated by strong nationalist resistance of the Greeks, and in 479 B.C. Maridonius was killed.
• After the reversal in Greece, Xerxes involved himself only slightly in the insurrections in the margins of his realm.
• He concentrated on completing the edifices his father Darius I began, erected his own palace, a harem building, and his treasury in Susa.
• Little is known about his last years of his life.
• He withdrew into himself, allowed himself to be drawn into harem intrigues, in which he was in fact only a pawn, and disposed of his brother's entire family at the request of the Queen.
• He was finally killed during a palace revolt organised by Artabanus, the minister of the court guards.

  Artaxerxes I

• Known in Greece as Macrocheir, or Longimanus in Latin.
• Artaxerxes was a younger son of Xerxes and Amestris (?).
• He was raised to the throne by Artabanus, his father's murderer.
• A few months after ascending the throne, he slew Artabanus in a hand-to-hand fight.
• His reign was generally peaceful, although he confronted some insurrections, for example, that of his brother, a satrap in Bactria, and a very dangerous revolt in Egypt under Umaros assisted by the Greeks.
• It took about six years (460 - 454 B.C.) until Megabysus, the satrap of Syria, succeeded in subduing the revolt.
• He was without doubt King in the time of Ezra, therefore known as very tolerant in his policy toward the Jews.

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