Artaxerxes and Ahashuerus the Same.
ARTAXERXES, after he had subdued all his domestic foes and competitors for the crown, in the third year of his reign, instituted a general rejoicing at Susa for half a year; and at a public banquet, when the queen Vashti refused to obey his summons, and show herself and her beauty to the princes and the people, he deposed her from being queen, by the advice of his council, and appointed Esther, a Jewess, in her place, in preference to all the other virgins, her competitors, in the fourth year of his reign. Esther 1:2. N. B. The royal title, Ahashuerus, in this book of Esther, is rendered Artaxerxes by the Septuagint Version, the apocryphal book of Esther, and Josephus.—Hales’ Chronology, Vol. 2. p. 481.