Xerxes I (Ahasuerus) Becomes King of Persia

The event

When Darius I died, his son Xerxes I inherited both the Persian throne and his father's long-simmering grievance against Athens. Scripture knows this same king by his Persian throne name rendered in Hebrew as Ahasuerus — the powerful, moody, and extravagant monarch of the book of Esther, who reigned 'from India to Cush, over 127 provinces' (Esther 1:1) from his splendid winter palace at Susa.

In his third year on the throne (c. 483 BC), Xerxes hosted an astonishing 180-day display of his kingdom's wealth and power for his nobles, officials, and army commanders — very likely a grand council of war as he prepared his coming invasion of Greece. It was the excess of this same feast that led to Queen Vashti's public refusal and subsequent banishment (Esther 1), quietly opening the door for a young Jewish woman named Esther to enter the story.