Ahasuerus. Ahasuerus is a name used several times in the Hebrew Bible, as well as related legends and Apocrypha. This name is applied in the Hebrew Scriptures to three rulers. The same name is also applied uncertainly to a Babylonian official noted in the Book of Tobit. The original name was Old Persian XÅ¡aya. The Persian name was independently rendered in Ancient Greek as Xérxes. Many newer English translations and paraphrases of the Bible have used the name Xerxes. Ahasuerus is given as the name of the King of Persia in the Book of Esther. Numerous scholars have proposed theories as to who Ahasuerus represents. Most scholars generally identify him with Xerxes I of Persia, as did 19th-century Bible commentaries. Four factors, among others, contribute to this identification: It is agreed the Hebrew Ahasuerus descended from the Persian names for Xerxes I. Historian Herodotus records Xerxes I having penchants for women and wine, as well as mentioning the king ruled from India to Ethiopia in a magnificent palace in Shusan, all of which the Book of Esther corroborates. Herodotus also mentions that Xerxes I sought comfort in his harem following his defeat at Salamis in the tenth month of his seventh year as king, which is strikingly similar to the date of Ahasuerus choosing beautiful women from his harem in the tenth month of his seventh year as king. Annals from the reign of Xerxes I mention an otherwise unattested official by the name of Marduka, which some have proposed refers to Mordecai, as both are mentioned serving in the king's court. However, the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Midrash of Esther Rabbah, I, 3 and the Josippon identify the king as Artaxerxes, and the historian Josephus relates that this was the name by which he was known to the Greeks. The Ethiopic text calls him ArÅ¥eksis, usually the Ethiopic equivalent of Artaxerxes. John of Ephesus and Bar-Hebraeus identified him as Artaxerxes II, a view strongly supported by the 20th century scholar Jacob Hoschander. Masudi recorded the Persian view of events which affirms the identification and al-Tabari similarly placed the events during the time of Artaxerxes II despite being confused by the Hebrew name for the king. Esther Rabba and the Vulgate present Ahasuerus as a different name for the king to Artaxerxes rather than an equivalent in different languages, and the Septuagint distinguished between the two names using a Greek transliteration of Ahasuerus for occurrences outside the Book of Esther. Indeed, an inscription from the time of Artaxerxes II records that he was also known as Arshu understood to be a shortening of the Babylonian form Achshiyarshu derived from the Persian Khshayarsha. The Greek historians Ctesias and Deinon noted that Artaxerxes II was also called Arsicas or Oarses respectively similarly understood to be derived from Khshayarsha, the former as the shortened form together with the Persian suffix-ke applied to such shortened names; whereas in reality the Greek Artaxerxes is for the Old Persian ArtaxÅ¡aça < arta-justice and xÅ¡aça-kingdom, Having a kingdom of justice. As is evident, the two names have different etymologies. In his Historia Scholastica Petrus Comestor similarly identified Ahasuerus of Esther as the predecessor of a king called Artaxerxes who was also called Ochus i.e. Artaxerxes III thus also identifying the former Ahasuerus as Artaxerxes II. Comestor notes that Ochus had reconquered Egypt after the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther had lost it to pharaoh Amyrtaeus. Ahasuerus is also given as the name of a King of Persia in the Book of Ezra. Modern commentators associate him with Xerxes I who reigned from 486 BC until 465 BC. Other identifications have been made for Cambyses II or with Bardiya who reigned for seven months between Cambyses II and Darius I. However the Elephantine papyri mention the high priest Johanan as a contemporary of Darius II. Furthermore, in the book of Ezra, Ahasuerus follows king Darius, while Johanan is mentioned as son of the high priest at the time of Nehemiah, Eliashib.