Now it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces:)
Ahasuerus, х 'Achashweerowsh (H325) (see Gesenius, sub voce); the Septuagint has Artaxerxees]. But it is now generally agreed among learned men (Justi, Eichhorn, Rosenmuller, Milman, etc.; see 'Introduction' to this book) that the Ahasuerus mentioned in this episode is the Xerxes who figures in Grecian history. Xerxes is called, in the cuneiform inscriptions on the ruins of Persepolis, Khshershe, according to Grotefend (in 'Heeren Ideen,' 1:, pp, 558, 692); or Khearsha, according to Martin, ('Journal Asiatic,' February, 1823, p. 83). Herodotus says (b.
vi., 98) that Xerxees is equivalent to Areeios, a warrior. Reland ('Dissert. de Vet. Ling. Pesia,' sec. 154) says that it is composed of two Persian words, Shir-Shah - i:e., lion-king (Rosenmuller, 'Biblical Geography,' 1:, pp. 258,
259). This conclusion rests both, on certain chronological data (see 'Introduction' to this book) and on the character of that celebrated monarch-despotic, capricious, fickle, reckless of human lives, and immersed in sensual pleasures. These were exactly the attributes of him who is represented in this book as bearing the dynastic title of Ahasuerus; and on the assumption that this identification is well founded, the deliverance of the Jews, which is the grand subject of interest in this record, took place a few years before Ezra's departure for Jerusalem.
This is Ahasuerus which reigned ... over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces, х mªdiynaah (H4082)] - a district, under the jurisdiction of a prefect or viceroy. Such a governor in Persia was called a satrap, the etymology of which, according to Sir John Malcolm ('History of Persia') is Chattra-pati, 'lord of the umbrella.' Herodotus (b. 3:, 89-97) divides Persia proper into 20 satrapies. But taking the empire at large, there was, of course, vastly greater numbers. Darius (Hystaspes) appointed a hundred and twenty governors (Daniel 6:1-2), and here Xerxes is described as reigning over 127 provinces (cf. Josephus, 'Antiquities,' b. 11:, ch. 6: sec.
1); but there is no discrepancy in these statements; because the division was not so much a geographical distribution of the land, as a classification of the different tribes who inhabited the conquered lands, according to the amount of tribute respectively exacted of them. 'Asia Minor alone contained 10 satrapies or provinces' ('Heeren Ideen,' part
i., division 1:, pp. 175-181). The Ethiopians are expressly mentioned by Herodotus (b. 7:, chs. 69:, 70:) in the list of nations who were compelled to furnish a contingent of troops to the expedition of Xerxes against Greece.