In Ezra iv. 6 Ahasuerus is mentioned as a king of Persia, to whom the enemies of the Jews sent representations opposing the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem. Here the sequence of the reigns in the sacred writer and in the profane historians—in the one, Cyrus, Ahasuerus, Artaxerxes, Darius; in the other, Cyrus, Cambyses, Smerdis, Darius—leads naturally to the identification of Ahasuerus with Cambyses. Other circumstances, especially the known policy of the usurper Smerdis, and its reversal by Darius (see Inscr. of Behistun, coh i. § 14), corroborate this conclusion.

In the Book of Esther, Ahasuerus is the name borne by that king of Persia, certain events of whose court and empire (which will be noticed elsewhere, see Esther) form the subject of the whole narrative. (Throughout this book the LXX. render the name by 'Aρταξ-έρξης.) The hypothesis of certain writers, that this Ahasuerus is the Cyaxares, king of Media, already referred to, may be at once dismissed. That of others, identifying him with Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son and successor of Xerxes, though countenanced by Josephus, deserves scarcely more consideration. Recent inquirers are all but universally of opinion that he must be a monarch of the Achaemenian dynasty, earlier than this Artaxerxes; and opinion is divided between Darius Hystaspis and his son and successor Xerxes. In support of the former view it is alleged, among other things (see Tyrwhitt’s Esther and Ahasuerus, p. 162), that Darius was the first Persian king of whom it could be said, as in Esther i. 1, that he “reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces and that it was also the distinction of Darius that (Esther x. 1) he “laid a tribute upon the land and upon the isles of the sea” (cf . Herod. iii. 89). In support of the latter view it is alleged—(1.) That the Hebrew Ahashverosh is the natural equivalent of the old Persian Khshayarsha, the true name of the monarch called by the Greeks Xerxes, as now read in his inscriptions; (2.) That there is a striking similarity of character between the Xerxes of Herodotus and the Ahasuerus of Esther; (3.) That certain coincidences in dates and events corroborate this identity, as, e.g., “In the third year of his reign Ahasuerus gave a grand feast to his nobles, lasting one hundred and eighty days (Esther i. 3); and Xerxes in his third year also assembled his chief officers to deliberate on the invasion of Greece (Herod. vii. 8). Again, Ahasuerus married Esther at Shushan in the seventh year of his reign; in the same year of his reign Xerxes returned to Susa with the mortification of his defeat, and sought to forget himself in pleasure. Lastly, the tribute imposed on the land and isles of the sea also accords with the state of his revenue, exhausted by his insane attempt against Greece” (Kitto’s Cyclopοedia, s.v. Ahasuerus). To this it may be added that the interval of four years between the divorce of Vashti and the marriage of Esther is well accounted for by the intervention of an important series of events fully occupying the monarch’s thoughts, such as the invasion of Greece. It may be added that by the advocates of both views appeal is made, with more or less of confidence, to the names of the queens of the respective sovereigns; Atossa, wife of Darius, answering to Hadassah, and Amestris, wife of Xerxes, to Esther (Esther ii. 7); and also to the number of generations. indicated in the genealogy of Mordecai from the deportation of the Jews into Babylon (Esther ii. 5; cf. Tyrwhitt, p. 95, with Rawlinson, Bampton Lect., p. 186). If, as seems probable, the name Ahasuerus is the transcription of the Persian Khshayarsha (written Hisiarsa in Babylonian) which, according to Sir H. Rawlinson, means “venerable king” (see Rawlinson’s Her. iii. 363), then this name may be reasonably supposed to have been originally an appellative, and its application, especially by foreigners like the Jews, to different royal persons, is explained.