In the story of Queen Esther, one of the main characters is the man the Jews called Ahasuerus. To the Greeks, he was known as Xerxes I, or Xerxes the Great. Xerxes is the Greek version of his Persian name. In the East, he was known as Khashayarsa or Khashyar Shah. The setting of today’s episode is almost 80 years after Xerxes I takes Esther as his queen. An archivist is about to tell the story of this relationship to Darius II Nothus, the Persian king who is on his deathbed. However, before doing so, he shares ten notes about Xerxes. These are mostly historical facts and they constitute today’s top ten list.
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