Person · 3243–3296 AM · 518 BCE — 465 BCE
Xerxes I 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠
Persian king: the invasion of Greece; identified with Ahasuerus
A divergence of reckonings here too. The bar stands by the academic count; the events of Purim on the Jewish track fall around 3405 AM, while on the academic count the third year of Xerxes is 3277. A hundred and twenty-eight years apart.
And the identification is not unanimous: some scholars name Artaxerxes I as Ahasuerus, and the tradition sees a different order of kings in the Persian period altogether. His birth year is approximate; the death in 465 is firm.
Sources
Tanakh
- Esther 1:1–3 — “from India to Ethiopia”; the feast in the third year of the reign
Documents of the period
- Herodotus, Histories VII–IX — the invasion of Greece: Thermopylae, Athens, Salamis
Basis: documents and evidence.