A biblical name, denoting Xerxes I, King of Persia, "who reigned from India to Ethiopia over a hllndred and twenty-seven provinces ...the city Susan was the capital of his kingdom" (Esther 1), and to whom, in the beginning of his reign (c.485 B.C.) the Samaritans addressed their complaints (1 Esdras 4), against the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He made Esther, a Jewess, his queen in the place of Vashti (Esther 2).