-Xerxes
I: pronounced 'zerk seize
'.
Known as Xerxes the Great, B.C.E.
519-465. Xerxes was the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther:.Esther
1:1. He was the son of Darius
I and Atossa, daughter of Cyrus the Great.
He reigned as king of Persia
B.C.E. 486–465.
Barnes
Notes:."Recent
researches show that the Hebrew word for Ahasuerus.(Achashrosh).is
readily formed from the Persian name of Xerxes, the name Xerxes being only
a Greek corruption of the Persian."
According to the Greek historian
Herodotus,
who lived in that time, the combined strength of Xerxes' land army was
five million, two hundred and eighty-three thousand, two hundred and twenty
men and a naval force of one thousand and seven ships.
Besides these, the Carthaginians
furnished him with an army of three hundred thousand men and a fleet of
two hundred ships. He led an army against the Greeks of eight hundred thousand
men and twelve hundred and seven ships, with three banks of rowers each.
As he marched along, he obliged all the people of the countries through
which he passed to join him.
At the Battle of Salamís
in B.C.E 480, his fleet was defeated by Greek warships commanded by the
Athenian Themistocles.
How did this happen that
a Greek fleet defeated a much larger Persian
naval force? This happened in the straits
at Salamis, between the island of Salamis and the Athenian port city of
Piraeus.
"By B.C.E. 480 the Persian
king Xerxes and his army had overrun much of Greece and his navy of about
800 galleys.(large
ships propelled
by sails and oars).bottled
up the smaller Greek fleet of about 370 triremes.(a
ship with three decks for the rowers).in
the Saronic Gulf. The Greek commander, Themistocles, then lured the Persian
fleet into the narrow waters of the strait at Salamis, where the massed
Persian ships had difficulty maneuvering. The Greek triremes then attacked
furiously, ramming or sinking many Persian vessels and boarding others.
The Greeks sank about 300 Persian vessels while losing only about 40 of
their own. The rest of the Persian fleet was scattered and as a result
Xerxes had to postpone his planned land offensives for a year, a delay
that gave the Greek city states time to unite against him. The Battle of
Salamis was the first great naval battle recorded in history."....comprised
with information from Encyclopedia Britannica.
Xerxes recouped and a year
later sacked
much of Greece. He retired in Asia
Minor, leaving his army in Greece
and was assassinated by Artabanus, captain of the palace guard. He was
succeeded by his son Artaxerxes
I who reigned B.C.E 465-425.
Xerxes was of the Iranian
Achaemenian dynasty,
an early Persian dynasty.
Achaemenian derives its
name from Achaemenes, who is thought to have lived in the early B.C.E.
7th century. From Achaemenes' son Teispes were descended two lines of kings.
The older line included
Cyrus
I, Cambyses I, Cyrus II
(Cyrus the Great) and Cambyses II.
The junior line began with
Darius
I and ended with the death of Darius III after his defeat by Alexander
the Great in B.C.E. 330.
The Achaemenian dynasty's
greatest rulers were Cyrus II, who actually established the Persian empire
and from whose reign it is dated. Next, Darius I, who secured the borders
from external threats and Xerxes I, who completed many of Darius's public
works. At its height, the Achaemenian Empire reached from Macedonia to
northern India and from the Caucasus Mountains to the Persian Gulf. The
ruins of one of its capitals, Persepolis, survive today from its golden
age.
-Zachariah:
13th king of Israel, son of Jeroboam II:.2Kings
14:29. Circa.B.C.E.
780. Was an evil king:.2Kings
15:8,9.
He reigned only six months,
having been slain by Shallum.
-Zedekiah:
Zedekiah began his reign at twenty-one. He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem,
B.C.E.
599 to 588.
He succeeded the throne of
his uncle Jehoiachin.
His original name was Mattaniah, but when Nebuchadnezzar-II
placed him on the throne as the successor to Jehoiachin
his uncle, Nebuchadnezzar changed his name to Zedekiah:.2Kings
24:17,18; 2Chronicles
36:8-10.
Zedekiah was one of the sons
of Josiah:.1Chronicles
3:15; Jeremiah 37:1. His
mother's name was Hamutal, a bad woman.
Having a bad mother no doubt
contributed greatly to him being the same:.Jeremiah
52:1,2; 2Kings
24:19 "And he did that which was evil..."
Zedekiah's brothers who also
ruled as kings of Judah were Jehoahaz
and Jehoiakim.
Zedekiah was the 20th and
last monarch
of.Judah,
He was the 19th and last king, as there was one queen, the cruel bitch
Athaliah.
Ancient Judah under king
Zedekiah went
into captivity to Nebuchadnezzar, but this was God's doing and was
to be the best for them.
Zedekiah was contemporary
with Jeremiah.
There are other Zedekiahs
in the.Bible,
such as this one being a grandson of Josiah:.1Chronicles
3:16. And this one:.1Kings
22:24. And there were also a few others named Zedekiah.
-Zelophehad:
comprised
with Bible
dictionaries: a descendant
of Joseph, whose death in the
wilderness, leaving five daughters and no sons, led to the establishment
of a law that in such cases daughters should inherit the patrimony
of their father, but they were not to marry out of their tribe:.Numbers
26:33; 27:1-11; Joshua
17:3,4.
Zaphnathpaaneah:
the name given to Joseph by
Pharaoh:.Genesis
41:45. The learned Judeans translate it as a Hebrew name, 'revealer
of secrets', but as an Egyptian name, which it is, it has been interpreted
'prince of the life of the world' or 'the savior of the world'. The two
latter meanings suit Joseph well, as being a type of Christ.
Ziba:
was a servant of the house of Saul:.2Samuel
9:2. Ziba informed David that Mephibosheth, a son of Jonathan, was
alive. Ziba afterwards dealt treacherously toward Mephibosheth, whom he
slanderously misrepresented to David.
-Zimri:
Servant, officer to and successor of Elah,
Baasha's
son, whom Zimri murdered while Elah was intoxicated:.1Kings
16:9,10 "And his servant Zimri...conspired against him, as he was...drinking
himself drunk...And Zimri went in and smote him and killed him..."
Then Zimri became king of
Israel B.C.E. 926 and destroyed
all the family of Baasha. And it so worked out that this was in accordance
with what God had determined:.1Kings
16:11-14.
But, Zimri only reigned 7
days.(1Kings
16:15).as
the people were upset with him over what he did and this devastated
Zimri so much that he took his life by burning his palace down with him
in it:.1Kings
16:16-20.
Somewhat
similar to what Judas did to Emmanuel and what he did to himself after:.Matthew
26:14-16; 27:3-5.