A King in God's Hand
The King’s Great Empire v.1-9
Herodotus records Xerxes as saying to his assembled nobles, possibly during the very banquet described in Esther:
For this cause I have now summoned you together, that I may impart to you my purpose. It is my intent to bridge the Hellespont and lead my army through Europe to Hellas [Greece], that I may punish the Athenians for what they have done to the Persians and to my father. You saw that Darius my father was minded to make an expedition against these men. But he is dead, and it was not granted him to punish them; and I, on his and all the Persians’ behalf, will never rest till I have taken and burnt Athens.…
As for you, this is how you shall best please me: when I declare the time for your coming, everyone of you must appear, and with a good will; and whosoever comes with his army best equipped shall receive from me such gifts as are reckoned most precious among us.
Xerxes displayed his wealth to show that he could make good on his promise and reward those who would rally to support his campaign.
The King’s Fragile Character v.10-22
Ahasuerus—the king who wrote of himself, “I, the mighty king, king of kings, king of populous countries, king of this great and mighty earth, far and near.” This was the king who, because a storm destroyed a bridge that he had commanded be built across the Hellespont (Dardanelles), ordered that three hundred lashes be given to the Hellespont and that the heads of the bridge-building engineers be cut off.7