ASSUERO. — Persian king discussed at length in Esth. (the LXX mistakenly substitute “Artasere” for him). He is mentioned again in Ezra 4:6; Tobit 14:15 (Greek text, Sistine edition); Dan. 9:1; it is debated whether he is the same person.
The Greek name Λα[α]ούγησος ὁ Ἀσύγησος, a transcription of the Hebrew ’Aḥašwērōš, corresponds to the Persian Ḫšayāršā and the Susian Ištiwega, that is, Xerxes. However, in Tobit 14:15 there must be a name confusion, since there A. is spoken of as the conqueror of Nineveh: the Assyrian metropolis was captured (512 BC) by Cyaxares, king of the Medes, and by Nabopolassar, king of Babylon; thus “Assuero” is a faulty transcription of Cyaxares (Persian Uvakšātra). The A. mentioned in Dan. 9:1, as father of Darius the Mede—whose identification is problematic—may perhaps be an arbitrary gloss. In Ezra 4:6, A., king of Persia, to whom the enemies of the Jews who had returned from exile appealed to hinder the rebuilding of the Temple, is named between Darius and Artaxerxes: he is therefore Xerxes I, who reigned from 485 to 465 BC.
The exegetes are also in agreement in identifying the A. of Esth. with Xerxes I. What is recounted there about A. fits very well with what we know of Xerxes I from Herodotus and Ctesias. The episode in Esth. would go back to the 7th year of his reign (478).