Xerxes II (, IPA :/ ˈzəːksiːz /-Xšayāršā ) was a Persian king and the son and successor of Artaxerxes I.

Artaxerxes I (, Old Persian, " whose rule ( xšaça < * xšaϑram ) is through arta ( truth )";) was the fifth king of kings of the Achaemenid Empire of Iran from 465 BCE to 424 BCE.

Amestris (, Amēstris, perhaps the same as Άμαστρις, Amāstris, from Old Persian Amāstrī -, " strong woman ") was the wife of Xerxes I of Persia, mother of king Artaxerxes I of Persia.

Ariarathes I (, Ariaráthēs ; ruled 331 BC or 330 BC – killed 322 BC ), the son of the Cappadocian satrap Ariamnes I, was distinguished (, Philádelphos ) for his love of his brother Holophernes, whom he sent to assist his overlord king Artaxerxes III in the recovery of Egypt, 350 BC.

Letter of Artaxerxes to Ezra ( Artaxerxes ' rescript ): King Artaxerxes is moved by God to commission Ezra " to inquire about Judah and Jerusalem with regard to the Law of your God " and to " appoint magistrates and judges to administer justice to all the people of Trans-Euphrates — all who know the laws of your God.

" Artaxerxes gives Ezra much gold and directs all Persian officials to aid him.

Ezra, a descendant of Seraiah the high priest, was living in Babylon when in the seventh year (~ 457 BCE ) of Artaxerxes, king of Persia, the king sent him to Jerusalem to teach the laws of God to any who did not know them.

He preferred 1 Esdras over the canonical Ezra – Nehemiah and placed Ezra as a contemporary of Xerxes son of Darius, rather than of Artaxerxes.

Ezra came to Jerusalem " in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the King ".

Most scholars hold that Ezra lived during the rule of Artaxerxes I, though some have difficulties with this assumption: Nehemiah and Ezra " seem to have no knowledge of each other ; their missions do not overlap ; and no reflection of Ezra's activity appears in Jerusalem of Nehemiah.

" These difficulties have led many scholars to assume that Ezra arrived in the seventh year of the rule of Artaxerxes II, i. e. some 50 years after Nehemiah.

Between Cyrus and Darius, an exchange of letters with King Ahasuerus and Artaxerxes is described ( chapter 4, verse 7 ), the grandson of Darius I, in whose reign Ezra and Nehemiah came to Jerusalem.

Ezra thereby left Babylon in the first month of the seventh year (~ 457 BCE ) of Artaxerxes ' reign, at the head of a company of Jews that included priests and Levites.

; c. 460 BC: Seeing anarchy breaking out in Judea, Xerxes ' successor Persian King Artaxerxes sent Ezra to restore order.

Beginning of the 70 Weeks: The decree of Artaxerxes I of Persia in the 7th year of his reign ( 457 BC ) as recorded in Ezra marks beginning of 70 weeks.

According to Ezra 4: 1-6 " the enemies of Judah and Benjamin " asked to help build the temple, and when this was denied hired counselors to frustrate the people of Judah from completing the rebuilding throughout the reign of Cyrus, Xerxes (' Ahasuerus '), and Artaxerxes, until the reign of Darius.

The books of Ezra-Nehemiah record that the construction of the Second Temple was finished in the sixth year of Darius the Great ( 516 BCE ), following which Artaxerxes I sent Ezra and then Nehemiah to rebuild the city's walls and to govern the Yehud province within the Eber-Nari satrapy.

Depending on the translation of Ezra 4: 14, the servants of King Artaxerxes I of Persia explain their loyalty variously as " because we are salted with the salt of the palace " or " because we have maintenance from the king " or " because we are responsible to the king ".

In Ezra 4: 14, the adversaries of Ezra and company, in their letter of complaint to Artaxerxes I of Persia explain their loyalty to the King.

In the book of Ezra, the Persian kings are credited with permitting and enabling the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their Temple ; its reconstruction was affected " according to the decree of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes king of Persia " ( Ezra 6: 14 ).

Sanballat accuses Nehemiah of planning rebellion against Artaxerxes, and he is opposed even by Jewish nobles and prophets, but the wall is completed.

The name Ahasuerus is equivalent to Xerxes, both deriving from the Persian Khshayārsha, thus Ahasuerus is usually identified as Xerxes I ( 486-465 BCE ), though Ahasuerus is identified as Artaxerxes in the later Greek version of Esther ( as well as by Josephus, the Jewish commentary Esther Rabbah, the Ethiopic translation and the Christian theologian Bar-Hebraeus who identified him more precisely as Artaxerxes II ).

Jewish tradition relates that Esther was the mother of a King Darius and so some try to identify Ahasuerus with Artaxerxes I and Esther with Kosmartydene.

Some years later Artaxerxes sent Nehemiah, a Jewish noble in his personal service, to Jerusalem as governor with the task of rebuilding the city walls.

* Nehemiah, the Jewish cup-bearer to Artaxerxes I at Susa, is given permission by Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem as governor of Judea, in order to rebuild parts of it ( Nehemiah 2: 5 – 8 ).

He refers to a Jewish woman who had married the Persian King Bahman ( Artaxerxes II ), and delivered her people, thus corroborating this identification of Ahasuerus.

Al-Biruni ( writing at the beginning of the eleventh century CE ) said that the '" real Sabians '" were " the remnants of the Jewish tribes who remained in Babylonia when the other tribes left it for Jerusalem in the days of Cyrus and Artaxerxes.

Bar-Hebraeus identified Ahasuerus explicitly as Artaxerxes II ; however, the names are not necessarily equivalent: Hebrew has a form of the name Artaxerxes distinct from Ahasuerus, and a direct Greek rendering of Ahasuerus is used by both Josephus and the Septuagint for occurrences of the name outside the Book of Esther.

At the end of the Persian era in 351 BCE, it was invaded by the emperor Artaxerxes III and then by Alexander the Great in 333 BCE when the Hellenistic era of Sidon began.

While a young man, Xenophon participated in the expedition led by Cyrus the Younger against his older brother, king Artaxerxes II of Persia, in 401 BC.

He is succeeded by Artaxerxes I, possibly with Artabanus acting as Regent.

* 464 BC: Regent King Artabanus of Persia is killed by his charge Artaxerxes I.

He is succeeded by his son Artaxerxes II ( Memnon —' the Mindful ').

* Darius II's younger son, Cyrus, is accused by Tissaphernes, the satrap of Caria, of plotting his brother Artaxerxes II's murder.

According to Ctesias ( in Persica 20 ), Artabanus then accused the Crown Prince Darius, Xerxes's eldest son, of the murder and persuaded another of Xerxes's sons, Artaxerxes, to avenge the patricide by killing Darius.

* Darius, the first born, murdered by Artaxerxes I or Artabanus.

* Hystaspes, murdered by Artaxerxes I.

The first was Sogdianus, Artaxerxes I's son by his concubine Alogyne of Babylon.

The second was Darius II, Artaxerxes I's son by his concubine Cosmartidene of Babylon, who was married to their common half-sister Parysatis, daughter of Artaxerxes I and his concubine Andia of Babylon.

Artaxerxes I, who died on December 25, 424 BC, was followed by his son Xerxes II.

Darius II died in 405 BC, in the nineteenth year of his reign, and was followed as Persian king by Artaxerxes II.

After Artaxerxes III of Persia and all of his sons were killed by the vizier Bagoas, the vizier installed a cousin of Artaxerxes III, Artashata, to the Persian throne as Darius III.