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Artaxerxes I. Arthur Legend

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

foreign king. The Greek chronologists, evidently through a misunderstanding, make of Artaban a Persian king

and

state that

he reigned seven months.

The Greeks gave Artaxerxes

the surname Mmpd(Longimanus, Long-Hand), asserting, probably correctly, that his right hand was longer than his left. They uniformly describe him as a brave and handsome man, a kindly and magnanimous ruler (Nepos, "De Regibus," eh. i. Plutarch, "Artaxerxes, " eh. i.). The authentic narrative of Nehemiah gives an accurate picture, showing him to have been a kindly monarch, who, noticing the sadness of his cupbearer, asked him his wish and granted it. This characterization does not deny that he was xetp



146

was not contained

in the commission he had received from the king; accordingly the Samaritans and their governor, Rehum, interfered and addressed a letter The king, who had to the king, given in Ezra iv. 7. no doubt been informed of the former importance of the rebellious city and the danger which its refortirication might threaten to his revenues, issued orders

that the rebuilding of the walls must stop (iv. 17). The triumph of the Samaritans was complete the walls were torn down, and the gates were burnt (Neh. i. 3). Such was the condition of the city when, in

women

Kislew of the twentieth year (December, 446), Nehemiah, the king's cupbearer, received information from his brethren concerning it. The Bible narrative tells how he succeeded in being sent as governor to Judea, and how he immediately (summer of 445) set energetically to work to restore the fortifications, thus enabling Ezra, through the influence of his authority, to establish the book of the Torah as the law binding upon the Jews. Neliemiah returned to court in 433 (Neh. v. 14, xiii. 6), but was despatched to Judea a second time to counteract certain evils

his sentence

which had

His

susceptible to harem-influence or that

Character,

he could become very angry when smy one appeared presumptuous. Ctesias relates that he once sought to decapitate Megabyzus because, on a hunting expedition, when a lion was about to spring upon the king, Megabyzus slew him without awaiting the royal spear-thrust. The of the court interceded for the offender, and was commuted to long exile upon an island in the Persian gulf, whence he finally succeeded in escaping. He afterward secured the king's

The reverence with which the Persians regarded Artaxerxes may be seen in the fact that two of his successors adopted his name. His long reign was generally tranquil, the system of government introduced by Darius working satisfactorily. A few satraps who rebelled now and again (as, for instance, at the very beginning of the reign, the governor of Bactria), were speedily subdued. On the borderlands and in the mountainous districts the authority of the government may not have been vigorously sustained, but every other religion under his sway in Asia may be said to have enjoyed a period of peaceful growth. Artaxerxes I. was, however, not a creative genius. Fuller details are known concerning his relationship to the Jews, toward whose development at a critical juncture he contributed efficiently. Two documents pardon.

are contained in the

Book

of Ezra, ch. iv. (albeit

wrongfully placed by the editor of that work) and there are also fragments of the memoirs of Ezra and Neliemiah themselves. Both documents in ch. iv. and the decree containing Ezra's appointment in ch. vii. have been declared spurious. In addiHis Rela- tion, the attempt has been made fretions to trie quently to place Ezra's journey and reforms in the reign of Artaxerxes II. Jews. but all such endeavors are critically untenable (compare Meyer, " Entstehung des Judenthums," 1896). In the seventh year of Artaxerxes I. (458 B.C.) the Babylonian Jews requested that permission should be given to the priest Ezra to visit Palestine, with full power over the Jews there, and to enforce the

book of the Law as the

will of the king.

How

the

king acceded to this request, and how Ezra endeavored to carry out his mission, are well known. Ezra first took strong measures against the mixed marriages, coming thereby into conflict with " the people of the land," the Samaritans and their allies. To protect himself against them, Ezra undertook to Permission for this rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

arisen.

E. Me.

a.

ARTAXERXES named

Arsakes, surThe eldest son of

II. (originally

Mnemon by

the Greeks) succeeded his father in 404 B.C. (Diodorus, xiii. 108), and adopted the name of his grandfather Artaxerxes. He reigned until 359; that is, 46

Darius

II.





years.

Artaxerxes

II.

seems to have been of a noble

dis-

but, despite personal bravery, he was feeble in character, and under subjection to his imperious mother, Parysatis, who favored her younger son Cyrus to the extent of desiring the throne for position;

After Cyrus' rebellion, and his death in the Cunaxa (401 B.C.), Parysatis ruled the king completely and led him into the gravest crimes. Owing to his weakness, he was not the man to save the effete and dying Persian empire. Immediately upon his accession Egypt declared and maintained His whole reign was filled with its independence. rebellions and uprisings by satraps, especially in Asia Minor and Syria, though Palestine, then under the rule of the high priests, seems to have steered clear of any participation. Nevertheless, the internal distractions of the Greek world enabled him to succeed in the main in asserting that supremacy over Greece that Darius and Xerxes had vainly aimed at. After having diverted the attack of the Spartans by inciting their war against Corinth, he succeeded, through conjunction with Sparta and Dionysus I. of Sicily, in imposing his will upon the Greeks by the celebrated "Peace of the King," in 387 B.C. For decades thereafter, this "King's Peace" was the law in Greece, against which no state dared rebel. him.

battle of

Bibliography: Greek

histories, especially Plutarch's biogthis king, are full of information concerning Artaxhut the suggested connection with the history of made by some historians, is without foundation.

raphy of erxes Ezra,

II.;

g-

ARTAXERXES

E. III.:

A son

Me.

of Artaxerxes II. He originally bore a name which in Babylonian was written " Umasu " (and therefore in the Ptolemaic canon, as given by Elias of Nisibis, the form