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Xerxes II

(Encyclopedia)Xerxes II, d. 424 b.c., king of ancient Persia (424 b.c.), son of Artaxerxes I. After a reign of 45 days he was murdered by his half-brother Sogdianus. ...

Xerxes I

(Encyclopedia)Xerxes I (Xerxes the Great) zûrkˈsēz [key], d. 465 b.c., king of ancient Persia (486–465 b.c.). His name in Old Persian is Khshayarsha, in the Bible Ahasuerus. He was the son of Darius I and Atos...

Achaemenids

(Encyclopedia)Achaemenids ăkˌəmĕnˈĭdz [key], dynasty of ancient Persia. They were descended presumably from one Achaemenes, a minor ruler in a mountainous district of SW Iran. His successors, when Elam declin...

Mardonius

(Encyclopedia)Mardonius märdōˈnēəs [key], d. 479 b.c., Persian general; son-in-law of Darius I. Darius sent him (492 b.c.) to retaliate against Eretria and Athens for aiding the Ionians in the Persian Wars, bu...

Ahasuerus

(Encyclopedia)Ahasuerus āhăsˌyo͞oēˈrəs [key], Hebrew form of the name Xerxes, as used in the Bible. The Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther is probably Xerxes I. That in the Book of Tobit may be Cyaxares I, dest...

Alwand

(Encyclopedia)Alwand äˈvänd [key], mountain, c.11,600 ft (3,540 m) high, W Iran. It bears cuneiform inscriptions of Darius I and Xerxes I. ...

Jeroboam II

(Encyclopedia)Jeroboam II, in the Bible, king of Israel, son of Jehoash, whom he succeeded. His reign was marked by increasing prosperity and expansion northward, but also by corruption. Amos and Hosea appeared und...

Joanna II

(Encyclopedia)Joanna II, 1371–1435, queen of Naples (1414–35), sister and successor of Lancelot. The intrigues of her favorites kept her court in turmoil. Her second husband, James of Bourbon, tried to seize po...

Kenneth II

(Encyclopedia)Kenneth II, d. 995, Scottish king (971–995). The son of Malcolm I (reigned 943–54), he became king of the united Picts and Scots in 971 and immediately led a savage raid on the British in Northumb...

Mieszko II

(Encyclopedia)Mieszko II or Mieczyslaw II, 990–1034, king of Poland (1025–34), son and successor of Boleslaus I. His reign was marked by internal and external strife. Moravia was lost to Bohemia, Lusatia to Ger...