587 B.C.

1073 sortait, a most instructive use of the imperfect; the narrative
pauses in the succession of _events_, to lay stress on the happy
_state_ now prevailing. See App. II, ii. A.

1075 son fils, Cambyses (reigned 529-522 B.C.).

1077 vous, on the assumption that Ahasuerus is Darius (reigned 521-485
B.C.).

1082 en. See App. V, ii. C.

1086 La Thrace, near enough to Macedonia for the queen's oratorical
purposes. Thracia (now N. E. Roumelia), like Scythia (l. 1096), was
then a remote and almost unknown region, whose inhabitants were all
"barbarians."

1096 sqq. Esther is supremely skillful in laying to the king's credit
all that can flatter his pride, and charging all she complains of
against this _Scythe impitoyable_: a name all the more hateful to the
king as Darius had led an army against the Scythians and lost it (513
B.C.), although Esther puts the expedition in a more flattering light
in l. 1116.

1104 Que. See App. IV, i. A.

1123 Saul, first king of the Israelites, was the son of Kish, a
Benjamite (I Sam. ix. 1-2), and Mordecai is also stated (Book of Esther
ii. 5) to be the son of Kish, a Benjamite.