1. Persian king, identified as the magian impostor who pretended to be Smerdis the brother of Cambyses. When appealed to by the adversaries of the Jews, he stopped the building of the temple. He was slain after a reign of eight months. Ezra 4:7,8,11,23 .

2. Another Persian king identified as Artaxerxes Longimanus B.C. 474-434, son of Xerxes, the Ahasuerus of Esther. He greatly favoured both Ezra and Nehemiah; he beautified the temple or bore the expense of its being done, Ezra 7:27 , and under his protection the wall of the city was finished. Ezra 6:14; Ezra 7:1-21; Ezra 8:1; Nehemiah 2:1; Nehemiah 5:14; Nehemiah 13:6 . It was in the 20th year of this king that the command to build the city was given, from which began the dates of the prophecy of the Seventy weeks of Daniel, which is fixed by Usher and Hengstenburg at B.C. 454-5. For the succession of the Persian kings see PERSIA.