WHEN DID ARTAXERXES' REIGN BEGIN?

HISTORIANS disagree regarding the year in which the reign of Persian King Artaxerxes began.  Some have placed his accession year in 465 B.C.E. because his father, Xerxes,  started to rule in 486 B.C.E. and died in the 21st year of his reign.  But there is evidence that Artaxerxes ascended to the throne in 475 B.C.E. and began his regnal year in 474 B.C.E. 

Inscriptions and sculptures unearthed at the ancient Persian capital Persepolis indicate a coregency between Xerxes and his father, Darius I.  If this covered 10 years and Xerxes ruled alone for 11 years after Darius died in 486 B.C.E., the first year of Artaxerxes' reign would have been 474 B.C.E.

A second line of evidence involves Athenian General Themistcoles, who defeated Xerxes' forces in 480 B.C.E. He later fell out of favor with the Greek people and was accused of treason.  Themistocles fled and sought protection at the Persian court, where he was well received. According to the Greek historian Thucydides, this happened when Artaxerxes had but "lately come to the throne."  The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus puts the death of Themistocles requested a year to learn Persian before having an audience with King Artaxerxes, he must have arrived in Asia Minor no later than 473 B.C.E. That date is supported  by Jerome's Chronicle of Eusebius. As Artaxerxes had "lately come to the throne"  when Themistocles arrived in Asai in 473 B.C.E.  German scholar Ernst Hengstenberg stated in his  Christology of the old Testament that Artaxerxes' reign commenced in 474 B.C.E., as do other sources.  He added: "The twentieth year of Artaxerxes is the year 455 before Christ.

Next time: STRENGTHENED BY A MESSENGER FROM GOD; CHAPTER TWELVE

From the book: PAY ATTENTION TO DANIEL'S PROPHECY! 1999