The first letter is headed Great King Artaxerxes to the governors of the hundred and twenty-seven satrapies from India to Ethiopia. Having ruled many nations without arrogant harm, and having sought peace and good order for them, he says Haman, second after him in honour, has shown that a hostile people, alien in laws and hating monarchy, is mixed among men. He therefore orders those Haman indicates destroyed with women and children on the fourteenth of the twelfth month, so that enemies perish in one day.
The second letter reverses it. Many, bloated by honour, wrong even their benefactors. Haman son of Hamadathus the Amalekite, called the king’s father, plotted against Mordecai the benefactor and against Esther, partner of life and rule, hoping to shift the kingdom. The king, finding the Jews not wicked but attached to the god who kept the kingdom, frees them, has Haman crucified before the gates of Susa with his line, and orders the Jews to live by their own laws and to defend themselves on the thirteenth of Adar.
The Greek is the royal correspondence of the Esther story, not a missing Persian archive.
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