| Esther 1:11
| To bring in queen Vasthi before the king, with the crown set upon her head, to shew her beauty to all the people, and the princes: for she was exceedingly beautiful.
| Head. But without any other covering. (Chaldean) Sulpitius entertained perhaps the same idea. Stulto rege consultior, pudens, virorum oculis spectaculum corporis praebere jussa, abnuit. (Haydock) --- Some Greek copies assert, very improbably, (Calmet) that she was sent for "to be crowned queen." --- Beautiful. "The Persian ladies were noted for beauty," (Ammian) insomuch that Alexander called them eye-sores, oculorum dolores. (Curtius) --- Only prostitutes appeared publicly at feasts. (Macrob. 7:1.) (St. Ambrose, de Elia. 1:15.) --- In effect, Vasthi's refusal was conformable to the laws of the country. (Josephus) (Plutarch in Themist.) --- Her offence consisted, therefore, rather in her haughty carriage or words. (Haydock) --- For the proposal was neither decent nor safe for the king, (Grotius) as the history of Candaules shews. (Herodotus i.) (Not. Var. in Sulpitius)
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