Esther 1:4: Verse 4
The riches of his glorious kingdom - Luxury was the characteristic of the Eastern monarchs, and particularly of the Persians. In their feasts, which were superb and of long continuance, they made a general exhibition of their wealth, grandeur, etc., and received the highest encomiums from their poets and flatterers. Their ostentation on such occasions passed into a proverb: hence Horace: -
Persicos odi, puer, apparatus:
Displicent nexae philyra coronae;
Mitte sectari, rosa quo locorum
Sera moretur.
I tell thee, boy, that I detest
The grandeur of a Persian feast;
Nor for me the linden's rind
Shall the flowery chaplet bind.
Then search not where the curious rose
Beyond his season loitering grows.
Francis.