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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>No one is saying that ancient kings "made a
practice of" taking married women, but you'd have to ignore an awful lot of
history to say that they never did. Wanna list?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The claim I made was that Ahashverosh's pekidim
took whomever they deemed of interest to the king, married or not, and that this
was contrary to the original plan of taking betulot. His meglomanaical
vaccuuming up of all the eligible women in his empire did indeed make him very
unpopular, which in turn fed his paranoia. It may have been the reason
that Bigtan and Teresh plotted against him.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Kol tuv,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Simi Peters</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>