Commentaria in Esther
Chapter the Twelfth
1. Now he abode at that time in the king’s court, with Bagatha and Thara the king’s eunuchs, who were porters of the palace. 2. And when he had understood their designs, and had more diligently searched into their cares, he learned that they went about to lay hands on king Artaxerxes: and he told the king of it. 3. Who having examined both of them, commanded them, upon their confession, to be led to death. 4. But the king committed to memory in the records what was done; and Mardochai also wrote the memorial of the thing.
5. And the king commanded him to abide in the palace, and gave him presents for the information. 6. But Aman, the son of Amadathi, the Bugaean, was in great honour with the king, and endeavoured to hurt Mardochai and his people, for the two eunuchs of the king that were put to death. Thus far the Preface. What follows was placed in that place where it is written in the volume of And they plundered their goods, or substance.
Which we find only in the Vulgate edition.
And this was the copy of the letter.
5. Gave him presents for the information—small and of little weight; for afterwards he gave greater, as is plain from chapter vi, 3. Or rather it is a prolepsis, or anticipation: for these gifts seem to have been given to Mardochai not immediately after the information, but long after, namely when the king, reading the Annals, understood that no reward had been given to Mardochai for the information, as is told in chapter vi, 3.
6. But Aman the son of Amadathi, the Bugaean, was in great honour.—Why is Aman called Bugaean? Some answer: He is called Bugaean, that is, son of Bogis. For Xerxes made much of Bogis, according to Herodotus, books VII and VIII; and that Bogis was a Macedonian, as Aman was, is clear from this that Herodotus adds he was sprung from the city of Eion, that is, Amphipolis, a city also of the Macedonians, which the river Strymon passes. But these things happened before Xerxes under Darius the father of Xerxes, as I showed in the Preface. I say then: “Bugaean,” or, as some read, “Ugaean,” is the same as Agagite, that is, sprung of the race of Agag king of Amalec. That it is so is clear from this, that the word “Bugaean” is not in the Hebrew, but taken from the Septuagint, which in chapter iii, 1, for “of the race of Agag” render: Bugaean. For from Agag, the first aleph being dropped by aphaeresis, comes Gag, or Gog, as for Agag the Septuagint render in Numbers xxiv, 7. Now from Gog is made Gogaean, and thence Bogaean or Bugaean. For the letter b is often changed with g, as St. Jerome teaches in On Hebrew Places, where Gobel, or Gyblum, which is in Ezechiel in Hebrew, he says is Byblus, a famous city of Phoenicia. More similar examples of the change of the letter b into g Angelus Caninius brings in his Hellenism. For although Aman by nearer stock was a Macedonian, as is said in chapter xvi, 10, yet by ancient lineage and origin he was an Amalecite of the race of Agag, as I said in chapter iii, 1. Second, “Bugaean” may be not a proper name, nor patronymic, but an appellative; hence the Romans write it with a small b, to signify a great boaster and vainglorious man, such as Aman is here said to have been, the Greeks bring an amplification from bous, that is, ox, as if bovine “Bugaean” were the same as bovine, that is, monstrously boasting. Hence Plutarch in the Greek Questions: “They count Bubalas for great, as the Poet (Homer says of Agamemnon) boopis, that is, endowed with ox-like, that is, great eyes, and a bugaean, who boasted gloriously.” Hence Homer calls a great boaster beophaon. Hence also the Italian bugia, that is, a lie: for vainglorious braggarts, who boast great things of themselves, as Aman did, tell many lies; for the Italians take many words from the Greeks, as dwelling in Italy. Hence also Calabria, where Pythagoras taught, was called Magna Graecia.
For the two eunuchs—hanged through Mardochai’s information. For these were friends and allies of Aman, as I said in chapter ii, 21.