The Manipulation of Xerxes

Xerxes' entire foreign policy plan gets dictated to him by a couple of conversations and manipulations in the early going. And indeed, if we go and look at the book of Esther, we see that this king is highly susceptible to manipulation and highly susceptible to making decisions based on public embarrassment. But on the other hand, you got to look at the growth and expansion and power of Persia while he was in charge and acknowledge, I don't think a total clown could have pulled that off.