George Leo Haydock, on Esth 4:1

“Now when Mardochai had heard these things, he rent his garments, and put on sackcloth, strewing ashes on his head: and he cried with a loud voice in the street in the midst of the city, shewing the anguish of his mind.”

“Shewing. Septuagint, old Vulgate, and Josephus, “a nation which has done no wrong, is to be cut off.” The eastern nations were accustomed to such marks of sorrow, Jonas ii. 6. The citizens of Susa tore their garments, and cried aloud, for many days after the defeat of Xerxes. (Herodotus viii. 98.) — The domestics of Darius and Alexander tore also their hair, &c., after their masters’ death. (Curtius iii., and xi.)”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.