Roxana
Encyclopedia
Bactria
Bactria and also appears in the Zend Avesta as Bukhdi. It is the ancient name of a historical region located between south of the Amu Darya and west of the Indus River...
n noble and a wife of Alexander the Great. She was born earlier than the year 343 BC
343 BC
Year 343 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Corvus and Arvina...
, though the precise date remains uncertain.
She was the daughter of a Bactrian named Oxyartes
Oxyartes
Oxyartes was a Bactrian, father of Roxana, the wife of Alexander of Macedon. He is first mentioned as one of the chiefs who accompanied Bessus on his retreat across the Oxus river into Sogdiana...
of Balkh
Balkh
Balkh , was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan...
in Bactria (then Persian Achaemenid Empire
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
), and married Alexander at the age of 16 after he visited the fortress of Sogdian Rock
Sogdian Rock
Sogdian Rock or Rock of Ariamazes, a fortress located north of Bactria in Sogdiana , was captured by the forces of Alexander the Great in 327 BC as part of his conquest of the Achaemenid Empire.-Background:...
. Balkh was the last of the Persian Empire's provinces to fall to Alexander. Ancient sources describe Alexander's professed love for Roxana. She accompanied him on his campaign in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and northern India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in 326 BC
326 BC
Year 326 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Visolus and Cursor...
.
After Alexander's sudden death at Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
in 323 BC
323 BC
Year 323 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Longus and Cerretanus...
, she bore him a posthumous son called Alexander IV Aegus
Alexander IV of Macedon
Alexander IV Aegus was the son of Alexander the Great and Princess Roxana of Bactria.-Birth:...
. Also, after Alexander's death, Roxana murdered Alexander's other widow, Stateira II
Stateira II
Stateira II , possibly also known as Barsine, was the daughter of Stateira I and Darius III of Persia. After her father's defeat at the Battle of Issus, Stateira and her sisters became captives of Alexander of Macedon. They were treated well, and she became Alexander's second wife at the Susa...
, as well as either Stateira's sister Drypteis
Drypteis
Drypetis or Drypteis , is a princess of the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia.Drypteis was born between 350 and 345 BCE, the daughter of Stateira I and Darius III of Persia. When her father began a military campaign against the invading army of Alexander the Great, he was accompanied by Drypteis, along...
or Parysatis II
Parysatis II
Parysatis, the youngest daughter of Artaxerxes III of Persia, married Alexander the Great in 324 BC at the Susa weddings. She may have been murdered by Alexander's first wife, Roxana, in 323 BC.-Early life:...
(Alexander's third wife).
Roxana and her son were protected by Alexander's mother, Olympias
Olympias
Olympias was a Greek princess of Epirus, daughter of king Neoptolemus I of Epirus, the fourth wife of the king of Macedonia, Philip II, and mother of Alexander the Great...
, in Macedonia, but her assassination in 316 BC
316 BC
Year 316 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rutilus and Laenas...
allowed Cassander
Cassander
Cassander , King of Macedonia , was a son of Antipater, and founder of the Antipatrid dynasty...
to seek kingship. Since Alexander IV Aegus was the legitimate heir to the Alexandrian empire, Cassander ordered him and Roxana assassinated about 310 BC
310 BC
Year 310 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rullianus and Censorinus...
.
Historical Novels
- Roxana is one of the main characters in The Romance of Ricardo and Roxana by Marshall Monroe KirkmanMarshall Monroe KirkmanMarshall Monroe Kirkman was an American authority on railways, born in Illinois. He entered the service of the Chicago and North Western Railway in 1856 and rose to the position of vice-president in 1889. He wrote extensively on the subject of railways...
, 1909, reprinted 2010, ISBN 978-1-160-01995-8. - Roxana appears as one of the characters in A Conspiracy of Women by Aubrey MenenAubrey MenenAubrey Menen was an English writer of Irish and Indian parentage who was primarily a satirist...
, 1965. - Roxana appears as one of the minor characters in The Persian BoyThe Persian BoyThe Persian Boy is a 1972 historical novel written by Mary Renault and narrated by Bagoas, a young Persian from an aristocratic family who is captured by his father's enemies, castrated, and sold as a slave to the king Darius III, who makes him his favorite...
by Mary RenaultMary RenaultMary Renault born Eileen Mary Challans, was an English writer best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece...
, 1972, ISBN 0-394-48191-7. Renault uses the spelling Roxane. - Roxana appears as one of the characters in Funeral Games by Mary RenaultMary RenaultMary Renault born Eileen Mary Challans, was an English writer best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece...
, 1981, ISBN 0-394-52068-8. Renault uses the spelling Roxane. - Roxana appears as one of the characters in Alexander: The Ends of the Earth by Valerio Massimo ManfrediValerio Massimo ManfrediValerio Massimo Manfredi is an Italian historian, writer, archaeologist and journalist.-Biography:He was born in Piumazzo di Castelfranco Emilia, province of Modena and is married to Christine Fedderson Manfredi, who translates his published works from Italian to English...
, 2002, ISBN 978-0-7434-3438-6. - Roxana is the main character in Roxana Romance by A. J. Cave, 2008, Hardcover ISBN 978-0-9802061-0-4, eBook ISBN 978-0-9802061-1-1.
External links
- Livius.org: Roxane by Jona Lendering
- Wiki Classical Dictionary: Roxane, daughter of Oxyartes
- Roxana from Charles Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1867)