Roxana
(Sogdian princess, official wife of Alexander the Great)

Roxana - her name Roshanak means "little star" - was the daughter of a Sogdian nobleman named Oxyartes (Vaxsuvadarva), who defended a mountain fortress against the invading army of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great (327). When the fortress was captured, the sixteen year old woman, was among the prisoners of war.

At that stage of his campaign in the Achaemenid empire, it had become obvious that Alexander could not control his conquests without doing concessions to the native population. He had to show respect to their customs if he wanted their respect. In the years 330-327, we see Alexander appointing Persians in important functions, dress himself like an Iranian nobleman, introduce the oriental court ritual (proskynesis). Marrying a local princess was a logical step.

The obvious candidate was Barsine, who had been Alexander's concubine since the battle of Issus in November 333. But this woman, who had already given birth to a son, was ignored. It is not known why, but she may have been unacceptable to the Iranian population, because she had spend a great deal of her life in Europe. Barsine may have been too Greek; an extra argument for this hypothesis is that later, she settled herself in Greece. Another explanation may be that Alexander had simply fallen in love with Roxana.

The marriage was concluded according to the local customs; a very beautiful bedroom, with a wedding bed on which Roxana was sitting; she was an extraordinary lovely girl but, modestly, she looked down at the ground, feeling shy before Alexander who stood beside her. Smiling cupids were in attendance: one stood behind and pulled back the veil from her face; another removed her shoe, while a third was tugging Alexander towards her by the cloak. Alexander, meanwhile, was offering her a garland, while Hephaestion assisted as best man, holding a blazing torch and leaning against a young boy, probably Hymenaeus, the god of the weddings. On the other side more cupids were playing, this time among Alexander's armor; two heaved his spear, two dragged his shield by the hand-grips, on which sat a third, presumably their king; another had hidden under the breastplate, as if to ambush them. Roxana followed her husband when he invaded India (326) and returned to Babylon (325-324). On 11 June 323, her husband died. She was pregnant.

In the next years, the era of the Diadochi, she had a very difficult position. One of the commanders, Perdiccas, was chosen as regent for Alexander's mentally deficient brother Philip Arridaeus and his posthumous son, Alexander. Together, Perdiccas and Roxana executed Alexander's second wife, Statira, who could become a rival. However, Perdiccas died soon after, and the Macedonian commanders came together to discuss the future. During this meeting at Triparadisus, they decided to divide the empire . A new but weak regent, the old Antipater, was appointed. He ordered Roxana, Philip and the baby to go to Macedonia. For a woman who had grown up in Sogdia, had seen India, had lived in the palaces of Persia and Babylonia, it must have been a strange experience to live in a provincial town called Amphipolis in barbarous Europe.

For several years, she and her son were safe, but one of the rival commanders, Cassander, captured them in 316. Five years later, Cassander and the other Diadochi concluded a peace treaty in which they agreed that they would remain in charge of the empire until Roxana's son would become king (in 305). This was of course an incentive to execute the boy king and his mother, who were executed immediately (311/310) In 311, the Diadochi concluded a peace treaty. Ptolemy and Lysimachus were confirmed in their territories, Egypt and Thrace; Cassander and Antigonus Monophthalmus remained supreme commanders of the Macedonian forces in Europe and Asia; the Greek towns were recognized by all parties as 'free and autonomous' (but Cassander kept garrisons at several places); and it was agreed that the boy king Alexander, son of Alexander the Great and Roxana, would become sole ruler of the entire empire when he came of age, in 305.

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