Roxana sometimes
Roxane, was a
BactriaBactria 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 BCYear 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
OxyartesOxyartes 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
BalkhBalkh , 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 EmpireThe 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 RockSogdian 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
PakistanPakistan , 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
IndiaIndia , 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 BCYear 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
BabylonBabylon 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 BCYear 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 AegusAlexander 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 IIStateira 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
DrypteisDrypetis 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 IIParysatis, 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,
OlympiasOlympias 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 BCYear 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
CassanderCassander , 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 BCYear 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 Kirkman
Marshall 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 Menen
Aubrey 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 Boy
The 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 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 Renault
Mary 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 Manfredi
Valerio 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.
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