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Roxana (Bactrian
Bactrian language

The Bactrian language is an extinct Eastern Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria. Linguistically, it is classified as belonging to the Middle Iranian languages of the Northeastern Iranian languages branch....
, Persian
Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
: Roshanak
Roshanak

Roshanak is a traditional Persian language name for a female. This name has several meanings such as "shining star", "lovely flare", "luminous beauty"....
;definition literally "luminous beauty"; and loosely "the dawn"), was a Bactria
Bactria

Bactria is a historical region of Greater Iran. Known by the ancient Greeks as "Bactriana" the region is located between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya ; in later times, the region became known as Tokharistan. The name of the region has survived to present time in the name of Afghan province "Balkh"....
n noble and a wife of Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
. She was born earlier than the year 341 BC, 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 Amu Darya into Sogdiana ....
 of Balkh
Balkh

Balkh , also known as Bactra, was once a major world city but was destroyed entirely by the Mongols. Today it is a small town in the Balkh Province, northern Afghanistan, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some 74 km south of the Amu Darya, the Oxus River of antiquity, of which a tributary form...
 in Bactria (then eastern Persia
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
, now Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....
 and northern Afghanistan
Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
), 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....
. Balkh was the last of the Persian Empire's provinces to fall to Alexander, and the marriage was an attempt to reconcile the Bactrian satrap
Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Medes and Persian Empire empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic civilization empires....
ies to Alexander's rule, although ancient sources describe Alexander's professed love for her.






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Roxana (Bactrian
Bactrian language

The Bactrian language is an extinct Eastern Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria. Linguistically, it is classified as belonging to the Middle Iranian languages of the Northeastern Iranian languages branch....
, Persian
Persian language

name=Persian|nativename=|pronunciation=[f??r'si]|image=|caption=Farsi in Perso-Arabic script |states= Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Bahrain....
: Roshanak
Roshanak

Roshanak is a traditional Persian language name for a female. This name has several meanings such as "shining star", "lovely flare", "luminous beauty"....
;definition literally "luminous beauty"; and loosely "the dawn"), was a Bactria
Bactria

Bactria is a historical region of Greater Iran. Known by the ancient Greeks as "Bactriana" the region is located between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya ; in later times, the region became known as Tokharistan. The name of the region has survived to present time in the name of Afghan province "Balkh"....
n noble and a wife of Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
. She was born earlier than the year 341 BC, 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 Amu Darya into Sogdiana ....
 of Balkh
Balkh

Balkh , also known as Bactra, was once a major world city but was destroyed entirely by the Mongols. Today it is a small town in the Balkh Province, northern Afghanistan, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some 74 km south of the Amu Darya, the Oxus River of antiquity, of which a tributary form...
 in Bactria (then eastern Persia
Persian Empire

The 'Persian Empire' was a series of successive Iranian or Persianization empires that ruled over the Iranian plateau, the original Persian homeland, and beyond in Southwest Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus....
, now Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a Landlocked_country#Doubly_landlocked_country country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union....
 and northern Afghanistan
Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country that is located approximately in the center of Asia....
), 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....
. Balkh was the last of the Persian Empire's provinces to fall to Alexander, and the marriage was an attempt to reconcile the Bactrian satrap
Satrap

Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of ancient Medes and Persian Empire empires, including the Achaemenid Empire and in several of their heirs, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic civilization empires....
ies to Alexander's rule, although ancient sources describe Alexander's professed love for her. Roxana accompanied him on his campaign in India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 in 326 BC. 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 the princess Roxana, of Bactria....
, after Alexander's sudden death at Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
 in 323 BC. With the king's death, Roxana and her son became victims of the political intrigues of the collapse of the Alexandrian empire. Roxana murdered Alexander's other widow, Stateira II
Stateira II

Stateira II was daughter of Stateira I and Darius III of Persia of Persia, sister of Drypteis, and granddaughter of Sisygambis. The Macedonian forces captured Stateira II along with her family at the Battle of Issus when Darius was defeated....
, and Stateira's sister Drypteis
Drypteis

Drypetis or Drypteis , is a princess of the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia. She was the daughter of Stateira I and Darius III of Persia, and by her sister Stateira II, sister-in-law to Alexander the Great....
 (Pl. Alex. 77.4). Roxana and her son were protected by Alexander's mother, Olympias
Olympias

Olympias , ca. 376–316 BC, was an Epirote princess, the fourth wife of King Philip II of Macedon of Macedon and mother of Alexander the Great....
, in Macedon
Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
, but her assassination in 316 BC allowed Cassander
Cassander

Cassander , King of Macedon , was a son of Antipater, and founder of the short-lived Antipatrid dynasty....
 to seek kingship. Since Alexander IV Aegus was the legitimate heir to the Alexandrian empire, Cassander ordered him and Roxana assassinated around 309 BC.

External links

  • by Jona Lendering
  • from Charles Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1867)


Historical Novels

  • Cave, A.J. Roxana Romance : 2008, Hardcover, ISBN 978-0-9802061-0-4, eBook, ISBN 978-0-9802061-1-1