Roxana (c. 340 – 310 BC) was a Sogdian princess of Bactria, the wife of Alexander the Great, and the mother of his two children, including Alexander IV of Macedon.
Biography[]
Roxana was born in Sogdia around 340 BC, the daughter of the Bactrian nobleman Oxyartes. Her father initially supported the rebel Bessus against Darius III and later resisted the advance of Alexander the Great at the Sogdian Rock, a mountain fortress in Sogdia. Alexander successfully captured the stronghold through strategic maneuvering rather than direct assault.
According to ancient sources, Alexander fell in love with Roxana upon meeting her and married her in 327 BC, despite opposition from some of his generals who preferred a Macedonian alliance. The marriage was likely both a political alliance and a personal union. Afterward, Alexander appointed Oxyartes as governor of the Hindu Kush during his campaigns in the Indian subcontinent, and one of Roxana’s brothers was given a cavalry command.
The Queen accompanied her husband in his campaign to India, where she gave birth to their first son, who died in infancy in November 326 BC. Roxana was pregnant again at the time of Alexander's death in Babylon during summer 323 BC. Two months after her husband's passing away, she gave birth to his posthumous son Alexander IV. To secure her son’s position as heir, Roxana is believed to have ordered the death of Stateira II, another of Alexander's wives. Roxana and her son were placed under the protection of Alexander’s mother, Olympias, in Macedonia.
However, after Olympias was assassinated in 316 BC, power shifted to Cassander, one of Alexander’s former generals. Cassander imprisoned Roxana and her son in Amphipolis, and around 310 BC, he ordered their execution to eliminate any remaining claimants to the Macedonian throne.
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