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Roxana 327 BC

Roxana (340-310 BC) was a Sogdian princess of Bactria, the wife of Alexander the Great, and the mother of Alexander IV of Macedon.

Biography[]

Roxana was born in Sogdia in 340 BC, the daughter of the Bactrian nobleman Oxyartes. Her father took part in Bessus' rebellion against Darius III and later fought against Alexander the Great's Macedonian army at the Sogdian Rock in Sogdia, where Alexander received the surrender of the entire garrison after finding a way to penetrate the fortress without a frontal assault. Alexander fell in love with Roxana at first sight, and, despite his generals' strong opposition, he married her in 327 BC. Alexander made Oxyartes Governor of the Hindu Kush during his invasion of the Indian Subcontinent, and he made one of Roxana's brothers a cavalry commander. After Alexander's death at Babylon in 323 BC, the vicious Roxana murdered Alexander's other wife Stateira II to ensure that her son, the younger Alexander, would be Alexander's heir. She and her son were protected by Alexander's mother Olympias in Macedonia, but Olympias' assassination in 316 BC allowed for Alexander's former general Cassander to imprison Roxana and Alexander IV at Amphipolis. In 310 BC, he had the two of them poisoned before usurping the throne himself.


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