Roxanâ Romance (Roanak Nâmeh: the Book of Roanak ) is a historical novel about the life of Roxana, wife of Alexander, against the backdrop of historical events that ended the rule of two royal houses from the East and West and marked the end of an era in ancient history. It is also about the love Persians have for Persia. For all Persians Persia is more than a homeland; it is a magical land of lasting glory, a sacred place of splendor where Ahuramazda, the Wise Lord of the Persians, dwells eternally.
Dâriu the King said: The land of Persians, which I possess, has been granted to me by Ahuramazdâh. My land is filled with good men and fine horses and I am the King of this land. ... may Ahuramazdâh protect my land from hostile armies and chaos and famine...
Persians Tribes of Persians were among the Aryan tribes, who descended from the north to settle on the highlands of the Iranian plateau (Âryânâ: Land of the Nobles). United by the branches of the royal house of Achaemenids (Hakhâmaniia), and armed with their beliefs in the God of the Iranians, Ahuramazdâ, Persians rose from historical anonymity to conquer most of the known world and create the first world empire, stretching from India to Egypt and Macedonia and from southern Russia to the Persian Gulf and Arabia. For 220+ years, from 559 to 329 BCE, the Great Kings ruled over most of Asia, covering a complex plethora of nations, kingdoms, and tribes, all with their own history, language, religion and customs. As evident from the royal inscriptions from the palaces in Persepolis (Pârsâ) and Susa (Çûâ), they took pride in the multicultural nature of their empire and never attempted to Persianize the empire.
Achaemenid Persians were the first kings who invented the tradition of monarchy based on consent and mutual benefits. Unlike the former Assyrian and Babylonian kings who routinely deported the defeated people, the Great Kings returned many subject people to their native lands and encouraged them to retain their own culture and religion. No one was allowed to commit sacrilege against the sacred temples and places anywhere under the protection and royal patronage of the Achaemenids.
Achaemenids created stable trade markets and safe land and sea trading routes for the empire. The immense Persian Empire was divided into 20 satrapies (Khaçapâvan), governed by Persian satraps (Khaçapâva), the protectors of the empire, who were appointed by the Great Kings and were personally connected to the Great Kings by marriage alliances with the imperial family. Loyalty to the Great Kings was greatly rewarded while rebellion was severely punished.
The rule of the Achaemenid Great Kings was so impressive that they became the model of kingship and remained the ultimate symbol of kingly majesty throughout history.
Persians and Hellenes Persian conquest of Lydia, roughly the modern Turkey, brought the ancient Greeks (Hellenes) who had colonized the eastern edges of the Mediterranean, and the Achaemenid Persians into constant conflict. This resulted in complex and intricate relationship between two superbly gifted people over two centuries of Persian rule in Asia, and gave rise to the very notion of the East and West.
While the Achaemenid Persians perfected the art of kingship and complex administrative systems needed to maintain their dominion over a vast multi-cultural empire, the mainland Hellenes (Greeks), mostly Athenians and Spartans, spent their considerable intellectual talents on perfecting the art of war initially in constant fear of the perceived Persian threat, and later in fear of each other.
The imperial ambitions of Achaemenids to conquer the West, while generally accepted by the historians, is not necessary true. Burning of the old Acropolis of Athens by Xerxes was no doubt initially motivated by the sacrilege committed by the Athenians themselves who crossed the sea and burned the city and sacred temples of Sardis, a royal city of the empire after the Lydian conquest. By his own royal words and deeds, Xerxes was profoundly religious.
Persians and Macedonians The ultimate threat to the Achaemenid Persia and the mainland Greece came from Macedonia (Makedon), a small kingdom in modern northern Greece. The Macedonian King, Philip II, built the best trained military of the ancient history, skillfully combining the cavalry and infantry forces in one unified army which subjugated the Greeks. After Philips assassination, his son, Alexander, carried on the plans of Persian conquest devised by his father. He succeeded in overthrowing the Achaemenid Persians and destroyed the political unity of Asia that was created by the Great Kings. Iliad and the Homeric tradition and fame greatly impacted Alexander and his men, to whom Iliad was ancestral history. No doubt a historical event was preserved in memory and an oral tradition passed the account of an ancient war from generation to generation. But the Homeric universal theme of the tragedy and futility of war was burried under the high gloss of war for fame, glory and vengence.
Alexander was the first western king to embark on a war of conquest against the Persian Empire, leaving a bloody footprint wherever he went. The cost of the conquest was the slaughter of an estimated half a million men in various battles and wars across the Persian Empire and the sale of an estimated half a million more into slavery, mostly women and children, according to the customs of the ancient Hellene warfare. To legitimize his rule in Asia and appease the stubborn resistance of the Persian nobility, Alexander embraced the Persian traditions of kingship and presented himself, not as a conqueror but as a legitimate heir to the Achaemenid throne. But the sacking of Persepolis and burning of the ceremonial palaces of the Great Kings in a wanton act of barbarism forever ruined the chances of true reconciliation between Alexander and the Persians. After the Great King was executed by his own Persian nobles to prevent him from falling into the hands of the invaders, Alexander declared himself the legitimate heir to the Achaemenid throne and set out in hot pursuit of murderers of the Great King. He faced the fiercest resistance to his invading forces in Bactria and Sogdiana, roughly the modern Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. After three years of guerilla warfare, Alexander finally brought a temporary end to the bloody hostilities by marrying Roxana (Roanak), the sixteen year old Bactrian Princess, who fell into his hands during the siege of the Sogdian Fortress. The marriage alliance provided a temporary halt to war, long enough for Alexander and his forces to leave Bactria and continue their bloody conquest through the Indus Valley, roughly the modern Pakistan. Neither Alexander nor most of his men returned to their homeland. Alexander himself died relatively young in Babylon, not far from modern Baghdad, leaving behind Roxana who was pregnant with his child, and thus fulfilling an old Babylonian prophecy. The Alexandrian Empire in turn was torn apart by Alexanders generals after his death and the empire was broken into several hostile rival kingdoms.
Persians after Alexander While war broke in most of Asia under the Hellenistic rule, Persian continuity, resilience and timelessness prevailed, and the flood of the foreign invasion soon subsided, leaving the Persians more or less unchanged. Defeated in battle did not mean conquered. The destruction of Persepolis by fire, divine symbol of Persian Kingship, had planted the seeds of long-term resistance to foreign invaders. Parthians (Akâniâns), an Iranian tribe from Parthia (Parűawa), rose to power and eventually destroyed the remnants of the Seleucids. Antigonids and Ptolemies in turn, were overthrown by the Romans. Royal Parthians and Imperial Sasanians (Sâsâniâns) both tied their bloodlines to the Achaemenid Persian Kings. Publius Cornelius Tactius, the Roman senator and historian, wrote in his Annales VI:31 (Annals) that:
Artabanus II, the Akânian [Parthian] King "insisted on the ancient boundaries of Persia and Macedonia, and intimated, with a vainglorious threat, that he meant to seize all the country possessed by Cyrus and afterwards by Alexander."
