Roxana (Roanak), was the sixteen year old Bactrian Princess, who fell into the hands of Alexander during the siege of the Sogdian Fortress. Historical Accounts 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, whom he has seen dancing in a feast in his honor, according to the 'local customs'. Whether the marriage alliance was motivated by love, politics or sheer necessity to stop the massacre of all the men and the enslavement of all the women and children, the result was 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. Alexander died relatively young in Babylon, leaving behind Roxana who was pregnant with his child.
After the birth of her son, named after his father, Alexander IV, Roxana allegedly murdered Royal Daughters of Darius III, who were married to Alexander and his friend, Hephaestion, during the Susa mass weddings.
In the chaos that followed Alexander's death, care of Roxana and her son passed from one Macedonian general to another, until they both ended up in Macedon under the protection of Alexander's mother, Queen Olympias.
After the murder of Olympias by Cassander, Roxana and her young son were held captive in Amphipolis. Both were secretly murdered a few years later by the implicit consent of Alexander's successors.
Their bodies were never found.
Roxana and Alexander Since historical accounts on Roxana are meager and contradictory, the clues to her lies in the nature of the imperial Achaemenid structure and the character of Alexander himself.
Her name, Roxana, Greek for Roanak (Luminous), and that of her 'father', Oxyartes (Uxiyartâ), and her 'brother', Itâna, were Persian names, and they were related by blood to Bessus (Bayasa), the satrap of Bactria, who assumed the Achaemenid throne with the royal name of Artaxerxes V (Artakhaçâ). It is entirely possible that the later Hellene and Roman writers, ignorant of ancient Persian custom of extension of parental terms, where young people were called sons or daughters and the elderly were referred to as father or mother, expressing respect and affection, mistook the lineage of Roxana, who was identified as the Royal Daughter of the Last Great King in all the Persian traditions. Even Marco Polo, the famous Venetian world traveller and trader, crossing Bactria on the Silk Road on his way to China, recorded in his il Milione, The Travels of Marco Polo, published in 1298, that according to the Bactrians, Alexander the Great married the daughter of Darius, the Persian King, in Bactria.
Bactria, not Babylon or Egypt, was considered the most important satrapy of the Persian Empire after the heartland of Persepolis (Pârsâ). This exalted ranking among all the Persian satrapies was no doubt due to patronage of ancient Bactrian kings for the holy prophet Zoroaster (Zarathutra). Satraps of Bactria were traditionally closely tied to the Great Kings by blood, usually sons, brothers or cousins. The actions of Bessus after the death ofthe Great King indicate that he could have had a legitimate claim to the throne of the Achaemenids.
Roxana was born into a Persian-Bactrian royal culture, and although her faith did not forbid her to marry outside of her faith at the time, such marriges were highly uncommon. As a Royal Woman she was expected to marry as commanded by the Great King to strengthen the ties to the empire, but she was probably the first Royal Woman who had to marry outside of her faith to a foreign king that was responsible for the death of many of her close male relatives. Alexander was born into a masculine culture that was decidedly bisexual especially among older men of high rank, power and influence, and younger boys and Alexander had a preference for the company of men in his youth. However, there is no good reason to doubt ancient accounts that he fell in love with Roxana. That he married her according to the local custom, which was more than likely Mazdan, was politically motivated.
Fierce fighting in Bactria following the death of the last of the Achaemenid Kings, not only points to the bravery of the Bactrians, but to the last stronghold of the empire trying to repel the bloody invaders.
Although the fighting in Bactria was long and bloody, there is no reason to believe that Alexander had any reservations about wiping out the entire region, no matter how long it took. He also had the opportunity to marry the Royal Daughters of Darius III, who were held captive at the Achaemenid Palace in Susa. While there were plenty of opportunities to leave Roxana behind, if subduing Bactria was the only aim of the marrige-alliance, she followed Alexander for the rest of his life. Years later, during the siege of Pydna, Olympias, a formidable queen, could have easily rid herself of Roxana.
It is hard to believe that Alexander would have married a Bactrian dancing girl against his own nature just to end bloody warfare that was his nature and further alienate both Macedonian and Persian nobility to his cause.
Kings, ancient or modern, who marry for love are a rarity in any culture.
In the light of realities of the Achaemeind Empire, no doubt the unique position of Roxana was well understood at the time. Murdering two Royal Daughters of King Darius III by Roxana was not necessary to secure Roxana's position after Alexander's death and would not have been trivial within the complex and elaborate Achaemenid imperial court which Alexander had continued to maintain. Alexander saw himself as the Lord of Asia and the heir to the imperial Achaemenids and knew well about the marriage-alliances of the Great Kings. As an 'Achaemenid King', he was to marry the daughter of the last Achaemenid King, as all other symbols of Achaemenid kingship after the burning of Persepolis were denied to him.
Alexander's curse or good fortune was that he fell in love with Roxana, the last Achaemenid Royal Daughter.
Roxana and Chandragupta
Chandrâguptâ met Alexander during Alexander's campaign in Indus Valley. More than likely as a Royal Prince, he would have come in contact with Roxana in one of the royal courts of Indian Rajahs Alexander met and fought along the way.
The year after Alexander's death, Chandragupta founded the first Indian Empire, Mauryan Dynasty, consolidating the vast span of northern India (Land of Seven Rivers) under his rule, forcing out the Macedonians Alexander had left behind in the edges of his new empire.
The rest is pure romance... not what was but what could have been... A. J. 2008
