Roxana

Roxana (Ancient Greek: Ῥωξάνη; Old Iranian Raoxshna; sometimes Roxanne, Roxanna, Roxandra and Roxane), was a Bactrian princess and a wife of Alexander the Great. She was born earlier than the year 343 BC, though the precise date remains uncertain, and died in c. 310 BC.

Biography

Roxana was born in ca. 340 BC—she was the daughter of a Bactrian nobleman named Oxyartes, who served Bessus, the satrap of Bactria and Sogdia. He was thus probably also involved in the murder of the last Achaemenid king Darius III. After Bessus was captured by the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great, Oxyartes and his family continued to resist the Greeks, and along with other Iranian notables such as the Sogdian warlord Spitamenes, enforced themselves in a fortress known as the Sogdian Rock.

However, they were eventually defeated by Alexander, who reportedly fell in love with Roxana on sight; in 327 BC, Alexander married Roxana despite the strong opposition from all his companions and generals. Alexander thereafter made an expedition into India, where he appointed Oxyartes as the governor of Punjab and its surroundings. During this period, Roxana was in a safe place in Susa. When Alexander returned to Susa, he promoted a brother of Roxana as one of the troops of the elite cavalry.