People > Roxana

Roxana

Background

ROXANA, or Roxane, daughter of the Bactrian king Oxyartes, and wife of Alexander the Great. After the latter's death she gave birth at Babylon to a son (Alexander IV.), who was accepted by the generals as joint-king with Arrhidaeus. Having crossed over to Macedonia, and thrown in her lot with Olympias, mother of Alexander the Great, she was imprisoned by Cassander in the fortress of Amphipolis and put to death (310 or 309 B.C.). The marriage of Alexander and Roxana was the subject of a famous painting by Action.

Sources

Primary Sources

Plutarch, Alexander, 47, 77; Arrian, Anab. iv. 18, vii. 27; Diod. Sic. xviii. 3, 38, xix. i t, 52, 105; Strabo xi. p. 517, xvii. P. 794.

Secondary Sources

1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 23