Roxana

Roxana (Old Iranian Raoxshna), alternatively Roxanne, Roxanna, Rukhsana, Roxandra, and Roxane, was a wife of Alexander the Great. The daughter of Bactrian nobleman Oxyartes, Roxane was a Sogdian or Bactrian princess. Her marriage to the Macedonian king and conqueror Alexander took place after the defeat and death of the Achaemenian king, Darius III. Before the Greek invasion, her father worked under Bessus, the satrap of Bactria and Sogdia. When Bessus was defeated by Alexander, Oxyartes and his family became the main resisting force in the region against Alexander. However, they eventually suffered a total defeat. After Alexander met Roxana, he fell in love. Going against the counsels of his generals and advisors, he married her. He then embarked on the invasion of the Indian subcontinent, during which Roxana remained in Susa. She bore Alexander a son, named Alexander IV. After Alexander the Great passed away in Babylon in 323 BC, Roxana supposedly killed Alexander's other widow, Stateira II. The empire was divided among Alexander’s generals. Roxana and Alexander IV, who was the legitimate heir of his father, were given asylum by Alexander's mother, Olympias. All three of them were murdered by Cassander, who had become the ruler of Macedon and southern Greece after Alexander’s death.