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Roxana of Bactria
Historical Figure
Nationality: Macedonia (born in Bactria, a Persian province in modern Afghanistan)
Year of Birth: Before 343 BC
Year of Death: c. 309
Cause of Death: Murder by poison
Spouse: Alexander the Great
Children: Alexander IV of Macedon
Political Office(s): Queen consort of Macedonia
Fictional Appearances:
Hellenic Traders
Set in OTL
Appearance(s): Over the Wine-Dark Sea
Type of Appearance: Posthumous reference

Roxana (Greek: Ρωξάνη; 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 343 BC, though the precise date remains uncertain, and died in 310 or 309 BC.

Roxana was the daughter of a minor Bactrian baron named Oxyartes of Balkh in Bactria (around the modern-day Balkh province of Afghanistan). In 327 BC Alexander the Great married Roxana despite the strong opposition from all his companions and generals. She was pregnant with his son Alexander IV when he died unexpectedly. She and her son soon became pawns of the various factions battling for their stake in Alexander the Great's empire. She and her son were both poisoned on the orders of the general Cassander, who wanted to take Macedon for himself.

Roxana in Hellenic Traders[]

In 310 BC, word reached Rhodes that Alexandros and his mother, Roxane, had been murdered by Kassandros. Kassandros had done this over the winter, when news traveled slowly throughout the Hellenic world. With Alexandros gone, the conflict among the would-be heirs of Alexander the Great was now among Kassandros in Macedonia, Lysimakhos in Thrace, Antigonos in Anatolia, Ptolemaios in Egypt, Polyperkhon in the Peloponnesos and Seleukos in inner Asia. [1]

References[]

  1. Over the Wine-Dark Sea, ch. 1. ebook.
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