Roxana 262156 223042060 2008-07-02T09:08:56Z 92.21.37.112 /* External links */ {{Nofootnotes|article|date=March 2008}} {{otheruses}} [[Image:Alexander The Greate and Roxane by Rotari 1756.jpg|thumb|Alexander The Great and Roxane]] '''Roxana''' ([[Bactrian language|Bactrian]], [[Persian language|Persian]]: [[Roshanak]]; Bactrian definition literally "luminous beauty"; Persian definition "the dawn"), was a [[Bactria]]n noble and a wife of [[Alexander the Great]]. She was born earlier than the year [[341 BC]], though the precise date remains uncertain. She was the daughter of a Bactrian named [[Oxyartes]] of [[Balkh]] in Bactria (then eastern [[Persian Empire|Persia]], now northern [[Afghanistan]]), and married Alexander in [[327 BC]] after he visited the fortress of [[Sogdian Rock]]. Balkh was the last of the Persian Empire's provinces to fall to Alexander, and the marriage was an attempt to reconcile the Bactrian [[satrap]]ies to Alexander's rule, although ancient sources describe Alexander's professed love for her. Roxana accompanied him on his campaign in [[India]] in [[326 BC]]. She bore him a posthumous son called [[Alexander IV of Macedon|Alexander IV Aegus]], after Alexander's sudden death at [[Babylon]] in [[323 BC]]. With the king's death, Roxana and her son became victims of the political intrigues of the collapse of the Alexandrian empire. Roxana murdered Alexander's other widow, [[Stateira II]], and Stateira's sister [[Drypteis]] (Pl. Alex. 77.4). Roxana and her son were protected by Alexander's mother, [[Olympias]], in [[Macedon]], but her assassination in [[316 BC]] allowed [[Cassander]] to seek kingship. Since Alexander IV Aegus was the legitimate heir to the Alexandrian empire, Cassander ordered him and Roxana assassinated around [[309 BC]]. [[Roxana]] also means "someone who shows the way to others by light" . In old Persia,there was a word [["Rakhshana"]] in base of [["Rakhshan"]] which means light;It changed to [["Rokhsana"]] and after that to "Roxana". ==External links== * [http://www.livius.org/ro-rz/roxane/roxane.htm Livius.org: Roxane] by Jona Lendering * [http://www.ancientlibrary.com/wcd/Roxane%2C_daughter_of_Oxyartes Wiki Classical Dictionary: Roxane, daughter of Oxyartes] * [http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/2996.html Roxana] from Charles Smith's ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1867) ==Historical Novels== * Cave, A.J. ''Roxana Romance'' Pavasta: 2008, Hardcover, ISBN 978-0-9802061-0-4, eBook, ISBN 978-0-9802061-1-1 [[Category:4th century BC births]] [[Category:309 BC deaths]] [[Category:Alexander the Great]] [[Category:Given names]] [[Category:Persian given names]] [[Category:Romanian given names]] [[Category:Queens consort]] [[Category:Women in Hellenistic warfare]] [[Category:Urdu names]] [[bs:Roksana]] [[ca:Roxana]] [[cv:Рохшанак]] [[cy:Roxana]] [[da:Roxana]] [[de:Roxane (Alexander der Große)]] [[el:Ρωξάνη]] [[es:Roxana]] [[fa:روشنک (شاه‌دخت باختری)]] [[fr:Roxane]] [[ko:록사나]] [[it:Rossane]] [[he:רוקסנה]] [[kk:Раушан]] [[hu:Rhóxané]] [[mr:रोक्साना]] [[nl:Roxane (Alexander de Grote)]] [[no:Roxana]] [[pl:Roksana (żona Aleksandra)]] [[pt:Roxana]] [[ru:Роксана]] [[fi:Roksane]] [[sv:Roxana]] [[ur:رخسانه]] [[zh:罗克珊娜]]