barsine wife of alexander
Barsine (widow of Memnon) was captured in Damascus in fall 333 BC after Issus. There is speculation that he may have fathered another child, (Heracles), of a woman said to be his concubine Barsine (the daughter of satrap Artabazus of Phrygia) in 327 BC. Would it surprise you that Alexander's mourning for Hephaistion was conducted according to models from Homer and Euripides? Our open community is dedicated to digging into the origins of our species on planet earth, and question wherever the discoveries might take us. Through those expeditions Alexander discovered that much of the geography he learned from Aristotle was plainly wrong. An 18th-century Rococo painting of The Amazon Queen Thalestris in the Camp of Alexander the Great, by Johann Georg Platzer. In a man who named cities after his horse and dog, this strains credulity. Battle of Gaugamela. Barsine - Wikipedia In the years 330-327, we see Alexander appointing Persians in important functions, dress himself like an Iranian nobleman, introduce the oriental court ritual (proskynesis). Part I. In addition to all this, he added concubines to his retinue in the manner of Darius, in number not less than the days of the year and outstanding in beauty as selected from all the women of Asia. Robin Lane Fox writes, "Roxana was said by contemporaries to be the most beautiful lady in all Asia. In 309, Polyperchon, one of the Diadochi who after Alexander's death fought for a share of his empire, tried to restore Heracles to the throne, but he was persuaded by Cassander to give up the attempt. Especially since Alexander's own half brother Philip III Arrhidaeus (Philip II's illegitimate and physically and mentally disabled son[17]) was Alexander's original successor. Death of Hephaestion, 323 BC Alexander The Great returns to Babylon. Seleukos, self-appointed general (strategos) of Asia (311 - 305 B.C. This was around the same time that Alexander the Great invaded Persia in 334 BC and was successful in winning the Battle of the Granicus River. 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He was so charmed by her beauty and wisdom that he spent more time with her than his soldiers wanted him to. Thracians and Thessalians in Bactria-Sogdiana, India and Greece from Alexander to Augustus. The family of Darius in front of Alexander, by Justus Sustermans and preserved in the Biblioteca Museu Vctor Balaguer. A statue of Alexander and Olympias, Schnbrunn, Vienna. Barsine may have been too Greek; an extra argument for this hypothesis is that later, she settled herself in Greece. Barsine and her husband met each other again in 342; she was now twenty-one. (Hg. In 323 he held command of Paphlagonia and Cappadocia. She promised herself that she would do her best to not allow any of Phillips other sons to become king just her own. [5], According to Plutarch, the only woman with whom Alexander had sex before his first marriage was Barsine, daughter of Artabazos II of Phrygia but of Greek education. As the daughter of Artabazus, Barsine was a noble Persian that was married to Memnon , the commander of the Greek mercenaries that worked for the Persian king, Darius III. At first few put down their names; they feared Alexander was testing them to find out who thought the soldiers pay insufficient and who was living above his means. There is speculation that Stateira could have been pregnant when he died; if so, she and her child played no part in the succession battles which ensued after his death. Alexander died soon after the receipt of this letter; Mary Renault suggests that his grief over Hephaestions death had led him to be careless with his health. He was promoted to hipparch after Hephaistion's death. He ascended to the throne of the small Greek kingdom of Macedonia at the age of just 20 in 336 BC. According to Carystius (as quoted by Athenaeus), when Alexander praised the beauty of a boy at a gathering, probably a slave belonging to one Charon of Chalcis, the latter asked the boy to kiss Alexander, but Alexander refused, to spare Charon the embarrassment of having to share his boy's affections. On the same day he married Parysatis, a daughter of the Persian King Artaxerxes III. After Hephaestion's death in Oct 324 BC, Alexander mourned him greatly and did not eat for days. Alexander The Great in front of the tomb of Achilles. To Nearchus he gave the daughter of Barsine and Mentor, and to Seleucus the daughter of Spitamenes of Bactria [3]. In his list of marriages that occurred at Susa, Arrian (c. 86 after 146), calls her "Barsine". After the battle of Gaugamela (1 October 331), Alexander occupied Babylonia, Elam, and Persia. He was the first of her three known lovers, but their marriage was not consumed yet, because Barsine was too young. He studied with Alexander, as did a handful of other children of Macedonian aristocracy, under the tutelage of Aristotle. Heracles played a brief part in the succession battles, and then disappeared. But there were a few women who caught his attention. The marriage was concluded according to the local customs, and Roxane followed her husband when he invaded India 326, where she gave birth to a child that died soon. Alejandro's first wife, Roxana, causes Statira to be killed (also called Barsine), his second wife. The Satrapy of Dascylium in the Tradition of the Mithridatid Dynasty, Court, Kingship, and Royal Style in the Early Hellenistic Period. After the suppression of Artabazus' revolt, he had fled to the Egyptian king Nectanebo II, but later, he had been able to regain Artaxerxes' favor. Alexander's Campaign | Susa Weddings - Arcadian Venture LLC Battle of Issus, 332 BC Siege of Tyre. The Tower of London Was Once Home to a Polar Bear, Unlocking the Cryptic Viking Code Using Runic Writing and Ancient DNA, Western Reactions to the Controversial Benin Bronzes (Video), The human skull that challenges the Out of Africa theory, Sky Burial: Tibets Ancient Tradition for Honoring the Dead. The above quotations would be in line with the thoughts laid about before him by Aristotle, who regarded relationships based purely on carnal relations to be shameful. Candidate at the Faculty of Languages, University of Gdansk. Among these were two Rhodian brothers, Mentor and Memnon. As far as we know, the couple had only one child, a daughter. [1][2][3] Some modern historians, such as James Davidson, see this as evidence of Alexander's homosexuality. Macedonian Politics and Persian Prototypes in Greek Polis-Centered Perspective, in: Rollinger, R./van Dongen, E. For me it is quite clear from the historical evidence that Alexander and Hephaestion were lovers, while marriages with persian women were basically political aliases, and much of the romantic descriptions of Alexander's relationship with female lovers seem more fictional, or mirror the particular views of those who wrote these descriptions. Because the latter still had to establish his rule in Persia proper, Artabazus was first left alone; when the king finally addressed the problem, Artabazus was forced to hire Greek mercenaries. According to ancient sources, Roxana became Alexanders greatest passion. This was when the earth began to shake at Alexander's tread and everything began to seem possible. She was stoned to death. A Nevada man killed his wife while the dying woman's son and daughter were frantically trying, in various ways, to get ahold of law enforcement and save her life, police in Las Vegas allege. Robin Lane Fox traces her legend back to the Roman authors Pliny the Elder, Lucian of Samosata and Aelian's Varia Historia. The boy would have been Alexander's only child born during his lifetime (Roxane's son was born posthumously). Do you dare enter a fairy ring? 'The Heidelberg Epitome: a Neglected Diadoch Source', in After Alexander: The Time of the Diadochi (323-281 BC), ed. Barsine (363?-309): Persian princess, member of the Pharnacid dynasty, mistress of the Macedonian king Alexander the Great. It argues that Alexander's military activities took place not in Bactria-Sogdiana as a whole, but rather in specific Sogdian territories, inflicting heavy casualties in the process. After Memnon's death of in 333 BC, she felt she was free to look for another relationship. Barsine and Heracles were executed, although it is possible that they had been killed earlier; in that case, the pretender of 309 was a "false Heracles". Alexander the Great Spouse: Roxana and the Two Other Wives [12] Alexander held an elaborate funeral for Hephaestion at Babylon, and sent a note to the shrine of Ammon, which had previously acknowledged Alexander as a god, asking them to grant Hephaestion divine honours. "[22], As soon as Alexander died in 323 BC, Roxana murdered Alexander's two other wives. Yet we first hear of the boy twelve years after Alexanders death, when a boy was produced as a claimant to the throne. ), After Alexander: The Time of the Diadochi, Oxford 2013, 199-214, Textbook GCSE Ancient History Alexander the Great, Alexander the Great and the Conquest of the Persians: A Reconstruction of Cleitarchus, Flipping the Coin: Alexander the Great's Bactrian-Sogdian Expedition from a Local Perspective. Yet twelve years after his death a boy was produced, seventeen years olda claimant and shortlived pawn in the succession warsno source reports any notice whatever taken by him of a child who, Roxanes being posthumous, would have been during his lifetime his only son, by a near-royal mother. Barsine was educated by the best Persian teachers, but she also had Greeks teachers (see quote below). Stateira II alexander second wife | Porus - India Forums In the negotiations before the battle of Gaugamela, Darius offered Barsine to Alexander as his bride, adding as her dowry all country west of the Euphrates. Curtius reports, "He scorned sensual pleasures to such an extent that his mother was anxious lest he be unable to beget offspring." To encourage a relationship with a woman, King Philip and Olympias were said to have . Alexander sources - Purdue University The marriages were celebrated according to Persian custom. "[7], According to Plutarch, Alexander once sought a sexual encounter with Theodorus's music girl, saying to him that "if you don't have lust for your music-girl, send her to me for ten talents. Some historians believe that one Persian with beautiful eyes could even have been the cause of the Macedonian Kings death. More than two decades later, a team of One of the ancient worlds most searched-for Roman structures has finally been found. Campaspe, also known as Pancaste, is thought to have been a prominent citizen of Larissa in Thessaly, and may have been the mistress of Alexander. Mary Renaults rebuttal of this theory is worth quoting: No record at all exists of such a woman accompanying his march; nor of any claim by her, or her powerful kin, that she had born him offspring. Athenaeus tells a slightly different version of the story that Alexander kissed Bagoas in a theater and, as his men shouted in approval, he repeated the action. Hence it was that he first began to indulge in luxurious and splendid banquets, and fell in love with his captive Barsine for her beauty, by whom he had afterwards a son that he called Heracles.. 'Seleukos and Chandragupta in Justin XV 4', "The Cult of Hephaestion," in, Responses to Oliver Stone's Alexander: Film, History, and Cultural Studies, Ruler Cult and the Early Hellenistic City, Tim Howe und Sabine Mller: Mission Accomplished: Alexander at the Hyphasis, AHB 26 (2012) (= Alexander Studies presented to John Yardley on his Seventieth Birthday), 24-42. (Hg. Alexander IV was born in 323 BC to Alexander's wife Roxana, shortly after Alexander's death. Edited by John Marincola, Wiley-Blackwell, 'Aristobulus of Cassandreia: An Engineer at the Court of Alexander the Great', in E. Myrdal (ed. History of Barsine Wife of Alexander The Great Hindi & Urdu Together, Perdiccas and Roxane saw to the execution of Alexanders second wife, Statira, who might have become a rival. Her birth name was Myrtle, and she was a daughter of Neoptolemus, the king of Epirus. The obvious candidate was Barsine, who had been Alexanders concubine since the battle of Issus in November 333. Heracles The illegitimate son of Barsine and Alexander. Campaspe, also known as Pancaste, may have been the mistress of Alexander, if so one of the first women with whom Alexander was intimate. Aristotle held ethnocentric views against Persia, which estranged him and Alexander as the latter adopted a few of the Persian royal customs and clothing. Barsine- Memnon- Alexander - pothos.org from his expedition to India, where his exhausted soldiers had forced him to turn back because they wanted to return home to Macedonia. She was probably born in 340 or 339, as we will see below. The modern historian Robin Lane Fox, claims that both direct and indirect evidence suggest a sexual element, this time of pure physical desire between the two, but as for the consummation of that passion he comments that later gossip presumed that Bagoas was Alexanders lover. In this way they were convinced that Alexander was saying the truth, and their pleasure at not being individually identified was even greater than their satisfaction at seeing their debts paid off. And as for all the Macedonians who had already married Asian women, Alexander ordered a list of their names to be drawn up; they numbered over 10,000, and Alexander offered them all gifts their wedding. Statira and Parysatis were both murdered by Roxane, suggesting that they were quite important in Alexander's life. She is commonly confused with another Barsine who was also held captive by Alexander around the same period. Stateira (wife of Alexander the Great) - Wikipedia This happened during Alexanders attack on the town of the Mallians. By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. Barsine was a noble Persian, daughter of Artabazus, and wife of Memnon. All content copyright 19952023 Livius.org. Achaemenid woman (or a beardless prince) Barsine was probably born in 363 as the eldest daughter of an important Persian nobleman, Artabazus II. Alexander 3.3 Arrian's Sources - Livius When she saw Alexander the Great, she knew that he was the best her option. To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds toupgrade your browser. Even if Alexander had ignored him, which seems highly unlikely, the Macedonian Army and the successors would certainly have known of him, and would almost certainly have drawn him into the succession struggles which ensued upon Alexander's death. The romance of Alexander and the Queen of the Amazons, Thalestris, sounds like a story taken from a Hollywood movie. 323 B.C. c. _ AcademiaLab Alexander the Great was something of a ladies man. A few weeks after the death of Darius in the desert east of Rhagae (near modern Tehran), Alexander and his mistress were in Hyrcania, where they received old Artabazus: Barsine's father had always remained loyal to his king but now decided to switch sides. Mary Renault, however, was skeptical of such a story:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, No record at all exists of such a woman accompanying his march; nor of any claim by her, or her powerful kin, that she had born him offspring. Alexander The Great Cutting the Gordian Knot, Modern equestrian statue of Alexander on the seafront of Thessalonika, Alexander The Great: The Weddings in Susa, Top 10 reasons Alexander The Great was a great commander, Ptolemaioksen Aleksandria - Aleksanterin hauta toi Egyptille valtaa, Excellent book : Alexander The Great by Philip Freeman, Bread and Circuses Adventures in the later Roman Empire, 343 BC Aristotle arrives in Macedonia as Alexander's tutor, 338 BC Philip victorious at battle of Chaeronea. Comparing the available textual and archaeological evidence regarding the settlements of Bactria-Sogdiana in the 320s BC it assess that Alexander's city building activity was limited. When she saw Alexander the Great, she knew that he was the best her option. Barsine - English definition, grammar, pronunciation, synonyms and Alexander refused, saying that he knew that her father had already promised the girl to his general Mazaeus. Alexander invades India, 326 BC Battle of the Hydaspes. Gustave Droysen, Alexander le Grand, 1991. The boy would have been Alexanders only child born during his lifetime (Roxanes son was born posthumously). There is speculation that he may have fathered a child, Heracles, of her in 327 BC. She had a full brother Pharnabazus III, who was perhaps a little older. He also made various presents to various men, according to the reputation each enjoyed or the courage which anyone had displayed in dangers. When the fortress . [20], Ancient historians, as well as modern ones, have also written on Alexander's marriage to Roxana the beautiful [Persian] woman. Apart from the described women, Alexander's short life was rich in other affairs too. Greatly outnumbered at Issus, he was also outflanked and encircled at Gaugamela. Almost immediately after the death of Mentor, she remarried, this time to Memnon, who had already several sons from an earlier marriage. Updates? Diodorus Siculus writes, Then he put on the Persian diadem and dressed himself in the white robe and the Persian sash and everything else except the trousers and the long-sleeved upper garment. Several northern cities, including Athens, rebel against the Macedonian Regent Antipatro after learning of Alexander's death. PDF 4. Barsine, Daughter of Artabazus - alexanderslovers.com In 319 Roxana joined Alexanders mother, Olympias, in Epirus, but she was captured in 316 in Macedonia by Cassander, who later took the title of king of Macedonia. The chapters in this book, written by field experts in numismatics, gender, warfare, historiography, Egyptology and religion, examine the many ways in which Alexander the Great's most successful Successor consciously made his own legacy. Stateira ( Greek: ; died 323 BC), possibly also known as Homa, was the daughter of Stateira and Darius III of Persia. Heracles played a brief part in the succession battles, and then disappeared. Ancient historians, as well as modern ones, have also written on Alexanders marriage to Roxana. She became Alexanders most demanding teacher and supporter. The relation between them and Artabazus was close: in 355, the rebel satrap married their sister and Mentor married to Barsine. The Indik is now lost, but its contents are well-known from several sources, especially the Indik by . This passage describes what happened upon Alexander the Great's return to Persia in 324 B.C.E. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Roxane accompanied Alexander all the way to India, and bore him a child also named Alexander (Alexander IV), 6 months after Alexander the Great died. In addition Alexander crowned Nearchus for his navigation from India by the great sea; for he had now arrived at Susa. Personal relationships of Alexander the Great - Wikipedia Roxane (Roshanak), Bactrian princess and official wife of Alexander the Alexander IIIs Empire: Macedonian, Achaemenid or Oecumenic Greek? In 320 BC, Roxana was taken into custody by the regent of Macedonia (and a former friend of Alexander) named Antipater. Marriage to a local noble's family made sound political sense, but contemporaries implied that Alexander, aged 28, also lost his heart. [1] Barsine became the wife of her uncle Mentor, and after his death married her second uncle, Memnon. Alexander met her in February 324 BC. She had a full brother Pharnabazus III, who was perhaps a little older. Halfway up a near-vertical ravine in the Andes, someone carved an inverted V-shaped entrance into the mountainside. If this is true, she was one of the first women with whom Alexander was intimate; Aelian even surmises that it was to her that a young Alexander lost his virginity. Some of the Macedonian kings shorter romances also affected his life positively. B. Bosworth), Notorious Women in the Age of Glorious Men: Influential Women of the Early Hellenistic Period, A History of Misunderstandings? The episode occasioned an apocryphal exchange that was reported in Plinys Naturalis Historia: seeing the beauty of the nude portrait, Alexander saw that the artist appreciated Campaspe (and loved her) more than he. Source : Alexander The Great by Philip Freeman. History knows a few more names of women who may have been Alexanders lovers or wives. However, Perdiccas died soon after, and the Macedonian commanders came together to discuss the future. Aelian in his Varia Historia recounts that Hephaestion thus intimated that he was the eromenos beloved of Alexander, as Patroclus was of Achilles.. ), The Age of the Successors and the Creation of the Hellenistic Kingdoms (323-276 B.C. Alexander was . When it was reported that the majority would not put their names down, but concealed any bonds they had, he condemned the soldiers lack of trust. Roxana was imprisoned, and Cassander had her and her son, Alexander IV, executed in 310. Barsine's father's reign was an unhappy one. Alexander had a close emotional attachment to his companion, cavalry commander (hipparchos) and childhood friend, Hephaestion. As Plutarch wrote: "At any rate Alexander, so it seems, thought it more worthy of a king to subdue his own passions than to conquer his enemies, and so he never came near these women, nor did he associate with any other before his marriage, with the exception only of Barsine. She was also a daughter of the influential Artabazus. Plutarch has argued that Alexanders love of males took an ethical approach, inspired by the teachings of his mentor, Aristotle. She was described by the writers who saw her as one of the most beautiful women in all of Asia. Stateira The second wife of Alexander, killed by Roxanne. He had already married previously Roxane, the daughter of Oxyartes of Bactria. ( Public Domain ). Zur Rolle der Witwen Alexanders des Groen whrend der Diadochenzeit, in: H. Hauben, A. Meeus (eds. Wherever it took place, when Thalestris stood in front of Alexander, her dress did not entirely cover her body. The story may be true, but if so, it raises some difficult questions. In a man who named cities after his horse and dog, this strains credulity. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. C. Zaragoz, Achaemenid Royal Women and Alexander, en C. Sierra, J. Vidal, B. Antela (eds. Tiwari's film, Bhaagte Raho, where she played the lead role of Gungun. In Alexanders life there was also a woman known as Princess Statira (a daughter of the former Great King Darius III) also known in sources as Barsine or Arsinoe. To Ptolemy the bodyguard and to Eumenes the royal secretary he gave the daughters of Artabazus, Artacama to one and Artonis to the other. children of Alexander - pothos.org More than any action of Alexander this seemed to show a popular and comradely spirit. According to Athenaeus, Callixena was employed by Olympias out of fear that Alexander was "womanish" (v), and his mother used to beg him to sleep with the courtesan, apparently to no success. Love Story and History of Barsine Wife of Alexander The Great in Hindi "[24] Plutarch recounts an episode (also mentioned by Dicaearchus) during some festivities on the way back from India in which his men clamor for him to kiss the young man: "We are told, too, that he was once viewing some contests in singing and dancing, being well heated with wine, and that the Macedonians' favourite, Bagoas, won the prize for song and dance, and then, all in his festal array, passed through the theatre and took his seat by Alexander's side; at sight of which the Macedonians clapped their hands and loudly bade the king kiss the victor, until at last he threw his arms about him and kissed him tenderly." Mother of Heracles. What was the relationship between the Achaemenid hazarapati and the Macedonian chiliarch? This page was created in 1999; last modified on 23 September 2020. Alexander IV with his mother, by Alessandro Varotari. [1] Barsine became the wife of her uncle Mentor, and after his death married her second uncle, Memnon. ), A. Erskine, L. Llewellyn-Jones, & S. Wallace (eds. She was pregnant. Characteristically, Alexander sliced it with his sword. Ulrich Wilcken writes, The fairest prize that fell to him was Roxane, the daughter of Oxyartes, in the first bloom of youth, and in the judgment of Alexanders companions, next to Stateira the wife of Darius, the most beautiful woman that they had seen in Asia. A wedding-feast for the two of them was arranged high on one of the Persian rocks. From a comparison of the accounts of Diodorus and Justin, it appears that he was brought up at Pergamum under his mother's care, and that she shared his fate when in 309 BC Polyperchon was induced by Cassander to murder him. 15), Groningen 2012, 295-310, The Military Battle of Gaugamela and the political victory at Arbela, Alexander's veterans and the early wars of the successors, Barsine: Rhodoslu Mentordan Makedonial skendere Uzanan Bir Hayat /Barsine: An Extending Life from the Mentor of Rhodes to Alexander of Macedon, Aristobulus of Cassandreia: An Engineer at the Court of Alexander the Great, The frescoes from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor in Boscoreale as reflections of Macedonian funerary paintings of the early Hellenistic period, The Heirs of Artabazus.
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barsine wife of alexander