Parysatis, the youngest daughter of Artaxerxes III of Persia, married

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...

in 324 BC at the Susa weddings. She may have been murdered by Alexander's first wife, Roxana, in 323 BC.

Early life

After her father's murder in 338 BC, her brother Arses ruled briefly, before being succeeded by their second cousin, Darius III, in 336 BC.Garthwaite (2005), p. 39. It is likely that after her father's death, Parysatis and her sisters continued to live at the Persian court. During Darius's campaign against the invasion by

, Parysatis and her sisters, along with many other members of the Persian elite, accompanied the Persian army. Following the Battle of Issus in 333 BC, Parysatis and many of her relatives were captured in Damascus by Macedonian general Parmenion.Carney (2000), p. 110.

Alexander III of Macedonia

It is possible that Parysatis remained at Susa with the women of Darius's family while Alexander led a campaign in India. According to Arrian, in 324 BC, Parysatis married Alexander at Susa. On the same day, Alexander married Darius's eldest daughter, Stateira. By wedding both women, Alexander cemented his ties to both branches of the royal family of the

Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian peoples, Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, i ...

.O'Brien (2001), p. 197. The marriage celebration lasted five days. During that time, 90 other Persian noblewomen were married to Macedonian and other Greek soldiers who were loyal to Alexander. After the marriage, there are no further written accounts that refer to Parysatis by name; however, some historians, including Elizabeth Donnelly Carney, believe that in an account of the death of Stateira,

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

misidentified Parysatis as Stateira's sister Drypetis. In Plutarch's history, after Alexander's death in 323 BC, his first wife, Roxana, ordered the murder of Stateira and her sister in order to cement her own position and that of her son, Alexander IV. Carney maintains that Parysatis "makes more sense as a murder victim". If Parysatis were Alexander's wife, then, like Stateira, there was a possibility that she could be – or could claim to be – pregnant with his child, and thus pose a threat to Roxana.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Parysatis 02 Wives of Alexander the Great 4th-century BC women Achaemenid princesses 4th-century BC Iranian people Ancient Macedonian queens consort 4th-century BC births 4th-century BC deaths