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Stateira II was the daughter of the last Achaemenid shahanshah of Persia, Darius III. At the Battle of Issus (Alexander’s first victory against Darius’ army, southern Anatolia, 333 BC), Stateira, her mother (also called Stateira), her sister Drypetis, her young brother and her paternal grandmother Sisygambis accompanied the army of Darius III. The fact that a Persian king went to war accompanied by his family was a reminiscence of a remote past when the ancient Iranians were still nomads or semi-nomads. Darius fled from the battlefield at Issus (something that he would do again at the decisive Battle of Gaugamela, 331 BC, where Alexander finally took the Persian kingship), and Stateira and the other women of the court were left behind at the Persian camp. So, they were held captives by Alexander after the Macedonian victory at Issus. The following years, Stateira and her family accompanied the Macedonian army. While other prisoners of war were enslaved by the conquerors, Alexander ordered to treat well the Persian royal family, as if they were guests rather than captives. But in the meantime, Darius tried several times to ransom his family, requests that were always refused by Alexander. Darius even offered Alexander Stateira’s hand in marriage and renounced his claim to the territories that had already been conquered by Alexander in exchange for the return of his family and ending the Macedonian expansion. Alexander refused and reminded Darius that he already had custody of both the land and Stateira, that he was coming to take the whole empire, not a portion of it, and if he ever decided to marry Stateira, he wouldn’t need Darius’ permission. When the Macedonians reached Susa, one of the main cities in the Persian Empire, Stateira and the rest of her family stayed there while Alexander and the army continued their expansion eastwards. During her stay at Susa, Stateira learned the Greek language, and during his harsh campaign in Central Asia, Alexander married his first wife, Roxana, the daughter of a Sogdian chieftain. When he returned from India in 324 BC, almost ten years after the Battle of Issus, Alexander also married Stateira II, and Parysatis, daughter of a previous Persian king, Artaxerxes III, in a polygamic marriage. Alexander would then have three wives at the same time. At the same ceremony, many Macedonian officers were married with noble Persian women in a mass wedding known as the Susa Weddings, which intended to symbolise the union of Persian and Greek cultures. By marrying Stateira, Alexander’s purpose was to create a Greco-Persian dynasty to rule the world. The offspring of Alexander and Stateira would be descendants of both Cyrus the Great and the mythical heroes Achilles and Heracles. That was a worrying situation for Roxana, whose humbler semi-nomadic origins in the north-eastern limits of the empire were no match for the Persian imperial lineage of Stateira. Following Alexander’s sudden death, Roxana, who had given birth to a son named Alexander IV after his father, murdered Stateira, fearing that she could be pregnant, in which case her son would have the strongest claim to the throne. With that, Roxana wanted to secure her son’s position, but Alexander’s generals had other plans. They all wanted to rule the empire. A long and brutal war of succession had begun.

Description

Stateira II was the daughter of the last Achaemenid shahanshah of Persia, Darius III. At the Battle of Issus (Alexander’s first victory against Darius’ army, southern Anatolia, 333 BC), Stateira, her mother (also called Stateira), her sister Drypetis, her young brother and her paternal grandmother Sisygambis accompanied the army of Darius III. The fact that a Persian king went to war accompanied by his family was a reminiscence of a remote past when the ancient Iranians were still nomads or semi-nomads. Darius fled from the battlefield at Issus (something that he would do again at the decisive Battle of Gaugamela, 331 BC, where Alexander finally took the Persian kingship), and Stateira and the other women of the court were left behind at the Persian camp. So, they were held captives by Alexander after the Macedonian victory at Issus. The following years, Stateira and her family accompanied the Macedonian army. While other prisoners of war were enslaved by the conquerors, Alexander ordered to treat well the Persian royal family, as if they were guests rather than captives. But in the meantime, Darius tried several times to ransom his family, requests that were always refused by Alexander. Darius even offered Alexander Stateira’s hand in marriage and renounced his claim to the territories that had already been conquered by Alexander in exchange for the return of his family and ending the Macedonian expansion. Alexander refused and reminded Darius that he already had custody of both the land and Stateira, that he was coming to take the whole empire, not a portion of it, and if he ever decided to marry Stateira, he wouldn’t need Darius’ permission. When the Macedonians reached Susa, one of the main cities in the Persian Empire, Stateira and the rest of her family stayed there while Alexander and the army continued their expansion eastwards. During her stay at Susa, Stateira learned the Greek language, and during his harsh campaign in Central Asia, Alexander married his first wife, Roxana, the daughter of a Sogdian chieftain. When he returned from India in 324 BC, almost ten years after the Battle of Issus, Alexander also married Stateira II, and Parysatis, daughter of a previous Persian king, Artaxerxes III, in a polygamic marriage. Alexander would then have three wives at the same time. At the same ceremony, many Macedonian officers were married with noble Persian women in a mass wedding known as the Susa Weddings, which intended to symbolise the union of Persian and Greek cultures. By marrying Stateira, Alexander’s purpose was to create a Greco-Persian dynasty to rule the world. The offspring of Alexander and Stateira would be descendants of both Cyrus the Great and the mythical heroes Achilles and Heracles. That was a worrying situation for Roxana, whose humbler semi-nomadic origins in the north-eastern limits of the empire were no match for the Persian imperial lineage of Stateira. Following Alexander’s sudden death, Roxana, who had given birth to a son named Alexander IV after his father, murdered Stateira, fearing that she could be pregnant, in which case her son would have the strongest claim to the throne. With that, Roxana wanted to secure her son’s position, but Alexander’s generals had other plans. They all wanted to rule the empire. A long and brutal war of succession had begun.