The rivalries that followed the death of Alexander the Great—leading to the Wars of the Successors and the division of his empire—are well known. Less familiar, however, are the intrigues that unfolded within Alexander’s own court during the same period, particularly among the women of his household, and more specifically, his wives.
Alexander had married Roxana, the daughter of the Sogdian nobleman Oxyartes, in 329 BCE, and Stateira, daughter of Darius III, in 324 BCE. It is also speculated that he had a third wife, Parysatis, daughter of Artaxerxes III. He had two known children: Alexander IV (by Roxana) and Heracles (by a woman named Barsine). According to Plutarch (Life of Alexander, 77.4), after Alexander’s death, Roxana, with the support of the regent Perdiccas, eliminated Stateira and her sister Drypetis (the widow of Hephaestion), both of whom were of royal blood and potential rivals to the throne. The fate of Parysatis, who was also a princess, remains uncertain. According to a modern theory, it may have been her—rather than Drypetis—whom Roxana murdered.
In any case, Roxana herself did not manage to secure her own position. She was assassinated in 310 BCE by order of Cassander, along with her son Alexander IV, six years after the murder of Alexander’s mother—Olympias—in 316 BCE. Olympias, a seasoned hand in dynastic assassinations, had acted as Roxana’s protector.
The last remaining members of the royal family—though unrecognized by the generals and successors—were Barsine and her son Heracles. They were ultimately murdered in 309 BCE following actions by Cassander and Polyperchon (Diodorus Siculus, 20.28.2–4). It seems that while Alexander conquered Asia, he failed to secure a lasting dynastic legacy of his own.
