Stateira II
Encyclopedia
Stateira I
Stateira I was the wife of Darius III of Persia of the Achaemenid dynasty. She was known as the most beautiful woman on Earth and, as was the custom for royal Persian women, accompanied her husband while he went to war. It was because of this that she was captured by Alexander the Great after the...
and Darius III of Persia
Darius III of Persia
Darius III , also known by his given name of Codomannus, was the last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia from 336 BC to 330 BC....
. After her father's defeat at the Battle of Issus
Battle of Issus
The Battle of Issus occurred in southern Anatolia, in November 333 BC. The invading troops, led by the young Alexander of Macedonia, defeated the army personally led by Darius III of Achaemenid Persia in the second great battle for primacy in Asia...
, Stateira and her sisters became captives of Alexander of Macedon. They were treated well, and she became Alexander's second wife at the Susa weddings
The susa weddings
The Susa Weddings was a mass wedding arranged by Alexander of Macedon in 324 BC in the Persian city of Susa.Alexander intended to symbolically unite the Persian and Macedonian cultures, by taking a Persian wife himself and celebrating a mass wedding with Persian ceremony along with his officers,...
in 324 BC. At the same ceremony Alexander also married her cousin, Parysatis
Parysatis II
Parysatis, the youngest daughter of Artaxerxes III of Persia, married Alexander the Great in 324 BC at the Susa weddings. She may have been murdered by Alexander's first wife, Roxana, in 323 BC.-Early life:...
, daughter of Darius's predecessor. After Alexander's death in 323 BC, Stateira was killed by Roxana
Roxana
Roxana sometimes Roxane, was a Bactrian noble and a wife of Alexander the Great. She was born earlier than the year 343 BC, though the precise date remains uncertain....
, his first wife.
Naming
Scholars have debated over her name. In his list of marriages that occurred at Susa, ArrianArrian
Lucius Flavius Arrianus 'Xenophon , known in English as Arrian , and Arrian of Nicomedia, was a Roman historian, public servant, a military commander and a philosopher of the 2nd-century Roman period...
(c. 86 – after 146), calls her Barsine. Historian William Woodthorpe Tarn
William Woodthorpe Tarn
Sir William Woodthorpe Tarn was a British classical scholar and a writer. He wrote extensively on the Hellenistic world, particularly on Alexander the Great...
asserts that her official name was Barsine, but she was likely commonly called Stateira. Tarn cites other instances of confusion, noting that by the end of the 3rd century BC legend often confused Roxane with Stateira as the daughter of Darius.
Early life
Stateira was the eldest daughter of Darius III of PersiaDarius III of Persia
Darius III , also known by his given name of Codomannus, was the last king of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia from 336 BC to 330 BC....
and his wife, also named Stateira
Stateira I
Stateira I was the wife of Darius III of Persia of the Achaemenid dynasty. She was known as the most beautiful woman on Earth and, as was the custom for royal Persian women, accompanied her husband while he went to war. It was because of this that she was captured by Alexander the Great after the...
. Both of her parents were frequently described as handsome or beautiful, leading Tarn to speculate Stateira "was sufficiently good-looking, at any rate for a princess, to be called ... beautiful." Her birthdate is unknown, but by 333 BC she was of marriageable age. After Alexander the Great invaded Persia, Stateira and her family accompanied Darius's army. In November 333 Alexander's army defeated the Persians at the Battle of Issus
Battle of Issus
The Battle of Issus occurred in southern Anatolia, in November 333 BC. The invading troops, led by the young Alexander of Macedonia, defeated the army personally led by Darius III of Achaemenid Persia in the second great battle for primacy in Asia...
. Darius fled, and the Macedonian army soon captured his family. Although many captured Persian women were treated brutally, under Alexander's orders Stateira, her mother, her sister Drypetis, her younger brother, and their paternal grandmother, Sisygambis
Sisygambis
Sisygambis was the daughter of king Artaxerxes II Memnon, who married Arsames of Ostanes and was the mother of Darius III of Persia, whose reign was ended during the wars of Alexander the Great....
, were treated well and allowed to retain their social status.
Marriage to Alexander the Great
For the next two years, Stateira and her family followed Alexander's army. Her mother died at some point between 333 and 331, leaving Sisygambis to act as her guardian. Although Darius tried several times to ransom his family, Alexander refused to return the women. Darius then offered Alexander Stateira's hand in marriage and agreed to relinquish his claim to some of the land Alexander had already seized in exchange for ending the war. Alexander declined the offer, reminding Darius that he already had custody of both the land and Stateira, and that if he chose to marry her Darius's permission would not be necessary.In 330 BC, Alexander left Stateira and her family in Susa
Susa
Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers....
with instructions that she should be taught Greek. Historian Elizabeth Donnelly Carney speculates that Alexander had already decided to marry Stateira and was preparing her for life as his wife. Stateira became Alexander's second wife in 324 BC, almost ten years after her capture, at in a mass ceremony known as The Susa weddings
The susa weddings
The Susa Weddings was a mass wedding arranged by Alexander of Macedon in 324 BC in the Persian city of Susa.Alexander intended to symbolically unite the Persian and Macedonian cultures, by taking a Persian wife himself and celebrating a mass wedding with Persian ceremony along with his officers,...
. The marriage ceremony lasted five days. Ninety other Persian noblewomen were married to Macedonian and Greek soldiers who were loyal to Alexander; this included Drypetis, who married Alexander's friend, Hephaestion
Hephaestion
Hephaestion , son of Amyntor, was a Macedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great...
. At the same ceremony, Alexander married Parysatis
Parysatis II
Parysatis, the youngest daughter of Artaxerxes III of Persia, married Alexander the Great in 324 BC at the Susa weddings. She may have been murdered by Alexander's first wife, Roxana, in 323 BC.-Early life:...
, daughter of previous Persian ruler Artaxerxes III
Artaxerxes III of Persia
Artaxerxes III of Persia , was the Great King of Persia and the eleventh Emperor of the Achaemenid Empire, as well as the first Pharaoh of the 31st dynasty of Egypt. He was the son and successor of Artaxerxes II and was succeeded by his son, Arses of Persia...
. It was fairly common practice for conquering rulers to marry the widow or daughter of the man they had deposed. By wedding both women, Alexander cemented his ties to both branches of the royal family of the Achaemenid Empire
Achaemenid Empire
The Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
.
Alexander died the following year, 323 BC. After his death, his first wife Roxana
Roxana
Roxana sometimes Roxane, was a Bactrian noble and a wife of Alexander the Great. She was born earlier than the year 343 BC, though the precise date remains uncertain....
colluded with Perdiccas
Perdiccas
Perdiccas was one of Alexander the Great's generals. After Alexander's death in 323 BC he became regent of all Alexander's empire.Arrian tells us he was son of Orontes, a descendant of the independent princes of the Macedonian province of Orestis...
to kill Stateira. Roxana wished to cement her own position and that of her son, Alexander
Alexander IV of Macedon
Alexander IV Aegus was the son of Alexander the Great and Princess Roxana of Bactria.-Birth:...
by ridding herself of a rival who could be - or claim to be - pregnant. According to Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
's account, Stateira's sister, Drypetis, was killed at the same time; Carney believes that Plutarch was mistaken, and it was actually Parysatis
Parysatis II
Parysatis, the youngest daughter of Artaxerxes III of Persia, married Alexander the Great in 324 BC at the Susa weddings. She may have been murdered by Alexander's first wife, Roxana, in 323 BC.-Early life:...
who died with Stateira.
Depictions
Pompeii
The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...
. The fresco depicts a nude warrior in a purple Macedonian cloak, likely Alexander. On his left stands a woman wearing a crown and holding a scepter. Scholars debate whether the woman is Roxana or Stateira.
In the 2004 film Alexander
Alexander (film)
Alexander is a 2004 epic film based on the life of Alexander the Great. It is not a remake of the 1956 film which starred Richard Burton. It was directed by Oliver Stone, with Colin Farrell in the title role...
by Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
, Stateira is portrayed by the French actress Annelise Hesme
Annelise Hesme
Annelise Hesme is a French actress.Born in Beaumont, Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne, France on May 11, 1976, Hesme has acted in many films such as Tanguy , Plus beau jour de ma vie and Fauteuils d'orchestre , yet her biggest production so far has been a minor role in Alexander as Stateira...
.