Stateira (wife of Alexander the Great)

[2] Historian William Woodthorpe Tarn asserts her official name was "Barsine", but she was likely commonly called "Stateira".

[5] 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 ...

Historian Elizabeth Donnelly Carney speculates that Alexander had already decided to marry Stateira and was preparing her for life as his wife.

[7] Stateira became Alexander's second wife in 324 BC, almost ten years after her capture, in a mass ceremony known as The Susa weddings[7] which lasted five days.

[9] It was fairly common practice for conquering rulers to marry the widow or daughter of the man they had deposed.

[6] By wedding both women, Alexander cemented his ties to both branches of the royal family of the Achaemenid Empire.

Roxana wished to cement her own position and that of her son, Alexander IV, by ridding herself of a rival who could be—or claim to be—pregnant.