In 324 Alexander returned from his eastern campaigns, arriving back in Persia some ten years after he launched the invasion that marked the beginning of his career as a conqueror. To celebrate his return, he held a mass wedding at Susa, a former capital of the Persian Empire. There, Alexander and a number of his key followers married elite Persian women. The meaning of the event is open to interpretation. Did Alexander mean to signal a new spirit of reconciliation between conquerors and conquered? Were the marriages meant to suggest the merging of two peoples? Or was the ceremony simply an expression of Macedonian power? After all, all of the marriages were between Macedonian men and Persian women, and the women were given no choice in the matter. As you read this description of the marriages, look for clues that might help you arrive at your own interpretation. What light does the mass wedding at Susa shed on the process of Hellenization?

Then he also celebrated weddings at Susa, both his own and those of his Companions. He himself married Barsine, the eldest of Darius' daughters, and, according to Aristobulus, another girl as well, Parysatis, the youngest of the daughters of Ochus. He had already married previously Roxane, the daughter of Oxyartes of Bactria. He gave Drypetis to Hephaestion, she too a daughter of Darius and a sister of his own wife; his intention was that the children of Hephaestion should be cousins to his own children. To Craterus he gave Amastrine daughter of Oxyartes, brother of Darius, and to Perdiccas the daughter of Atropates, satrap of Media. To Ptolemy the bodyguard and to Eumenes the royal secretary he gave the daughters of Artabazus, Artacama to one and Artonis to the other. To Nearchus he gave the daughter of Barsine and Mentor, and to Seleucus the daughter of Spitamenes of Bactria. Similarly he gave to the other Companions the noblest daughters of the Persians and Medes, some 80 in all. The marriages were celebrated according to Persian custom. Chairs were placed for the bridegrooms in order, and after the drinks the brides came in and sat down, each by the side of her groom. They took them by the hand and kissed them; the king began the ceremony, for all the weddings took place together. More than any action of Alexander this seemed to show a popular and comradely spirit. The bridegrooms after receiving their brides led them away, each to his own home, and to all Alexander gave a dowry. And as for all the Macedonians who had already married Asian women, Alexander ordered a list of their names to be drawn up; they numbered over 10,000, and Alexander offered them all gifts for their wedding.

Source: M. M. Austin, ed., The Hellenistic World from Alexander to the Roman Conquest: A Selection of Ancient Sources in Translation, 2d augmented ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 48.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER