Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/273

 PERSO-MACEDONIAN MARBIAGES. 241 cent as well as guilty. That the most guilty were not those who fared worst, we may see by the case of Kleomenes in Egypt, who remained unmolested in his government, though his iniqni- ties were no secret.* Among the Macedonian soldiers, discontent had been perpetu- ally growing, from the numerous proofs which they witnessed that Alexander had made his election for an Asiatic character, and abnegated his own country. Besides his habitual adoption of the Persian costume and ceremonial, he now celebrated a sort of national Asiasic marriage at Susa. He had already married the captive Roxana, in Baktria ; he next took two additional wives — Statira, daughter of Darius — and Parysatis, daughter of the preceding king Ochus. He at the same time caused eighty of his principal friends and officers, some very reluctantly, to marry (according to Persian rites) wives selected from the noblest Persian families, providing dowries for all of them.^ Hn made presents besides, to all those Macedonians who gave in their names as having married Persian women. Splendid fes- tivities^ accompanied these nuptials, with honorary rewards dis- tributed to favorites and meritorious officers. Macedonians and Persians, the two imperial races, one in Europe, the other in Asia, were thus intended to be amalgamated. To soften the aversion of the soldiers generally towards these Asiatising mar- riages,* Alexander issued proclamation that he would himself discharge their debts, inviting all who owed money to give in their names with an intimation of the sums due. It was known that the debtors were numerous ; yet few came to enter their names. The soldiers suspected the proclamation as a stratagem, ' Arrian, vii. 4, 6-9. By these two marriages, Alexander thus engrafted liimself upon the two lines of antecedent Persian Kings. Ochus was of the Achaemenid family, but Darius Codomannus, father of Statira, was not of that family; he began a new lineage. About the overweening regal state of Alexander, outdoing even the previous Persian kings, see Phylarchus ap. AthenaB. xii. p. 539. oi Trp'jf -Bvaov jivia^ai Tolg TzoTikolg avTuv, ovde TCJv yrjuuvTuv iarli, oiu etc. VOL. XII. 21
 * Arrian, vii. 18, 2; vii. 23, 9-13.
 * Chares ap. Athenae. xii. p. 538.
 * Arrian, vii. 6, 3. Kal rovr jui^ovg iv tg) vo/kj tu HepciK'p 7roL7}dt-vrai