Samothrace (island with a Makedonian-sponsored shrine, where Philip first met Myrtale/Olympias, at a Mysteries festival in 357 BC. This isolated sanctuary retained, much longer than other places in Greece, reminiscences of cults related to the primitive worship of the Great –or Mother— Goddess; which would explain Myrtale/Olympias’ preference for this shrine. These ancient religious roots were still notable in 294 BC, when a wife of Lysimachos, Arsinoe, personally paid for the building of a large public structure as an offering to the Great Gods) 29, 33, 88
Sammur-Amat (usually known as ‘the legendary Semiramis’, Sammur-Amat is a historical queen of Assyria, for her royal stele has been found at the capital of Assur, confirming her status of a sovereign. This Babylonian princess had become queen-consort in 820 BC; in 811–806 BC she was the Regent for, and later co-sovereign with, her son Adad Niran III. She had important waterworks built to ensure Babylon’s prosperity. An inscription found at Nimrud –near present-day Mosul in Iraq– confirms that Sammur Amat retained considerable political and religious influence in the times of her son’s reign. In 787 BC she still had the power to impose the cult of the Babylonian god Nebo in the whole of Assyria. Over a thousand years later, Arrian still remembered: “It had been a custom in Asia, ever since the time of Semiramis, even for women to rule men!”) 4, 31, 65, 66, 75
Sarcophagus (burial coffin; in Bodrum/Halikarnassos, a sarcophagus discovered in 1982 contained the skeleton and the jewels of a high-ranking Hekatomnid woman, probably Ada II. Another famous case is that of the so-called Alexander Sarcophagus sculpted c. 320 BC probably for the tomb of Abdalonymos, king of Sidon. Excavated in 1887 at the royal necropolis of Sidon, and now at the Istanbul Archeological Museum, neat the Topkapi palaces. It is considered a Hellenistic masterpiece, including statue depictions of Alexander and Hefaistion. Its image of Hefaistion may be the only extant one sculpted by artists who had seen him in person) 89
Sardès (also written Sardis; capital of Croesus’ Lydia; after being taken by Cyrus the Great, stronghold and treasurury of the Persian satrapy. In the late 8th to 6th century, Sardès had a sole Mother Goddess; in 500 BC, at the start of the Ionian uprising, Herodotos says, “Sardis burned and in it, the sanctuary of Kubabe or Cybele, the Great Goddess”. Kubabe, also prominent in Karchemish, is an epithet of the Mother Goddess. So when Artaxerxes II in the 4th century sets up an Anahita statue in Sardès, he is in fact reestablishing its old religion. Sardès remains the empire’s principal capital and garrison in Asia Minor under Alexander and under Perdikkas. When Kleopatra negotiates her possible marriage to Perdikkas, one of the guarantees she obtains from him is her appointment as “commander of the Sardès garrison”: that is, military protection under her own command. Though the marriage fails to materialise, as from 321 she comes to reside in the city, where she is finally murdered in 308 on Antigonos’ orders) VII, 56, 80, 82, 83, 93, 94, 95, 96, 106, 120, 125, 138, 155
Sargon (r. 2334–2279 BC, the king of Akkad who conquered Sumer, so establishing the first multi-ethnic empire in Mesopotamia; to promote the integration of his new dominions, he made his daughter Enheduanna the high priestess of the goddess Inanna in the city of Ur) 51
Sassanid Empire (in 224 AD a Zoroastrian dynasty takes over power in the territory of Parthia, until its power is destroyed by muslim Arabs in 651. The founding father of the Sassanids is Ardasher I, a descendant of Anahita priests at Istakhr near Persepolis; he sees himself as a successor to the Achaemenids. In Göbl’s study of Sassanid investiture scenes, the goddess Anahita is seen on coins depicting the crowning of Ardashir I (226–240 AD), Shapur I, Hormozd I, Bahram II, Narse, Hormozd II, Shapur II and III. Narse (292–303 AD) is shown on a relief at Naqsh-e-Rostam, standing before Anahita who invests him with the sovereignty. On a Taq-e-Bustan rock carving, Anahita presides the investiture of king Peroz (459–484 AD) or Khosrow II (591–628 AD). The last Sassanid ruler, Yazhdegird II (632–651 AD), was proclaimed king by the nobles of Pars in the Anahita temple at Istakhr, near Persepolis) 56, 144
Satraps (governors of parts of the Persian empire, appointed by and answerable to the High King, many of them being relatives of his. This administrative system was instituted by Darius the Great, who divided the empire into 20 saptrapies; over time, the number and territorial extension of the satrapies would vary. The satraps often became hereditary viceroys, and sometimes leaders of rebellions, as in the Great Satrap’s Revolt of 366–360 BC against Artaxerxes II. Alexander named and dismissed his satraps as a personal decision. At his return from India in 325, after an absence of some six years, he found that several satraps and other local leaders had abused the powers he had given them. As a consequence, he ordered a series of exemplary punishments. Thus the satraps Abulites and Oxatres, his son, were executed for corruption in Susa and Paritâkanu; similar penalties were imposed on the satraps Astaspes and Orxines, and the rebellious nobles Ordanes, Zariaspes and Baryaxes. Alexander also ordered 600 of his Makedonians punished for cases of rape and pillaging; this included the execution of generals Kleander, Sitalkes and Herakoon) VIII, 12, 30, 80, 83, 114, 138, 148, 150, 151
Scythians (peoples living beyond the Black Sea. The etymological root of their name is “scutha”, meaning arrow-shooter; these horse-mounted bowmen dominate all over Central Asia and Mongolia, being the precursors of Ghengis Khan and his empire. Scythians, Saka and Sogdians are distant relatives of the early nomad tribes of the Medes and Persians. Alexander meets and defeats a Scythian tribe, called “Sakâ” by the Persians, in 329 BC. Trying to establish a stable relationship, their leader Karthasis offers him a daughter in marriage; this episode may have led Kallisthenes to create the legend of the Amazon queen Thalestris) VIII, 2, 3, 11, 12, 141, 156, 160
Seleukos (358–280 BC; Makedonian commander of elite units like the Silver Shields under Alexander, who in 324 in Susa married him to Apame, daughter of the defeated Baktrian leader Spitamenes. As from 312, warlord and later king in Babylon. Soon, he dominated the whole Persian heartland. In 301, together with Lysimachos, Ptolemy and Kassander, they succeeded in finally routing Antigonos One-Eye at the battle of Ipsos. Thus Seleukos, adding Syria and part of Asia Minor to his kingdom, came to dominate the most extensive ‘inheritance’ from Alexander’s empire. Seleukos used to make much propaganda out of a supposed portent in Babylon in Alexander’s final days: he retrieved his diadem from the reeds and swam back with it bound around his head –as if he were a king already–, to Alexander’s approval. As king, Seleukos founded twin cities on the river Eufrates at Zeugma, calling them Seleukia and Apamea. Also named after his queen were the cities of Apamea on the Orontes in Syria, and Apamea-Silhu in Babylon. By that time, Apame was claimed to be the daughter of Alexander and Roxane, who was said to be a daughter of Darius III; so that the Seleukid dynasty could claim throne rights both via the Achaemenids and via Alexander) 2, 27, 47, 94, 95, 103, 106, 107, 108, 124, 125, 128, 140, 155, 159
Semiramis (=Sammur-Amat, see id., queen of Assyria c. 820–780 BC) 4, 31, 65, 66 75
Senusset III (pharaoh c. 1850 BC, first ruler of Egypt who ordered the digging of a canal through the Wadi Tumilat/‘Bitter Lakes’ depression, natural outlet to the Red Sea from the eastern arm of the Nile delta) 137
Septimus Severus (145–211 AD; Roman emperor, visits the Alexander Tomb in 199 AD, and orders it sealed “for its protection”; his descendants Caracalla and Alexander Severus publicly revere Alexander the Great) 147
Shah-Nama (Firdausi’s epic work on the history of Persia’s kings, published c. 1010 AD) 143, 145
Sharaf-Nama (title of the first and best known part of the epic Sikandar-Nama, published in 1203 by Nizami, see id)
Sidon (city in Fenicia; 40,000 inhabitants perished in its rebellion of 351–345 BC against Artaxerxes III Ochus) VII
Sikandar/Iskandar (Oriental version of Alexander’s name) 10, 146
Sikandar-Nama e Bara (epic poem on Alexander, written around 1200 AD, elaborating a centuries old oral tradition, but also including factual hist
orical material. Its author, Nizami, published the text in 1203 AD in Tabriz, dedicated to its sultan) 11, 12, 45, 139, 142–145, 159
Sisygambis (403–323 BC, Persian queen-mother. The first part of the Greek transliteration of her name derives, sic Tavernier, from the Old Persian *Ciça- or Tsjissa- = “splendid lineage”; the second part cannot yet be traced. Sisygambis is the youngest daughter of Artaxerxes II and Stateira. Nearly all sources report her as the wife of her cousin Arsames, son of the king’s brother Ostanes. Arsames will become one of the many victims among the Aechamenid princes, murdered by Arterxes III Ochus to pave his way to the throne in 358 BC. Arsames and Sisygambis have two sons: Artashata –the future Darius III– and Oxyatres. From 344, Sisygambis and her sons live in Armenia, birthplace of her mother the queen Stateira, where Artashata has been made satrap. In 336, Sisygambis returns to Susa having become, to her own surprise, queen-mother at nearly 70 years of age. However, in 333 BC, she is left behind on the battlefield of Issos when Darius III flees before Alexander, who then takes her under his protection and treats her as if she were his own mother. Sisygambis accompanies him on the campaign trail for over two years, until he reestablishes her at her palace in Susa in December, 331. As he does not bring over his mother Olympias to reside in a capital of his new dominions, Alexander ‘de facto’ maintains Sisygambis in her role as queen-mother of the empire. To Persian eyes, without doubt she legitimised Alexander on the throne by calling him publicly “my son”. She continued to be the highly influential queen-mother of the empire –viz. the Susa Weddings– until her very last day. In June 323, on being informed of Alexander’s premature death, Sisygambis withdrew into profound sorrow, refused to eat, and died of grief in five days.
Siwah (oasis with a famous Ammon oracle in Egypt, near the Lybian border, that Alexander visited in 331) VII, 14
Sogdanios (second son of Xerxes I. In 424 BC, he murdered his brother Xerxes II to take the throne, but a few months later he was killed in turn by his half-brother Darius the Bastard; see: Persia’s King List, p. IX, and Family Tree, p. X)
Sogdia (N-E region of the Persian empire, covering present-day Uzbekstan and parts of Afghanistan; this is where Alexander met Roxane, whose family had fled neigboring Baktria) VII, VIII, IX, 21, 23
Somatofylax (=“bodyguard”) honorary title for Alexander’s seven top generals Hefaistion, Lysimachos, Leonnatos, Artistonous, Peithon, Perdikkas and Ptolemy; in 325 BC, Peukestas was added as 8th. after saving Alexander’s life in Mallia, India) 93, 125, 154
Sparta (rival city to Athens; byword for a warlike, militarised society) 80
Spathaka (Old Persian: “the one who sees” = The King’s Eye, chief of the imperial secret service) 113–115
Spitama Zarathustra (=Zoroaster, ver ibidem) 57
Spitamenes (370–328 BC; Darius’ satrap in Sogdia who in 329 BC turned the usurper Bessos over to Ptolemy, but –resisting harsh occupation policies?– soon reopened the fight against Alexander, with surprising initial success. His probable Zoroastrian ascent may have given him wide support among the locals agains the ‘heretic enemy’. But after a series of bloody defeats inflicted on him by Alexander’s new tactics, Spitamenes was killed and turned over to the Makedonians by his own people, as a price for the peace. His daughter Apame, however, was taken under Alexander’s personal protection; in all probability he sent her to Susa to be brought up by Sisygambis. At the Susa Weddings, he married her to Seleukos, so the whole dynasty of the Seleukid empire descends from her) 2, 103
spy service of the Persian High Kings (explained by Aristotle and other authors) 108–115
Stateira (several queens carry this Old Persian name meaning “Gift of the Stars”: <1> 440–400 BC, wife of Artaxerxes II and mother of Sisygambis. King Darius II the Bastard, to shore up his dubious legitimacy, arranged a double marriage of his eldest son Arshú and his daughter Amastris, to the children of the Achaemenid prince Hydarnes. The bride of Arshú was the princess Stateira, born in Armenia. Later, her relatives were executed by Darius on a –probably false– accusation of incest against her sister Roxana. Only Stateira was spared, because of Arshú’s pleas to his parents) 37, 38, 55, 59, 69, 70, 71
Stateira <2> (royal wife and
Stateira <3> (=Barsine/Stateira; c. 340–323 BC; granddaughter of Sisygambis, as first daughter of Darius III; at the Susa Weddings in 324, married to Alexander, and thus ranking queen of the empire; murdered by Roxane as soon as Alexander had died
Strabo of Amasya (63 BC - 23 AD Greek geographer and writer) 46, 59, 62, 78, 106, 157, 159
Sumatra (Westernmost of the greater islands of Indonesia; its N-W tip, Acheh, was governed c. 1600 AD by a Muslim dynasty reclaiming descent from Alexander) 146
Sumer(ian) (first and foremost among the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, having invented writing around 3200 BC. With his conquest of Sumer c. 2350 Sargon, king of Akkad, established the first multi-ethnic empire in Mesopotamia) 51, 53, 54, 55
Susa (=“city of lilies”, ancient capital of Elam, and of Persia. Darius the Great transformed Susa into a principal Achaemenid royal seat c. 520 BC. Place of residence of queen-mother Sisygambis; at her court in Susa the princesses Barsine, Drypetis and Amastris, were educated in preparation of ‘the Susa weddings’ in 324. Here, not only Alexander, Hefaistion and Krateros married these three granddaughters of Sisygambis, but also 80-plus of their Companions wedded other princesses and noble daughters of the Persian empire. Moreover, Alexander had the scribes draw up a register of all soldiers in the Makedonian army living with Persian women. As a result, the Royal Treasury paid 10,000 dowries) VII, VIII, IX, 2, 8, 12, 15, 18. 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 32, 38, 40, 41, 43, 46, 47, 48, 55, 56, 68, 72, 81, 101, 103, 104, 107, 108, 112, 113, 138, 151, 152, 159
Syr Darya (Central Asian river –in ancient times called Jaxartes– running towards the Aral Sea) 141
Syria (satrapy in the region of the ancient Assyrian empire; c. 410, the Persian queen-mother Parysatis was famous for her vast estates in Syria, allowing her to muster an army for her favorite son Cyrus the Younger. Around 340 BC, Syria and the Levant were added to the powerbase of the satrap Mazaios/Mazday, making him a key player in the subsequent ascension of Darius III to the throne) VII, 3, 34, 39, 42, 65, 68, 69, 128, 131, 138, 149, 151
Syriac (soothsayer friend and protectress of Alexander; in 327, she asked him to stay away from his tent and so frustrated an assassination attempt on his life) 3, 34, 161
T:
Talent (Greek monetary unit, equiv. to 6000 drachmai, or 26,2 kg of silver which was supposed to be the maximum weight a person could carry on a day-long march; see: Drachma) 136
Tanais river (today: river Don, considered a border between Europe and Asia) 152
Taxila (Indian city, centre of learning, captured by Alexander) 139
Telesippa (Greek free woman, probably a hetaira, who c. 324 decides to leave Mesopotamia, thereby provoking one of Alexander’s soldiers to apply falsely for invalidity leave in order to go with her; in his judgment of the case, Alexander emphasizes that Telesippa is free to decide for herself) 2, 5, 8, 160, 161
Testament (c. 309 BC a falsified testament of Alexander, later known as the Liber de Morte, was circulated; it had been faked on Ptolemy’s orders) 123–125, 145, 147, 156
Testament of Ardasher (Sassanid text on governance, including the use of spies) 114
Thais (c. 330; Athenian concubine of Ptolemy; said to have proposed the burning of Persepolis in revenge for Xerxes’ sack of Athens) 2, 15, 160
Thalestris (legendary Amazon queen and supposed lover of Alexander) 2, 11, 160
Thara (place in North Persia where Bessos mur
dered Darius III) VII, 19, 43
Theagenes (Theban military leader at the battle of Chaironea against Philip) 9
Thebes (city in Greece, sometime rival of Makedon, and often allied to Persia. Razed in 336 BC after Alexander’s siege/sack of Thebes, but later allowed to be rebuilt) VI, VII, 8, 9, 10, 88, 103, 141, 161
Theopompos (c.377–300 BC; Greek historian from Chios, pupil of Isokrates; in 351 BC he won a Rhetorics Prize awarded by queen Artemisia II of Karia. He wrote a history of Philip’s reign, which –though praising Demosthenes– became a main source for Trogus. After Alexander’s death he sought refuge in Alexandria under Ptolemy) 31, 80, 81
Theorodoch (Greek title given to leaders of a special office to welcome envoys sent on religious errands; Kleopatra was the only woman of such rank) 85, 92
Theseus (legendary king of Athens who married the Amazon queen Hippolyta, thereby provoking an Amazon invasion of Attika) 79
Thessalonike (half-sister of Alexander; therefore also the name of a major city in Makedon/Greece founded by Kassander, and named after his queen. In 298–295 BC the widowed Thessalonike was the regent of Makedon for Kassander’s son, who killed her in the end) 2, 16, 17, 89, 93, 95, 124, 160
Thrakia/Thrace (region in N-Greece bordering on Makedon, conquered by Philip; Lysimachos became king here after Alexander’s death) 9, 89, 106, 150
Thucydides (460–400 BC, from Athens, first scientific historian) 77
Tigris river (area of Great Goddess cult) 59, 148
Timokleia (336 BC sister of Theban general Theagenes; during the sack of Thebes, she was set free by Alexander) 2, 8–9, 161
Tiribazos (400–380 BC satrap for Artaxerxes II in Armenia and Ionia; brokered the “Peace of the King” with the Greeks in 387 BC, then invaded Cyprus; later disgraced, and killed in a palace coup) 80
Tisikrates (c. 300 BC, famous sculptor, disciple of Lysippos. He made a statue of Peukestas’ feat saving Alexander’s life in Mallia) VIII
All Alexander's Women Page 25
