Mass wedding of Susa

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mass wedding of Susa (late 19th century engraving)

The mass wedding of Susa was in the spring of 324 BC. A five-day marriage ceremony organized by Alexander the Great in the Persian metropolis of Susa , during which he and about 80 of his leading followers married distinguished Persian women . This served for peace between the Persians and Greeks .

course

On the way back from his campaign to India , Alexander the Great came in 324 BC. Among other things also to Susa. There he took extensive measures to consolidate his empire, which had been greatly enlarged by the Asian campaign . He had governors and other high administrative officials identified as unsuitable or corrupt dismissed and, if possible, punished. That is why the treasurer Harpalus fled to Athens . On the other hand, the king honored deserving friends and comrades-in-arms by presenting them with gold wreaths, for example. He also issued a decree regulating the situation in Greece, according to which all Greek exiles should be allowed to return home. In order to bind his Macedonian and Persian subjects closer together and thus to put the unity of his empire on a more secure basis, he finally ordered the mass marriage of high-ranking companions with women of the Persian aristocracy and the legitimation of previous connections of his soldiers with women who they were on theirs Had gotten to know campaigns.

The lavish celebrations lasted five days. Alexander and his guests of honor ate the wedding meal in a huge marquee, furnished with luxurious dining sofas and purple carpets, resting on pillars adorned with gold and precious stones and offering space for hundreds of people. Expensive curtains were hung around the tent. The beginning and the end of this feast were announced by the blast of the trumpet. Actors performed tragedies and comedies for entertainment, musicians played flutes and other instruments, Indian jugglers showed their skills and famous Greek dancers and speakers also took part. Many names of these artists have been passed down.

The weddings were celebrated according to the Persian rite. The grooms sat down on armchairs prepared for them and had a drink , whereupon the brides appeared, sat down with their designated husbands and received a kiss from them. Alexander was the first to marry himself. He had already married Roxane  - the daughter of the Sogdian or Bactrian nobleman Oxyartes  . However, since polygamy was allowed for him according to the Macedonian and Oriental royal custom , there were no obstacles in the way of further marriages. In order to establish a relationship with the previously ruling Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids , Alexander now married Stateira , the eldest daughter of the Great King Darius III, whom he had overcome . At the same time he celebrated his wedding to Parysatis , the youngest daughter of 338 BC. Persian king Artaxerxes III. These new wives, however, did not stand out particularly. His particularly close friend Hephaistion , with whom he wanted to be related by marriage, Alexander married Drypetis , another daughter of Darius III. and younger sister of his own new wife Stateira.

Seleucus , the later founder of the Seleucid Empire , married at the mass wedding on the orders of his king Apame , the daughter of the Bactrian prince Spitamenes , Ptolemy , the later king of Egypt, Artakama , a daughter of the Persian nobleman Artabazos , and Eumenes of Kardia , the head of the royal chancellery, Artonis , another daughter of Artabazos. Further marriages handed down by name are those of Krateros , who married Amastris , the daughter of Oxyathres , a brother of Darius III, as well as those of the general Perdiccas , who married a daughter of Atropates , the satrap of Media, and and finally that of Admiral Nearchus , who married a daughter of the Greek mercenary leader Mentor and Barsine , a former lover of Alexander. A total of about 80 such weddings took place.

All married couples received rich gifts as trousseau. They seem to have readily accepted that Alexander's high-ranking confidants were not allowed to choose their wives themselves; only the form of marriage according to Persian custom displeased some of them.

At the same time as the mass wedding, Alexander legitimized several thousand concubinates that his soldiers had already entered into with Asian women. He also gave all of them a dowry and also paid all the debts of his warriors.

reception

To celebrate the 28th birthday of the Prussian Queen Luise , two days later (March 12, 1804), a high-class reenactment of Susa's mass wedding took place in front of 2,000 spectators in the Royal National Theater in Berlin .

swell

literature

Remarks

  1. Lauffer: Alexander the Great. Pp. 167-171.
  2. Demandt: Alexander the Great. P. 330f.
  3. Arrian : Anabasis 7, 4, 4; Diodorus : 17, 107, 6; Plutarch : Alexander 70, 3; Justin : 12, 10, 9f.
  4. Arrian: Anabasis 7, 4, 5; Diodorus: 17, 107, 6; Curtius Rufus : 10, 5, 20.
  5. Arrian: Anabasis 7, 4, 6; Plutarch ( Demetrios 31, 3) imprecisely describes Apame as a Persian.
  6. Arrian: Anabasis 7, 4, 6; Plutarch ( Eumenes 1, 7) calls Ptolemy's wife Apame.
  7. Arrian: Anabasis 7, 4, 6; Plutarch ( Eumenes 1, 7) calls Eumenes' wife Barsine.
  8. Arrian: Anabasis 7, 4, 5f.
  9. Arrian: Anabasis 7, 6, 2.
  10. Demandt: Alexander the Great. P. 331.