Oxyartes

Oxyartes, a Sogdian baron of the Hissar region, was one of the last holdouts of the Bactrian-Sogdian insurgency (329–327 BC) that pinned Alexander's army in Central Asia for three years (Arr. *Anab.* 4.18.4–6; Curt. 8.4.21–30; Strabo 11.11.4). He had placed his wife and daughters — including Roxane — in the so-called Rock of Oxyartes, a near-impregnable cliff-fortress in the Paropamisadae foothills, judging it the safest refuge from the Macedonian advance. When Alexander's night-climbers reached the summit before dawn and the garrison surrendered, Oxyartes came down and submitted. Alexander's decision to marry Roxane on the spot turned his father from a prisoner into an ally; Oxyartes delivered the other Sogdian insurgent barons (Sisimithres, Chorienes) and facilitated the end of the three-year guerrilla war (Arr. *Anab.* 4.21.9; Curt. 8.4.28). In recognition of the alliance and the marriage-connection he was appointed satrap of the Paropamisadae (the regions around the Hindu Kush south of Bactra, roughly modern Afghanistan east of the Helmand), a position he retained into the early Seleucid period after Alexander's death — one of the very few native rulers who held provincial power continuously through the Diadochi transition (Arr. *Succ.* F1.36 + Strabo 11.11.4).

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