Stateira

Stateira, Persian queen and wife of Darius III, was among the royal women captured at Issus in November 333 BC (Arr. *Anab.* 2.11.9–12.8; Plut. *Alex.* 21; Curt. 3.11). Alexander's explicit refusal to visit the women's tent on the night after the battle and his subsequent formal decorum toward Stateira were preserved as conduct-exempla across the entire biographical tradition. She died in childbirth while in Macedonian custody in late 331 BC, around the time of Gaugamela; the circumstances are reported by Curtius 4.10.18–34, who gives the fullest account — a premature delivery, the child stillborn, Stateira dying in the birth-chamber — and by Plutarch *Alex.* 30.1–2 and Justin 11.12.6. The death became another moralising set-piece in the tradition: a Persian courier who had been present escaped to Darius and reported it; Darius, learning from him that Alexander had behaved with complete decorum toward his wife during the captivity, gave thanks for this before weeping for her death — the first moment in which the Darius of the ancient narrative voices any respect for his adversary. She was buried with royal Achaemenid honours on Alexander's order.

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