Oxyartes
(Ὀξυάρτης) or Oxartes (Ὀξαρτης). Concerning the different forms of this name see Oxathres.
1. A king of Bactria, said to have been contemporary with Ninus king of Assyria, by whom his kingdom was invaded and conquered. The history of this expedition, though doubtless a mere fable, is given in great detail by Diodorus (2.6). He appears to be the same person who is called by Syncellus and Eusebius, Zoroaster. (Syncell. p. 133; Euseb. Arm. p. 44; Wesseling, ad Dhod. l.c. Baehr, ad Ctes. p. 405.)
2. A Bactrian, father of Roxana, the wife of Alexander the Great. He is first mentioned as one of the chiefs who accompanied Bessus on his retreat across the Oxus into Sogdiana (Arr. Anab. 3.28.15). After the death of Bessus, Oxyartes deposited his wife and daughters for safety in a rock fortress in Sogdiana, which was deemed impregnable, but which nevertheless soon fell into the hands of Alexander, who not only treated his captives with respect and attention, but was so charmed with the beauty of Roxana as to design to make her his wife. Oxyartes. on learning these tidings, hastened to make his submission to the conqueror, by whom he was received with the utmost distinction; and celebrated by a magnificent feast the nuptials of his daughter with the king, B. C. 327 (Arr. Anab. 4.18, 19, 20, § 7; Curt. 8.4.21_29; Strab. xi. p.517; Plut. Alex. 47; concerning the discrepancies in these statements see Miitzell, ad Curt. l.c. cand Droysen's Alexander, p. 346). Shortly after we find him successfully interposing to prevail upon Chorienes to surrender his rock fortress; and at a subsequent period he was appointed by Alexander satrap of the province of Paropamisus, or India south of the Caucasus (Arr. Anab. 4.21, 6.15; Curt. 9.8.9; Plut. Alex. 58). In this position he continued until the death of Alexander, and was confirmed in his government, both in the first division of the provinces immediately after that event, and in the subsequent one at Triparadeisus, B. C. 321 (Diod. 18.3, 39; Justin, 13.4; Arrian. apud Phot. p. 7], b. ; Dexippus, ibid. p. 64b.). At a later period we find him sending a small force to the support of Eumenes ; but after the death of that general,B. C. 316, he seems to have come to terms with Antigonus, who was content to assume the appearance of confirming him in an authority of which he would have found it difficult to dispossess him (Diod. 19.14, 48). It seems probable that he must have died before the expedition of Seleucus against India, as we find that monarch ceding Paropamisus to Sandracottus, without any mention of Oxyartes. (Strab. xv. p.724; Droysen, Hellenism. vol. i. p. 520.) [E.H.B]
- Paus. 1.6.3