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Secondary sourcePainting

The Marriage of Alexander the Great and Roxane of Bactria

A later painting imagining Alexander's wedding to Roxane of Bactria, with a priest blessing the couple and dancers celebrating nearby.

Depicts Alexander's wedding to Roxane, part of his strategy of alliance-building during his Asian campaigns.

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Painting of a classical scene: a helmeted soldier in gold-trimmed armor offers a bowl to a seated woman in blue and yellow robes, while an attendant kneels with a dish. Women in loose garments dance in the foreground, and armed soldiers stand at left. A white statue of a woman stands in a lit niche beneath draped red curtains, and musicians play on a balcony at right.
Unknown artist, The Marriage of Alexander the Great and Roxane of Bactria. Rijksmuseum, Netherlands.

About this source

What it is

This is a painting held by the Rijksmuseum showing the wedding of Alexander the Great to Roxane of Bactria. A priest blesses the couple before a burning altar and a statue of Juno, while soldiers from Alexander's army stand to one side and dancing women and musicians fill the rest of the scene.

Why it matters

Alexander married Roxane, a noblewoman from Bactria, during his campaigns in Central Asia. This marriage was part of his effort to connect his new empire with the peoples he conquered. The painting was made long after Alexander's lifetime, so it shows how later artists imagined and romanticised this moment rather than recording it directly.

Look closer

  • What does the artist include to make the scene look grand or important?
  • Why might an artist centuries later want to paint this wedding?
  • What is missing from this image that a historian might want to know about the real event?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Alexander the Great on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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