Barsine

(Βαρσίνη).

1. Daughter of Artabazus, the satrap of Bithynia, and wife of Memnon the Rhodian. In B. C. 334, the year of Alexander's invasion of Asia, she and her children were sent by Memnon to Dareius III. as hostages for his fidelity; and in the ensuing year, when Damascus was betrayed to the Macedonians, she fell into the hands of Alexander, by whom she became the mother of a son named Hercules. On Alexander's death, B. C. 323, a claim to the throne on this boy's behalf was unsuccessfully urged by Nearchus. From a comparison of the accounts of Diodorus and Justin, it appears that he was brought up at Pergamus under his mother's care, and that she shared his fate when (B. C. 309) Polysperchon was induced by Cassander to murder him. (Plut. Alex. 21, Eum. 1; Diod. 17.23, 20.20, 28; Curt. 3.13.14, 10.6.10; Just. 11.10, 13.2, 15.2; Paus. 9.7.) Plutarch (Eum. l.c.) mentions a sister * Perhaps a half-sister, a daughter of Artabazus by the sister of Memnon and Mentor. of hers, of the same name, whom Alexander gave in marriage to Eumenes at the grand nuptials at Susa in B. C. 324; but see Arrian, Anab. vii. p. 148e.

2. Known also by the name of Stateira, was the elder daughter of Dareius III., and became the bride of Alexander at Susa, B. C. 324. Within a year after Alexander's death she was treacherously murdered by Roxana, acting in concert with the regent Perdiccas, through fear of Barsine's giving birth to a son whose claims might interfere with those of her own. (Plut. Alex. 70, 77; Arr. Anab. vii. p. 148d.; Diod. 17.107.) Justin (11.10) seems to confound this Barsine with the one mentioned above. [E.E]

(Βαρσίνη). A daughter of Darius Codomannus, who married Alexander the Great, B.C. 324, and had by him a son named Heracles. She was secretly put to death by Cassander, along with her son, when the latter had reached his fourteenth year (Justin, xv. 2). According, however, to Diodorus Siculus (xx. 28), he was slain by Polysperchon, who had agreed with Cassander that he would commit the deed. Plutarch says that Polysperchon promised to slay him for 100 talents. We have followed Arrian (vii. 1) in making Barsiné the daughter of Darius. According to Plutarch (Vit. Alex.) she was the daughter of Artabazus; while another authority makes her father to have been named Pharnabazus. It is therefore said by some that two women of the same name are referred to—one a Greek and one a Persian, and both married to Alexander.