Marriages between Macedonians and Persians. At this time Alexander sent Atropates away to his own viceroyalty,841 after advancing to Susa; where he arrested Abulites and his son Oxathres, and put them to death on the ground that they were governing the Susians badly.842 Many outrages upon temples, tombs, and the subjects themselves had been committed by those who were ruling the countries conquered by Alexander in war; because the king’s expedition into India had taken a long time, and it was not thought credible that he would ever return in safety from so many nations possessing so many elephants, going to his destruction beyond the Indus, Hydaspes, Acesines, and Hyphasis.843 The calamities that befell him among the Gadrosians were still greater inducements to those acting as viceroys in this region to be free from apprehension of his return to his dominions. 375Not only so, but Alexander himself is said to have become more inclined at that time to believe accusations which were plausible in every way, as well as to inflict very severe punishment upon those who were convicted even of small offences, because with the same disposition he thought they would be likely to perform great ones.844
In Susa also he celebrated both his own wedding and those of his companions. He himself married Barsine, the eldest daughter of Darius,845 and according to Aristobulus, besides her another, Parysatis, the youngest daughter of Ochus.846 He had already married Roxana, daughter of Oxyar............