Van wie was Alexander De Grote?

Campaspe (Grieks: Καμπάσπη) was een hetaere (minnares) van Alexander de Grote uit Larissa. In Attische vorm heet zij ook wel Pancaste. Informatie over haar is niet te vinden bij Alexanders eigentijdse biografen, maar bij schrijvers uit de Romeinse periode: Lucianus van Samosata, Claudius Aelianus (Varia Historia) en Plinius de Oudere (Naturalis Historia, XXXV, 79-100).

Zij verhalen dat de befaamde Apelles in opdracht van Alexander een naaktschilderij maakte van Campaspe. Hij gebruikte haar ook als model voor zijn iconische Venus Anadyomene, die op haar beurt Botticelli inspireerde voor zijn Geboorte van Venus. Plinius beschrijft zelfs hoe Alexander, toen hij het resultaat onder ogen kreeg, besefte dat de schilder Campaspe meer liefhad dan hijzelf. Hij schonk haar weg aan Apelles maar behield het portret. Dit apocriefe verhaal werd later een geliefd thema in de Europese schilderkunst.

Hephaistion (Oudgrieks: Ἡφαιστίων) of Hephaestion (ca. 356 v.Chr. - herfst 324 v.Chr.) was een zoon van Amyntor, een Macedonisch aristocraat, vriend van Alexander de Grote en waarschijnlijk ook zijn geliefde.

Barsine (Greek: Βαρσίνη; c. 363–309 BC) was the daughter of a Persian father, Artabazus, satrap of Hellespontine Phrygia, and a Greek Rhodian mother, the sister of mercenaries Mentor of Rhodes and Memnon of Rhodes. Barsine became the wife of her uncle Mentor, and after his death married her second uncle, Memnon.

In 334 BC, the year of Alexander's invasion of Asia, she and her children were sent by Memnon to the king Darius 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 it is said that she became the mother of Heracles.

Twelve years after Alexander's death in 323, Nearchus, who was Barsine's son-in-law, unsuccessfully advocated for Heracles' claim to the throne, who was, then, seventeen, which meant he was born about five years after Barsine and Alexander supposedly met in Damascus, in 333 BC. From a comparison of the accounts of Diodorus and Justin, it appears that he was brought up at Pergamum under his mother's care, and that she shared his fate when in 309 BC Polyperchon was induced by Cassander to murder him. Barsine is sometimes confused with Stateira II, wife of Alexander, who also may have been called "Barsine".

Cleophis (Sanskrit: Kripa ) was an Assacani queen and key figure in the war between the Assacani people and Alexander the Great. Cleophis was the mother of Assacanus, the Assacanis' war-leader at the time of Alexander's invasion in 326 BCE. After her son's death in battle, Cleophis assumed command and negotiated a settlement that allowed her to retain her status. Later accounts claim Cleophis had a son by Alexander, a notion dismissed by historians.

The Assacani (called Ashvakas in Sanskrit, from the word Ashva, meaning "horse") were an independent people who lived in parts of the Swat and Buner valleys in ancient Gandhara. These highlanders were rebellious, fiercely independent clans who resisted subjugation.