国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

(*adjarentium vero regionum Apoctronum Roxanes patruam uxoris meae rectorem constitui placet*).
This is confirmed to some extent by the Ethiopian version of *Pseudo-Callisthenes*. There, too,
Roxana is said to be the daughter of Darius. Yet, on his death-bed, Alexander, dividing the world
between his generals, says : « And I declare unto you publicly, O men of Macedonia..., and Leṭâs,
governor of Bactria, that [all the country] from Babylon to the country of Bactria, shall be given
to Roxana, who is a Bactrian woman » (E. A. Wallis Budge, *The Alexander Book in Ethiopia*,
London, 1933, 800, 211). The « uncle » (patruus) of the early Latin version may be an attempt
to escape the contradiction with the rest of the romance, where Roxane is said to be the daughter
of Darius. But it may also be due to another cause. One Oxyartes was a brother of Darius and
entered Alexander's service (cf. F. Justi, *Iranisches Namenbuch*, 232); perhaps the two Oxyartes
were confused at an early date, and the Latin version, which was not made from our present text
of *Pseudo-Callisthenes*, may retain what may have been the original version. The passage from a
pseudo-niece to a pseudo-daughter, easy in the Oriental way of expressing family relationship,
would be a secondary development, which was not carried into effect throughout the romance.
This would account for the discrepancy between the testament and the rest of the romance in
the present Greek *Pseudo-Callisthenes* and in the Ethiopic version, but not for the local tradition
in Balkh, as reported by Polo. Polo's text shows that, in Balkh, Roxana remained somehow con-
nected with the former satrapy of her true father Oxyartes; the place mentioned for the wedding
is even in surprising agreement with the view taken by Western scholars (Pauthier, *Pa*, 96, says
that, according to Plutarch's *Life of Alexander*, ch. 47, the wedding of Alexander with Roxana
took place in Bactria; but there is no such precision in the said chapter; Tarn, *The Greeks in
Bactria and in India*, 449, has no hesitation in stating that Alexander married Roxana «at Bactra»).
It seems excluded that this agreement should be due to direct historical tradition, and it must be of
literary origin. But in all the Iranian versions of the legend of Alexander, I have failed to discover
any passage in which Rôšanak is not said to be the true daughter of Darius; no mention is made
of Oxyartes. If I am right in my interpretation of Polo's passage, it would imply that there has been
some Iranian (Pahlavî?) account of the legend of Alexander in which Roxana retained her Bactrian
origin. This original feature, forgotten in all later Iranian versions, might well have survived in
the local tradition of Balkh because it connected the great conqueror with the city.

206. DARKNESS (PROVINCE OF)

*ciscurte* F*t* *oschurita* TA², VA *schurita* VL
*hoschuritate, schuridade* V *oscurità* R *tenebre* Pr; R
*ischurita* TA¹ *oscurite* F, Fr *ualle oschura, valle hoschura* TA³
*obscuritas* L, LT, P, Z

The « Province of Darkness » corresponds in principle to the subarctic regions of northern
Russia and western Siberia (not only « Siberia », as supposed in *B*¹, 446), lying further north than
the dominions of the king Qoniči (see « Conci »). But already in part of Qoniči's territory, there