What is the Susa mass wedding? When did the Susa mass wedding take place?

The Susa Mass Wedding was a large mass wedding organized by Alexander the Great of Macedonia in Susa in 324 BC.

After Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, a Persian-style mass wedding was held in Susa in order to promote the integration of the Macedonians with eastern peoples such as Persia, and to stabilize the rule of the empire in the future. Alexander didn't just want a symbolic wedding, but really wanted to integrate new peoples.

Alexander also allowed his officers and staff to marry the daughters of prominent Persian aristocrats in Persia, and according to Arian records, Alexander gave Darius's youngest daughter, Delibidis, to his close friend, Hephaistion, with the hope that in the future, Hephaistion's children would be his own nephews or nieces. To Craterus was Amastris, daughter of Euxiatis (brother of Darius III). To Perdiccas was the daughter of Atropatheus, governor of Midi. The two daughters of Artabazos, of whom Atacama was given to Tollemi, and the other to Eumenes, the royal secretary. To Nearchus was the daughter of Mentor and Barshin. To Seleucus was Apama, daughter of Spitamenes the Bactrian. The other fellows and officers were also daughters of prominent Persian and Midian noblemen, and these added up to eighty pairs.

The wedding was held according to the Persian custom, the bridegroom was seated in the order of the bridegroom, and after everyone drank and congratulated him, the brides came in and sat down beside their respective grooms, and then the bridegroom took the bride's hand in his and kissed her. Since the wedding was held in a group, Alexander took the lead in all the steps. Afterwards, the bridegroom took the bride home, and Alexander gave gifts to each couple. In addition, Alexander also gave gifts to those Macedonians who married Asian women, which numbered 10,000, although most of them had wives and children back home in Macedonia. According to Plutarch, Alexander was quite generous at this wedding, and he also gave each guest a golden cup filled with wine.

Implications

Through his marriage to Darius's daughter, Alexander could now claim to be the rightful heir to the throne of Persia, and often claimed the Persians as his own relatives to solidify the foundations of his future empire. However, the Macedonians were quite unhappy with the king's over-appealing to the Persians, and most were very unhappy with the Persian style of the wedding, which, coupled with all of Alexander's Persian-appealing exploits, led the Macedonians to believe that Alexander no longer needed them, resulting in a number of conflicts between the Macedonians and Alexander in the future.

The Aftermath

When Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, his successors stopped adopting Alexander's policy of governing the East, and they were no longer willing to be on equal footing with Persians and other Orientals. Most of the Macedonian dignitaries who had been married by Alexander's order at the wedding of Susa abandoned their Persian wives, and only Seleucus was known to remain married to Apama. Alexander's attempt to unite Persia and Macedonia into a new nation was defeated.