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
1 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.
