A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἀριμάζης) or ARIOMA'ZES (Ἀριομάζης), a chief who had possession, in B. C. 328, of a very strong fortress in Sogdiana, usually called the Rock, which Droysen identifies with a place called Kohiten, situate near the pass of Kolugha or Derbend. Arimazes at first refused to surrender the place to Alexander, but afterwards yielded when some of the Macedonians had climbed to the summit. In this fortress Alexander found Roxana, the daughter of the Bactrian chief, Oxyartes, whom he made his wife. Curtius (7.11) relates, that Alexander crucified Arimazes and the leading men who were taken; but this is not mentioned by Arrian (4.19) or Polyaenus (4.3.29), and is improbable. (Comp. Strab. xi. p.517.)