The death of Alexander the Great and subsequent related events have been the subjects of debates. According to a Babylonian astronomical diary, Alexander died in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon between the evening of 10 June and the evening of 11 June 323 BC,
Macedonians and local residents wept at the news of the death, while Achaemenid subjects were forced to shave their heads.
Background
In February 323 BC, Alexander ordered his armies to prepare for the march to
Babylon.
According to
Arrian, after crossing the
Tigris Alexander was met by
, who advised him not to enter the city because their deity Bel had warned them that to do so at that time would be fatal for Alexander.
The Chaldeans also warned Alexander against marching westwards as he would then look to the setting sun, a symbol of decline.
It was suggested that he enter Babylon via the Royal Gate, in the western wall, where he would face to the east. Alexander followed this advice, but the route turned out to be unfavorable because of swampy terrain.
According to
Jona Lendering, "it seems that in May 323" the Babylonian
astrology tried to avert the misfortune by substituting Alexander with an ordinary person on the Babylonian throne, who would take the brunt of the omen. The Greeks, however, did not understand that ritual.
Prophecy of Calanus
Calanus was likely to be a
Hindu Naga sadhu, whom Greeks called
gymnosophists. He had accompanied the Greek army back from
Punjab region, upon request by Alexander. He was 73 years of age at that time. However, when Persian weather and travel fatigue weakened him, he informed Alexander that he would rather die than live disabled. He decided to take his life by
self-immolation. Alexander tried to dissuade him from doing so but upon the insistence of Calanus, Alexander relented and the job of building a
pyre was entrusted to Ptolemy.
The place where this incident took place was
Susa in 323 BC.
Calanus is mentioned also by Alexander's admiral,
Nearchus, and Chares of Mytilene.
He did not flinch as he burnt to the astonishment of those who watched.
Before immolating himself alive on the pyre, his last words to Alexander were "We shall meet in Babylon".
Thus he is said to have prophesied the death of Alexander in Babylon. At the time of the death of Calanus, Alexander, however, did not have any plan to go to Babylon.
Causes
According to historical accounts, Alexander's body began to decompose six days after his death. Proposed causes of Alexander's death include alcoholic liver disease, fever, and
strychnine poisoning, but little data support those versions.
According to Andrew N. Williams and Robert Arnott, in his last days Alexander was unable to speak, which was due to a previous injury to his neck during the Siege of Cyropolis.
Other retrodiagnoses include noninfectious diseases as well.
Malaria
According to author Andrew Chugg, there is evidence Alexander died of malaria, having contracted it two weeks before the onset of illness while sailing in the marshes to inspect flood defences. Chugg based his argument
[The Quest for the Tomb of Alexander the Great, A. M. Chugg, AMC Publications, 3rd Edition, January 2020, Chapter 1 (pages28-45).] on the
Ephemerides (
Journal) compiled by Alexander's secretary, Eumenes of Cardia.
[Aelian, Varia Historia 3.23 (a recognised fragment of the Ephemerides which is attributed to Eumenes in Aelian's text).] Chugg also showed in a paper in the
Ancient History Bulletin[A. M. Chugg, "The Journal of Alexander the Great", Ancient History Bulletin 19.3–4 (2005) 155–175.] that the
Ephemerides are probably authentic. Chugg further noted that Arrian states that Alexander "no longer had any rest from the fever" halfway through his fatal illness.
[Arrian, Anabasis Alexandrou 7.25.4.] This is evidence that the fever had initially been intermittent, which is the signature fever curve of
Plasmodium falciparum (the expected malarial parasite, given Alexander's travel history and the severity of the illness), thus enhancing the likelihood of malaria.
[Robert Sallares, Malaria and Rome, OUP 2002, p.11.] The malaria version was also supported by
Paul Cartledge.
Typhoid fever
According to the University of Maryland School of Medicine report of 1998, Alexander probably died of
typhoid fever (which, along with
malaria, was common in ancient Babylon).
In the week before his death, historical accounts mention chills, sweats, exhaustion and high fever, typical
of infectious diseases, including typhoid fever.
According to David W. Oldach from the University of Maryland Medical Center, Alexander also had "severe
abdominal pain, causing him to cry out in agony".
The associated account, however, comes from the unreliable
Alexander Romance.
West Nile fever
Epidemiologist John Marr and
Charles Calisher put forward the West Nile fever as the possible cause of Alexander's death. This version was deemed "fairly compelling" by University of Rhode Island epidemiologist Thomas Mather, who nonetheless noted that the West Nile virus tends to kill the elderly or those with weakened
immune systems.
The version of Marr and Calisher was also criticized by Burke A. Cunha from Winthrop University Hospital.
According to analysis of other authors in response to Marr and Calisher, the West Nile virus could not have infected humans before the 8th century AD.
Poisoning
Throughout the centuries suspicions of possible poisoning have fallen on a number of alleged perpetrators, including one of Alexander's wives, his generals, his illegitimate half-brother or the royal cup-bearer.
The poisoning version is featured particularly in the politically motivated
Liber de Morte Testamentoque Alexandri (
The Book On the Death and Testament of Alexander), which tries to discredit the family of
Antipater. It was argued that the book was compiled in
Polyperchon's circle, not before c. 317 BC.
This theory was also advanced by Justin in his
Historia Philippicae et Totius Mundi Origines et Terrae Situs where he stated that Antipater murdered Alexander by feeding him a poison so strong that it "could be conveyed only in the hoof of a horse.".
In Alexander the Great: The Death of a God, Paul C. Doherty claimed that Alexander was poisoned with arsenic by his possibly illegitimate half-brother Ptolemy I Soter.[ given the length of time between Alexander's first reported symptoms and his death. "The poisons of herbalists were swift and irremediable, whether Conium maculatum, hellebores or belladonnas, and except as an explanation of mysterious illness, a slow poison met no need in the poison-chests of ancient Greece. If Alexander had been poisoned, he should surely have been given a massive dose which was absolutely certain to kill him at once. And yet Diaries, pamphlets and official calendars insist that twelve days elapsed between Medius's fateful banquet and the death of the king."][
]
Other causes
Other causes that have been put forward include acute pancreatitis provoked by "heavy alcohol consumption and a very rich meal",
Another theory moves away from disease and hypothesizes that Alexander's death was related to a congenital scoliosis.[Ashrafian pg. 138] It has been discussed that Alexander had structural neck deformities and oculomotor deficits,[Ashrafian, pg.139] which could be associated with Klippel–Feil syndrome, a rare congenital scoliotic disorder.[Ashrafian, pg. 140] His physical deformities and symptoms leading up to his death are what lead experts to believe this. Some believe that as Alexander fell ill in his final days, he suffered from progressive epidural spinal cord compression, which left him quadriplegic.[George K. York, David A. Steinberg, "Commentary. The Diseases of Alexander the Great", Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, Vol. 13, 2004, pg. 154] However, this hypothesis cannot be proven without a full analysis of Alexander's body.
Some have speculated that he suffered from Guillain-Barré syndrome, which typhoid fever can lead to when complicated with other maladies. He may have contracted this disease from a Helicobacter pylori infection after his lung wound during the siege of Multan, where it was common at the time.
Body preservation
One ancient account reports that the planning and construction of an appropriate funerary cart to convey the body out from Babylon took two years from the time of Alexander's death.
Egyptian and embalmers who arrived on 16 June are said to have attested to Alexander's lifelike appearance.
Tomb
On its way back to Macedonia, the funerary cart with Alexander's body was met in Syria by one of Alexander's generals, the future ruler Ptolemy I Soter. In late 322 or early 321 BC Ptolemy diverted the body to Egypt where it was interred in Memphis. In the late 4th or early 3rd century BC Alexander's body was transferred from the Memphis tomb to Alexandria for reburial
See also
-
List of unsolved deaths
-
Ptolemaic cult of Alexander the Great
Notes
-
Hutan Ashrafian, "The Death of Alexander the Great — A Spinal Twist of Fate", Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, Vol. 13, 2004
Further reading
