Death of Alexander the Great

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 Chaldeans, 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. This incident took place in 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 ==

Alexander suffered 12-14 days of what is described as a feverish type of illness, possibly an infectious disease, passing away on June 10, 323 BC at the age of 32. Some accounts propose causes of Alexander's death such as alcoholic liver disease, and poisoning by strychnine, but there is little data to 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. According to historical accounts, Alexander's body began to decompose six days after his death. Malaria According to author Andrew Chugg, there is evidence that Alexander died of malaria, having contracted it two weeks before the onset of illness while sailing in the marshes to inspect flood defenses. Chugg based his argument on the Ephemerides (Journal) compiled by Alexander's secretary, Eumenes of Cardia. Chugg also showed in a paper in the Ancient History Bulletin 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. 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. 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 In the week before his death, historical accounts mention chills, sweats, exhaustion and high fever, typical symptoms of infectious diseases, including typhoid fever. 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. 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. This poisonous plant can produce prolonged poisoning symptoms that match the course of events as described in the Alexander Romance, and was known to the ancient Greeks. The article was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Clinical Toxicology and suggested that if Alexander was poisoned, Veratrum album offers the most plausible cause. This theory is supported by the writings of the ancient Greek historian Diodorus, who had recorded Alexander becoming "stricken with pain after drinking a large bowl of wine" at a banquet hosted by one of his officers, Medius of Larissa. However, historian Robin Lane Fox has argued that allegations of poisoning are "technically implausible" acute endocarditis, Fritz Schachermeyr proposed leukemia and malaria. When Alexander's symptoms were entered into databases of the Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology Network, influenza gained the highest probability (41.2%) on the list of differential diagnoses. It has been discussed that Alexander had structural neck deformities and oculomotor deficits, which could be associated with Klippel–Feil syndrome, a rare congenital scoliotic disorder. 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. However, this hypothesis cannot be proven without a full analysis of Alexander's body. Proponents say this would explain why Alexander's body reportedly did not decompose for 6 days following his presumed death, as he may well have been still alive but in a deep coma. == Body preservation ==

's version Iskandar fell ill and died near Babylon. Because it was believed he had been poisoned, no antidotes could revive him. 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. It is not known exactly how the body was preserved for about two years before it was moved from Babylon. In 1889, E. A. Wallis Budge suggested that the body was submerged in a vat of honey, while Plutarch reported treatment by Egyptian embalmers. == 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 According to one legend, the body lies in a crypt beneath an early Christian church. == See also ==