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Alexander the Greatdied in June 323 B.C. inBabylon , in what is now Iraq , at age 32 . By that time , he had conquered an empire that stretched from the Balkans to India . This conglomerate collapsed short after his death , with his generals and officials carving it up into different kingdoms .
But how did Alexander the Great die ? The answer has been a long - stand mystery in history andarchaeology , but historic texts provide a few possibilities .
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There are a number of ancient bill of Alexander ’s death , but most hail from centuries later . The writersPlutarch(who lived circa A.D. 46 to 120 ) andArrian(who lived circa A.D. 88 to 160 ) both said that after a night of imbibition , Alexander had a fever that gradually worsen in the day lead up to his death . An account written by Diodorus Siculus ( who lived during the first one C B.C.)claimsthat Alexander fell in earnest ill after drinking and died shortly after .
Quintus Curtius Rufus , a author who live on in the first century A.D. , reiterates that Alexander died shortly after a night of drinking . peculiarly , he say that seven solar day after Alexander ’s end , his body had demo no sign of decay .
However , the last bill of Alexander ’s death were written centuries after he died .
" We can never take our sources completely at expression value , in part because all our exist biographies about Alexander were write 100 of old age after he died,“Jeanne Reames , music director of the ancient Mediterranean studies program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha , told Live Science in an email .
The ancient writer had access to " sources that were closer to the clock time — and which have since become lost — but they were not ' geld - and - pasting , ' " Reames sound out , noting that all of the ancient writers and the sources they used had their own agendas .
What killed Alexander?
The whodunit of what kill Alexander the Great is elaborate by another factor : His consistence hasnever been find . That means there ’s little physical evidence that scientists can contemplate to figure out how he died .
However , forward-looking - day scholar have offer a wide range of hypothesis to excuse what killed Alexander . In a newspaper published in 2019 in the journal Ancient History Bulletin , Katherine Hall , a aged lecturer at the Dunedin School of Medicine at the University of Otago in New Zealand , proposedthat Alexander the Great go ofGuillain - Barré syndrome , a neurologic disorder in which a someone ’s resistant scheme attacks their peripheral anxious system .
This condition could have left Alexander in a rich comatoseness , which ancient doctors may have mistake for death , Hall noted , lend that this may have been why Alexander ’s soundbox did n’t decay for so long . She also noted that accounts written by Plutarch and Arrian claim that Alexander was cognizant enough to be come out orders until curtly before he come down unconscious . This is also common in people who have this disorder , Hall noted .
Another hypothesis is that Alexander pop off oftyphoid fever , a disease make by the bacteriumSalmonella entericaTyphi . The illness report by Plutarch and Arrian is similar to that of typhoid pyrexia , Ernesto Damiani , a professor of physiopathology at the University of Padova in Italy , told Live Science in an electronic mail . Some historical record also advise that at clock time , Alexander was in a daze , which is " a state of sleepiness from which the subject can be awake by elementary input such as doubt but into which he immediately lessen again , " Damiani said , noting that this is also commonly experience in typhoid fever patients .
Reames take note that Alexander ’s general health " was short , thanks to multiple wounds , including one that almost killed him in India and probably leave him with a part collapsed lung . " While his cosmopolitan wellness was pathetic Reames thinks that Typhoid fever is the best culprit for this demise with malaria also being a possibility .
There are many more theories as to what drink down Alexander , includingpancreatitis , West Nile virusandchronic traumatic brain disorder .
Was Alexander the Great poisoned?
Another theory is that Alexander was poison . Adrienne Mayor , a research scholar at Stanford University who has compose extensively about Alexander , think this is the most likely lawsuit of death . " intoxication was immediately suspect by [ Alexander ’s ] snug companions , harmonise to all the ancient historians who described [ Alexander ’s ] death " Mayor told Live Science in an email , noting that Alexander ’s female parent , Olympia , also trust that he was poisoned .
Historical record do n’t remark anyone else falling ill , Mayor said . If Alexander had an infectious disease , others in Babylon also should have gotten ghastly at around the same time . Mayor says that the symptom Alexander experienced matched poisoning from strychnine , these includehigh fever , which is mentioned by both Plutarch and Arrian . It also includesspeechlessnesscaused by the jaw muscularity being extremely steadfast . Both Arrian and Plutarch advert that before Alexander turn a loss consciousness he could n’t speak , remark that Alexander ’s commander walked by with Alexander keep an eye on them but unable to babble . Another symptom that matches is paroxysmalcontractionsof brawn make great pain . Diodorus Siculus advert how Alexander suffered peachy pain after drinking from a loving cup of vino . Strychnine is a industrial plant that grows in the highlands of India and Pakistan , so this poisonous substance could have arrived at Babylon through craft road , Mayor say .
Paul Doherty , an independent scholar who has researched and compose extensively on Alexander , also thinks poison killed Alexander . " My belief is that Alexander the Great was deliberately poison , " Doherty told Live Science in an email . Historical records indicate that " Alexander was growing increasingly despotic and paranoid , " Doherty said . Arsenic may have been the toxicant of choice , Doherty noted , and Ptolemy I Soter , who ruled Egypt after Alexander ’s last , may have been the perpetrator .
Will any new evidence emerge?
— What if the Persians had defeat Alexander the Great ?
— Did Alexander the Great have any child ?
— Where is Alexander the Great ’s tomb ?
Although it ’s unconvincing that Alexander ’s body will be found , more ancient historical records may come forth .
" The most hopeful potential beginning of Modern material is thevirtual unravelling of the rolls from the Library at Herculaneum , " Hall say in an email . These are scrolls that became carburize after Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79 . Technologies such as eminent - solvent CT scans andartificial intelligenceare being used to take and trace these ringlet .
There are " thousands of these rolls , so new documents might still arise , " Hall articulate , but the process of scanning the roll and reading them " is very dull and painstaking and might take decades to complete . "
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