THE FALL OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

Recia, Danielle B. IV- Jupiter

TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Table of Contents Concept Map Body

A. Introduction

Page Number i ii 1 1

B. Discussion

C. Conclusion

13

D. Bibliography

15

CONCEPT MAP

INTRODUCTION Alexander the Great (July 20, 356 June 10 or 11, 323 BC), also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greek king of Macedon. Macedon is a poor country that needed to expand in order to survive. Alexander assumed the kingship of Macedon following the death of his father Philip II. Although he was only twenty when he became king, Alexander rapidly conquered Greece. He then led his armies against the mighty Persian Empire, and within three years he had conquered it too. He ruled an empire extending from Egypt and the Mediterranean coast all the way into India. Death is always a part in the cycle of life. Every man will encounter death and it can come in the most unexpected epoch. The best of men cannot suspend their fate: the good die early and the bad die late (Daniel Defoe). Probably the gods loved Alexander the Great because according to Menander, Whom the gods love die young. The death of Alexander the Great is one of historys most enduring mysteries. He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle. He was noted for his brilliance as a tactician and a troop leader and for the rapidity with which he could traverse great expanses of territory. He had conquered a very large amount of territory in a relatively short amount of time. Alexander the Great had many military accomplishments, making it through each battle alive. Unlike other kings, Alexander always rode in the front line of his army and living

through all his battles was another great feat. Alexander the Great may have been the undisputed master of the world, but he was a slave to destiny. The greatest warrior of his time did not die a warriors death in battle, but expired as helpless as a baby in his own bed. No man believes he shall ever die (William Hazlitt), it might be that Alexander himself was puzzled why he should die at such a young age. What caused the strong and healthy young ruler of half the known world to die so unexpectedly at the height of his power? What or who killed Alexander the Great? DISCUSSION The initial symptoms were agitation, tremors, aching or stiffness in the neck, followed by a sudden, sharp pain in the area of the stomach. He then collapsed and suffered acute and excruciating agony wherever he was touched. Alexander also

suffered from an intense thirst, fever and delirium, and throughout the night he experienced convulsions and hallucinations, followed by periods of calm. In the final stages of the condition he could not talk, although he could still move his head and arms. Ultimately, his breathing became difficult and he fell into a coma and died. Alexander the Greats death was shrouded in mystery. Many historians have made attempts to explain exactly what happened in his death. All historians must tell their tale convincingly, or be ignored (Norman Davies). Many theories were proposed aspiring to unlock the mystery. One popular theory is the poison theory, it is hard to believe that a strong and healthy 32-year old man could die of natural causes that spring up out of the blue. The story asserts that a poisoned wine was given to Alexander the Great when he was attending a banquet hosted by his friend, Medius of Larissa. The banquet was a

conspiracy involving many people who had powerful motivations for seeing Alexander gone, and were none of the worse for it after his death. The deadly agents that could have killed Alexander in one or more doses include hellebore and strychnine. The strongest argument against the poison theory is the fact that twelve days had passed between the start of his illness and his death and in the ancient world, such long acting poisons were probably not available. For a king like Alexander the Great, it is impossible not to have conflicts with others. Many people who played a part in his life were suspected as culprits in the maneuver for his death. No one played a greater role in shaping Alexanders early life than Antipater. He was intimate with the royal family and had a close personal friendship with Philips wife, Queen Olympias. When Alexander was born in 356 BC, some even suspected that Antipater was the true father. He certainly showed a keen interest in Alexanders education, helped shape his military genius and eventually secured him the throne. In 334 BC, when Alexander began his twelve-year campaign to conquer the Persian Empire, Antipater remained behind as governor to secure the home front. During this time Olympias relations with Antipater progressively deteriorated and she eventually began to write to her son accusing him of conspiracy. For a long time Alexander ignored her, but on his return to Babylon he decided to summon Antipater to court to answer the charges. Antipater refused to go, claiming that he needed to

remain in Europe as he feared a rebellion in Greece. Instead, he sent son Cassander as an emissary to explain his absence and to disprove Olympias allegations. Rumors say that Cassander was also sent with a contingency plan to assassinate Alexander if

he failed to convince him of his fathers innocence, and that his brother Iolas, the royal butler, was ultimately instructed to poison the king. Arridaeus was the son of Philip II to his first wife, a Greek woman named Philinna. Macedonian custom allowed for a man to have more than one wife and the year after Arridaeus birth the king married Olympias, the daughter of a foreign king with whom he wished to cement an alliance. One year after her marriage Olympias gave birth to her own son, Alexander, and from the very start there can be little doubt that she intended to make him Philips heir. By the time he reached his late teens Arridaeus was widely thought unfit to succeed his father as he was considered weak-willed and feeble-minded. The truth is that Arridaeus was a highly-intelligent, studious youth whose problem appears to have been epilepsy. Displaying signs of military genius, Alexander was clearly a more

suitable successor and Philip had officially named him as heir. However, in 338 BC Philip divorced Olympias and she and Alexander were forced to leave the court. Philip did not disinherit Alexander, but it may only have been a matter of time. It appears that Olympias enemies argued that under supervision Arridaeus was still capable of becoming king. It is possible that Olympias and Alexander assured Alexanders succession by orchestrating Philips assassination. Alexander, however, must have been fond of his

half-brother as he did not have him killed as he did other rivals for the throne. Arridaeus might harbor a bitter resentment against his brother for depriving him of the throne. There are certainly reasonable grounds for suspicion. During the remained of

Alexanders campaign Arridaeus remained behind in the west and did not see his

brother again for eleven years.

When he finally did it was when he arrived

unexpectedly in Babylon and, just a few weeks later, Alexander fell ill and died. In November 333 BC the 24-year-old Alexander had already conquered much of what is now Turkey. With an army of 30,000 men, at the battle of Issus, he defeated a Persian force twice that size. The Persian king Darius III had fled but his family were captured as was Barsine, a friend of the Persian queen. Although she was a widow, eight years his senior, with a daughter ten years old, Alexander seems to have fallen immediately in love with Barsine and for the next few years she remained his concubine. In 327 BC Barsine bore Alexander a child. However, no sooner was the boy Heracles born than Alexander met the much younger Roxanne, a beautiful 16-yearold princess from northern Afghanistan. The king paid Roxanne the honor he had always denied Barsine by marrying her and making her his queen. Barsine and her child left the court to return home and did not see Alexander again until a few weeks before he died. His campaign over, he had summoned her to Babylon so that he could see his four-year-old son for the first time in years. As his only son, Heracles was still the closest thing he had to an heir. However, Alexander now had two official wives and either of them could bear the king a more legitimate successor at any time. It has been years before Barsine became close to Alexander again and it is possible that she took the chance to take both revenge on her former lover and secure the throne for her own child. Seleucus, about the same age as Alexander, was a common soldier who rose through the ranks to become one of the most senior Macedonian officers. He was by

far the most ruthless and successful general in the civil war that followed Alexanders death and took control of much of what had been Alexanders empire. His dominion became the Seleucid Empire, named after him, and lasted for almost two-and-a-half centuries until it was conquered by the Romans. Being an ambitious professional

officer, Seleucus possibly killed Alexander to seize the empire for himself. It was during the Bactrian campaign that Seleucus proved himself to be one of Alexanders most able officers. When the war was finally over in 327 BC, he was promoted to commander of the Shield Bearers, an elite unit of heavy infantry whose purpose it was to protect the king. They were in effect the royal guard, such as the praetorians were to the later Roman emperors. However, the death-toll had been high and Alexander was forced to draft in foreign reinforcements. The Shield Bearers were doubled in size and were now to be used as a military police force to maintain order within the new, multi-national army. Although junior to the commanders of the infantry and cavalry, the commander of the Shield Bearers now had direct control of discipline throughout the entire Macedonian and allied army. Placing so much power in the hands of one man may have been a mistake that Alexander eventually paid for with his life. In Babylon in June 323 BC, the one person best placed to seize control in a military coup was Seleucus. Fearing that they had gained too much influence, Alexander had a habit of replacing senior officers between campaigns. The conquest of the Persian Empire was over and Alexander was already planning an invasion of Arabia: a re-shuffle in the high command was almost inevitable. In June 323 BC, if Seleucus had his eyes on

Alexanders crown, it may have been a case of now or never.

During one of the last battles of the Bactrian campaign, Roxanne, the sixteenyear-old daughter of an Afghan chieftain said to have been beautiful, intelligent and vivacious was captured by the Macedonian army. Alexander appears to have fallen madly in love with her because he married her almost at once. From all accounts, the feelings were mutual. There was certainly no political reason for the marriage as

Roxannes father was a minor figure of no real importance. When Alexander returned to Iran in 324 BC, he took a second wife, Statira, the daughter of the dead Persian king Darius III. It is likely that Roxanne killed her husband after three years because he took a second queen. There is no indication that Alexander was in actually in love with Statira, as his marriage to her seems to have been purely a political act to appeal to his new Persian subjects and bolster his claim to be their king. Nevertheless, Roxanne may have felt humiliated before the world, and it would not be the first time in history that an amorous young woman had been turned into vengeful murderess by a love she thought betrayed. Alexanders spectacular military achievements were due in part to the open dialogue he had always encouraged with his men. He treated them with respect and in return received their unswerving devotion in battle. A seasoned infantry officer of around fifty-five, Meleager shared a deep admiration for his commander-in-chief. However, once he had defeated the Persian Empire Alexander began to change. It began when Alexander started to behave like a Persian king, expecting his courtiers to bow themselves before him. Alexanders officers quickly learned to keep quiet, but the rank and file of the Macedonian infantry came close to mutiny in the late summer of 326 BC. They had

conquered much of the western Punjab, but the Indian campaign was taking its toll. In the stifling monsoon heat, when the king ordered the army deeper into the subcontinent they refused to go. The infantry commander Coenus confronted Alexander with his troops verdict that it was a pointless war, and Alexander reluctantly backed down. However, a few weeks later Coenus died under mysterious circumstances. Whether or not this was Alexanders doing is unknown, but when Meleager replaced Coenus as chief infantry general, in September 326 BC, he must have considered his promotion a mixed blessing. When he returned to the Persian city of Susa Alexander began to purge the Macedonian army in retaliation for their conduct in India. He demobilized half the

Macedonian infantry, ordered them home and replaced them with a contingent of Persians. Incredibly, three quarters of Alexanders soldiers were now Persian and

when the Macedonian infantry protested, he threatened to deploy the Persians against them and had thirteen officers executed for mutiny. Meleager survived the purge but he must have felt his position, even his life, to be under threat. Alexander needed what remained of his Macedonian infantry until he reached Babylon, but he had plans to replace them all. It seems that Meleager had every reason in the world to wish Alexander dead. Statira was the sixteen-year-old daughter of the Persian king Darius III who had been captured as a child after the battle of Issus in 333 BC. Along with her mother and sister, she had been well treated by Alexander and had been raised with a Greek education in the occupied city of Susa. When Alexander arrived back from India in 324 BC he decided to make Statira his second wife, presumably as a political act to secure

his position as king of the Persian Empire. Statira had promised to kill Alexander as a child, as she hated him for conquering her country and held him responsible for her fathers death. However, she had another motive to assassinate the king. Although she had been brought up Macedonian style, she had been allowed to practice her native Zoroastrian religion. However, having originally been tolerant of

foreign religions, a few months before he died Alexander began to persecute the Zoroastrians. He desecrated their temples, outlawed their practices, executed priests and ordered the Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrianism, to be burned. Alexander totally underestimated the depth of religious conviction amongst Zoroastrian zealots, and when the equivalent of a fatwa was issued against him after he erected a blasphemous statue of a lion in the holy city of Ecbatana at the end of 324 BC, he failed to show any sign of concern. Alexander even ignored a number of

Zoroastrian holy men who warned him about the religious death threat a few weeks before he died. Zoroastrianism taught the equality of men and women and, as a devout Zoroastrian, it was Statiras obligation to kill her husband if she could. For some

months after the death sentence was passed, Alexander was in the field of battle putting down an insurrection in northern Iran and Statira had been sent ahead to Babylon. The first chance she got to carry out what she may have considered her sacred duty was when Alexander joined her there in the summer of the following year and within a few short weeks he was indeed dead. Some four or five years older than Alexander, Perdiccas was a competent but by no means an outstanding soldier. However, he did have one of the most varied careers

of any of Alexanders officers. He commanded an infantry unit until the death of Darius, he was a royal adjutant during the war in Bactria and he became a senior cavalry officer during the Indian campaign. In October 324 BC, Alexanders deputy Hephaestion fell ill and died. Hephaestions death unexpectedly left Perdiccas as the highest ranking officer at Alexanders court and he was not only appointed commander of the cavalry but took over the function of vizier, the equivalent of prime minister. Against all the odds, a common, average soldier had found himself second-in-command of the largest empire the world had ever known. Perdiccas was clearly a brave soldier, but he lacked any real aptitude for senior command in battle and his appointment, although expedient, was almost certainly temporary. By June 323 BC, Alexander was preparing for a new campaign in Arabia and it is likely that Perdiccas would soon be replaced. No one else in the high

command appears to have had much enthusiasm for another major war, and if Alexander were to die the chances were the plan would die with him. Perdiccas was well aware of this, giving him a prime motive for killing Alexander. When Alexander died, Perdiccas started a civil war by claiming that the king had made him his successor on his death bed. Although a lot of people are suspects to be culprits in the death of Alexander the Great, many historians still suggest that Alexander died of natural causes.

Malaria is a debilitating infectious disease characterized by chills, shaking, and periodic bouts of intense fever. The fever that characterizes malaria usually occurs in intermittent episodes. An episode begins with sudden, violent chills, soon followed by an intense fever and then profuse sweating that brings the patients temperature down again. Upon initial infection with the malaria parasite, the episode of fever frequently last twelve hours and usually leaves an individual exhausted and bedridden. Repeated infections with the malaria parasite can lead to severe anemia. Anemia is a decrease in the concentration of red blood cells in the bloodstream whose symptoms include pale skin, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, low vitality, dizziness, and, if left untreated, stroke or heart failure. The argument against malaria is the fact that it was only two years earlier that Alexander had been in an area of India where malaria was common. Nevertheless, the disease cannot remain dormant for this period of time without producing symptoms. Typhoid fever is an acute infectious disease caused by the typhoid bacillus Salmonella typhi. The bacillus is transmitted by milk, water, or solid food contaminated by feces of typhoid victims or of carriers, that is, healthy persons who harbor typhoid bacilli without presenting symptoms. The incubation period of typhoid fever usually lasts one to three weeks. The bacteria collect in the small intestine, from which they enter the bloodstream. This induces the first symptoms, chills followed by high fever and prostration. Victims may also experience headache, cough, vomiting and diarrhea. The disease spontaneously subsides after several weeks in most instances, but in about 20 percent of untreated cases the disease progresses to pneumonia, intestinal hemorrhage, and even death.

The argument against typhoid fever is the point that it causes epidemics and not just single individual cases. Also, there is nothing in any of the historical accounts to suggest such outbreak in Babylon at the time Alexander died. The West Nile virus is an infectious organism that can cause fatal neurological disease in birds, horses, and humans. The virus is transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. Symptoms of the West Nile virus range from mild, flulike illness, including fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, and a red, bumpy rash, to meningitis, in which the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord swell. In rare cases those infected will develop encephalitis, which can cause high fever, a stiff neck, disorientation, paralysis, convulsions, coma, and, in about 10 percent of cases, death. Eventually, the scientists soon pointed out that the virus is only a relatively recent disease that could not have infected someone over 2000 years ago. In fact, West Nile virus is named for a district in Uganda where the virus was first identified in humans in 1937. Heavy and prolonged intake of alcohol can seriously disturb body chemistry. It may cause serious liver damage. Heavy drinking also damages the heart. Alcoholics tend to have high blood levels of the hormone epinephrine and deficiencies of the mineral magnesium. This combination produces severe arrhythmias, or heartbeat irregularities, a common cause of sudden death in heavy drinkers.

The main effect of alcohol poisoning is continual vomiting, but not once do any of the historical sources mention vomiting or even nausea as one of Alexanders symptoms. Suffering from several appalling wounds including one in India that nearly claimed his life probably caused Alexanders health fall to dangerously low levels. Advancing theories state that Alexander may have died from the treatment not the disease. Hellebore, believed to have been widely used as a medicine at the time but deadly in large doses, may have been overused by the impatient king to speed his recovery, with deadly results.

CONCLUSION The death of Alexander the Great remained a mystery. Accounts of malaria and typhoid fever were ruled out for there was no evidence of such disease outbreak during the time of his death. Alcoholism was also discredited for Alexander died at young age and in the height of his military powers. Of all the aggravating circumstances surrounding the death of Alexander the Great, nothing suggests that he died with natural ailment. Most probably, he was murdered although there is no solid evidence as to how it was carried and who the culprits were.

The truth will probably never be known, even though new theories are still coming out. We dont know exactly what happened on the 10 th or 11th of June 323 BC and twelve days before it. Although many theories of historians fit to the missing pieces in the mystery, historians are the father of lies according to Norman Davies. The fall of Alexander the Great will forever be a mystery.

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His Death. Available at: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/8740/Alexander.htm Malaria. Available at: Microsoft Encarta 2008. 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Meleager. Available at: http://www.grahamphillips.net/Alexander/Alexander_8.htm Mysterious Death and Apotheosis. Available at: http://1stmuse.com/frames/ Perdiccas. Available at: http://www.grahamphillips.net/Alexander/Alexander_10.htm Roxanne. Available at: http://www.grahamphillips.net/Alexander/Alexander_7.htm Seleucus. Available at: http://www.grahamphillips.net/Alexander/Alexander_6.htm Statira. Available at: http://www.grahamphillips.net/Alexander/Alexander_9.htm The Death of Alexander. Available at: http://wso.williams.edu/~junterek/death.htm The Rise and Fall of Alexander the Great. Available at: http://members.aol.com/tomstp9/alex.html Typhoid Fever. Available at: Microsoft Encarta 2008. 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. West Nile Virus. Available at: Microsoft Encarta 2008. 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. What Killed Alexander? Available at: http://www.grahamphillips.net/Alexander/Alexander_2.htm Quotations. Available at: Microsoft Encarta 2008. 1993-2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Word Count: 3,884 words