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Arrian, 2.4.7-11 Alexander now fell ill from the toils he had undergone, according to the account of Aristobulus; but other authors say that while he was very hot and in profuse perspiration he leaped into the river Cydnus and swam, being eager to bathe in its water. This river flows through the mid...

I think we can all agree that Alexander pushed himself physically very hard. To quote Ryan Reynolds, at 19 you're made of rubber and magic. But at 30 you are not, some of that elastic is wearing thin, particularly if you have repeatedly been pushing your endurance, as well as coping with constant p...

... del paludismo e dell'ameba dissenterica. So Bertolotti said he died from malaria and amoebic dysentery (amoebiasis). But I see no arguments why. Just like for pneumonia, the malaria (P. vivax) fatality rate for healthy young men is extremely low and this is true also for amoebiasis. Previous ph...

It doesn't matter why there were such diseases and illnesses, but if and how it was possible to heal, without antibiotics and other modern medicines. This is what Osler wrote about pneumonia and age/health: As Sturges remarks, the old are likely to die, the young to recover . Under one year it is m...

We can't compare diseases in the age of Alexander with the ones of our times; for this reason I quoted William Osler, a doctor of early XX cent., who knew nothing of antibiotics, X-rays, ultrasounds and blood transfusions. Besides , it is universally known that in ancient times there were more deat...

Having said that, I don't think it follows that Antipater was recalled at the same time that Craterus set out, so he hadn't necessarily had a year to plot Alexander's death. Of course we don't know exactly what happened, but it is possible that Craterus was actually sent with Antipater's recall pap...

Let me insist on pneumonia (or better on a sum of causes, pneumonia among them). In 1901 (not 2024!) William Osler wrote: "The most widespread and fateful of all acute diseases, pneumonia is now the 'Captain of the Men of Death', to use the phrase applied by John Bunyan to consumpion" (Wi...

in the interest of accuracy: it is correct that a spontaneous pneumothorax does not have long term effects on health (except some have a tendency to recur), but Alexander had a haemato-pneumothorax from a penetrating chest wound. that's a very different pathology. it will have left extensive pleura...

Going off at a tangent, why did Alexander summon the officers to assemble in the hall/courtyard? Did he want them there to issue instructions about the Arabia campaign, maybe that he would catch them up when he was recovered, or that it was postponed? Or did he realise he was dying and want them th...

So why did Antipater wait that long before arranging for Alexander to be poisoned? It wouldn't have taken Cassander 12 months to get to Babylon. We don't know but maybe it wasn't so easy to poison Alexander. After Hephaestion's death, Alexander was mourning and after that, he was campaigning agains...

I rather wonder why AdamKvanta don't mention among the possible cause of pneumonia in Alexander's illness the chest wound in the Malloi city, perhaps with pneumothorax complications. Thanks for the comment, hiphys. I didn't mention Alexander's pneumothorax because usually, a healed pneumothorax has...

Sorry, not convinced. As Plutarch said, the poisoning theory didn't surface until about 5 years after Alexander's death in a pamphlet designed to denigrate Cassander in the wars of the successors. I wrote about it here https://pothos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=47178&hilit=holkias#p47178 . Actual...

Hi, yes I'd agree that a cold/chill wouldn't kill Alexander, but they could have developed into pneumonia, which could well have killed him. But, of course, the fever could also have come from another infection. I agree that some people are at an increased risk for developing severe or life-threate...

So after a week of a high fever, it seems it did not break and Alexander got progressively weaker. Does this match the symptoms of arsenic poisoning? Was Alexander reinfected with something? The constant baths did not lower or break his fever. We do not know what other treatment he received. Thanks...

marcus wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2024 7:50 pm This looks great! I haven't had a chance to read it in full yet, but it looks as if you've put together a pretty comprehensive review of the source material. Well done and thanks.

Thanks! I appreciate your kind comments.