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Plutarch: On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander This is Fortune's discourse, who declares that Alexander is her own characteristic handiwork, and hers alone. But some rejoinder must be made on behalf of philosophy, or rather on Alexander's behalf, who would be vexed and indignant if he should b...

I have been working on a new front page for the website. Please could you take a look and give me your opinion and any comments or suggestions. https://pothos.org/contentnew/index.html . It doesn't look too bad on my phone! Do you think it is too flashy? Do you think it will attract new members? I h...

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 the...

Having checked this, Craterus seems to have left for Greece in June 324 BC (Hephaestion dying in the October), but 12 months later was no further than Cilicia. Heckel says his ill-health and trouble in Cilicia had held him up, but Antipater therefore must have known for 12 months that Alexander had ...

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 viewtopic.php?p=47178&hilit=holkias#p47178.

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 know you like the arsenic poisoning, but I am afraid I am not convinced. It just doesn...

What happens when a fever doesn't break? ...Fat cells start burning energy and our muscles rapidly contract, causing shivering – both of which warm us up. As a result, the body's temperature starts to rise. If it rises too far, that can be fatal. Our cells begin to die, releasing proteins into the ...

Thanks for this. Some thoughts: Day 0: The sources all seem to agree that, perhaps against his better judgement (he may have already been feeling ill), Alexander was persuaded to go to Medius’s late night party. At this party, he seems to have been taken ill. By this action, Alexander may himself ha...

The Geography of Strabo Literally translated with notes. The first six books by H. C. Hamilton, Esq.The remainder by W. Falconer, M.A. Published by Henry G. Bohn, London, 1856 Excerpt from Book XVI. Chapter I. 3. Assyria. In Aturia is situated Gaugamela, a village where Darius was defeated and lost...

But I don't think Hephaestion married really a sister of Roxane, because no hints of any cousins is made by Alexander before the marriage between the two sisters Barsine/Stateira and Drypetis respectively to himself and his friend.

No, probably not, but just a bit of wishful thinking!

This has been bugging me for a while as I couldn't remember where I had seen before that some of Alexander's friends married other Bactrian girls when Alexander married Roxane. Finally found it: 3(d) Metz Epitome 29–31 Alexander took his cup, made a prayer to the gods and then proceeded to declare t...

Marcus: I think we should give Bettany Hughes a bit of a break - she's making popular history programmes, and for those who aren't well versed in ancient history it's easier to designate the wife of a king as a queen, even though *we* know that there were no such things as 'queens' in Macedonia. I ...

Recent archaeology out of northern Greece, as well as ancient Thrace and Illyria is demonstrating that the Greek take on the "barbarism" of these people well back into the Late Iron Age (Archaic Era) is more political/philosophic fiction than reality, and later Roman Second Sophistic take...

In other words, there is no evidence that Meda threw herself on Philip's funeral pyre, merely a theory based on very shaky peripheral evidence and a number of Occam-razor-like assumptions. :-) Yes, I was about to post exactly the same - bending the evidence to fit the theory that it was Philip II's...

Interesting, thanks. Maybe you could highlight the bits that don't come from the romances and don't deal with the poisoning so that you can read the fever narrative and see how it has been embroidered by the poisoning narrative. Interestingly, if you read this narrative from Arrian (Book VII, XXV): ...