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Yes, Dean, you are absolutely right: the rumour got out. Yes, it's in Curtius (9.8.22)! It's also in Pausanius 1.6.2 and in Section 269 of the Armenian Alexander Romance. There is a garbled echo of it in the Syriac Alexander Romance (3.20) showing that it was very likely in the archetype of the Alex...

I don't have a problem with speculation in general, especially when it's directed at showing how the ancient evidence makes sense. Nor do I have a problem with attempts to reveal contradictions in the ancient evidence. The problem here is that modern opinions about Ptolemy's parentage are being give...

Unfortunately, Agesilaos, I have to point out that you don't actually cite any evidence against Ptolemy being Philip's son - only scepticism about what evidence there is (which is all in favour). If you check the dates, there is room for Ptolemy to have been fathered just before Philip was packed of...

Hi Amyntoros, The dating of the Liber de Morte is largely based on arguments about when it could have been written and still have had any point as a piece of propaganda. Most scholars have concluded that it must have been composed within a decade or two of Alexander's death for this reason. It is ce...

Thanks Amyntoros. It is valuable that you have demonstrated that the objection to Ptolemy being the illegitimate son of Philip based on the proposed incest of Ptolemy with Cleopatra is untenable. I think that (pending any new arguments or evidence) we have shown that all the modern attempts to find ...

I agree with other people's comments that Alexander is unlikely ever to have been unattended during his illness, which would make it difficult for Roxane completely to fabricate the incident. On the other hand, embroidery to cast her(self) in a good light is entirely feasible.

Best wishes,

Andrew

I tend to believe the conversation is fictional, because Alexander was probably delirious, if he was crawling around on all fours in the dead of night. It could just about be a rationalised version of something Alexander said in the grip of his delirium. To play devil's advocate, if Heckel is right ...

Well said Marcus! Some of you may have noticed that Amytoros seems to be replying to a non-existent post higher up this thread. This is because my second post has mysteriously disappeared (not unlike Alexander's corpse in fact). Amyntoros has urged me to re-post, so here goes. I basically argued tha...

As Marcus says, I have argued in Alexander's Lovers (in the section on Roxane) that the story itself is credible. It is only the spin that Alexander was trying to turn himself into a god that is clearly nonsense. Alexander's crawl to the river Euphrates is a key element of the Liber de Morte (the pa...

Alexander's visit to the Delphic Oracle in Plutarch and Diodorus is directly traceable to Cleitarchus, though there are circumstantial reasons to believe it was in Onesicritus as well. It was therefore published within living memory of the events, so it is dangerous to question the historicity of th...

Hi Coral, Had a quick look at Dengue on Wikipedia. As you point out, it doesn't perfectly fit Alexander's symptoms, because its fever isn't notably intermittent. The annual death rate from Falciparum Malaria today exceeds 1 million and may be as high as 2 million. Wikipedia speaks of annual deaths f...

Hi Coral, I'm very pleased that you are enjoying my book. It is perfectly true that the horseman in the hunting scene is sometimes identified as Hephaistion too, although others prefer to identify this figure as Demetrios Poliorketes. I concentrated on the horseman at the centre of the battle scene,...

Hi Amyntoros, Interesting project. Pity John Maxwell O'Brien dropped it. As you may know, Mary Renault in The Nature of Alexander went fairly strongly with the importance of the Cyropaidia, though I'm not sure she mentioned the Median dress thing. In general it is very clear that Alexander was power...

Regarding the cover of Alexander's Lovers, as you guessed it is a Renaissance recreation of a painting by Aetion done during Alexander's reign. A detailed description by Lucian, who saw the original in Italy, survives. I make some new suggestions about this paintling in Alexander's Lovers, which mak...

Hi Aengus, Xenophon is right, but there is a more apposite case. In the Cyropaidia 8.1.40 we have: But we seem to learn also that Cyrus thought it necessary for the ruler not only to surpass his subjects by his own native worth, but also to charm them through deception and artifice. At any rate he a...