Solving The Mysterious Cause Of Alexander The Great's Death

On a summer's day in Babylon in the year 323 B.C., the seemingly invincible Alexander the Great was confined to his sickbed. There was no doubt that he was seriously ill, but his symptoms baffled his attendants. Then, just days after becoming weak, the military genius died at the age of 32. The cause of his untimely death has puzzled historians for over 2,000 years, but a doctor named Katherine Hall may have finally found a bizarre answer to what she called "the most famous case of pseudothanatos, or false diagnosis of death, ever recorded."

The beginning of the end

Why is there so much uncertainty around the death of such a famous figure? Well, there are various accounts of Alexander’s illness and death, but perhaps the two best-known were both penned some four centuries after their subject had died.

The two versions agree on many, but not all points. One was penned by Sicilian-born Diodorus Siculus, the other by a Greek, Plutarch. Both accounts agree that the great man’s illness started after a bout of heavy drinking.

Conflicting accounts of his final days

Diodorus has it that Alexander fell ill after drinking a large bowl of wine. After that he was seriously weakened and in great pain before he died after 11 days of illness.

However, Plutarch says that Alexander went on a 24-hour binge with two senior lieutenants. After that, he developed a fever, something not mentioned by Diodorus. He then lost the power of speech and died after 14 days.

A body that defied decomposition

But perhaps the most intriguing detail about Alexander’s death, or specifically the days after it, is mentioned only by a third chronicler. Only parts of the Roman Quintus Curtius Rufus’s history have survived.

However, he wrote that Alexander’s body did not decompose for six days after his death. And this was despite the scorching heat of a Babylonian summer. This perceptible lack of decomposition is a key clue that underpins Dr. Katherine Hall’s new theory as to what killed Alexander.

Destined for greatness

Alexander was born into a royal family in 356 B.C. in the Macedonian city of Pella, the ruins of which are in the north of modern-day Greece. His father was Macedon’s ruler, King Philip II.

His mother was Olympias, the daughter of Neoptolemus I of Epirus, another ancient Greek kingdom. She was one of several wives, perhaps as many as eight, that Philip married over the years.