Anthony Everitt - The Death of Alexander the Great: One of History’s Great Unsolved Mysteries
Alexander the Great’s death is an unsolved
mystery. Was he a victim of natural causes, felled by some kind of fever, or
did his marshals assassinate him, angered by his tyrannical ways? An autopsy
would decide the question, but it is too late for that. The trail is long cold. All who recalled
the terrible fortnight of his dying had their own reputations to protect and
they were not under oath when publishing their memoirs. The secret of Alexander’s
end will not be discovered by poring over disputed narratives, but by
assessing his interaction with others. Who were the men and women he knew, and
who his friends and enemies? What did they think of him and he of them? Where
lay their loyalties, and where the imperatives of self-interest?
In the year 323 BC, Alexander enjoyed an
overdue vacation in the deluxe metropolis of Babylon in Mesopotamia. This was
one of the great cities of the Persian empire and over the centuries had grown
accustomed to looking after the needs of invaders. Its Hanging Gardens were
one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. A few weeks there of
uninterrupted leisure and pleasure were just what Alexander and his careworn
soldiers needed.
The youthful Macedonian monarch had spent a
good ten years fighting his way nonstop through the Persian empire to its
Indian frontier, deposing the Great King and seizing power himself. After
winning victories in the Punjab and along the Indus River, he marched back to
civilization through a searing desert, losing thousands of his men for lack of
water before reaching the safety and the comforts of Mesopotamia.
Alexander was still a handsome man in his
prime whose triumphant past augured a shining future. His next and imminent
project was to establish commercially viable townships along the Arabian coast.
A port had been specially built near Babylon to house a new fleet. Meanwhile
the army prepared to march south by land. Victory was taken for granted, but
after that, who knew what?..
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