A personal approach to the cause of death for Alexander the Great

About two years ago, I posted a blog about the death of Alexander based on the analysis made by Dr Katherine Hall, a Senior Lecturer at the Dunedin School of Medicine and an academic of the University of Otago, New Zealand. Her conclusion was that the king did not die from excessive drinking, poisoning or any other disease, but from the neurological disorder called Guillain-Barré Syndrome, in short GBS (see: Did Alexander the Great die from an infection?) 

It so happened that a few days ago, I saw another article mentioning this diagnosis of Guillain-Barré Syndrome. It was published by the New York Post in early 2019, just like the one I commented on above. The title of their article Alexander the Great was ‘buried alive’ after disease paralyzed him was true propaganda to trigger the attention of the readers. 

This Guillain-Barré Syndrome rang a bell with me and I returned to my own blog to look at the many theories about Alexander’s death. In my previous research, I found that gastroenteritis was presented as the main cause for GBS and I had stopped there. This time, however, I started a new search. As a result, I found that Healthline as well as The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes include a lung infection as a possible cause of GBS although the gastroenteritis is more widely quoted and admitted. This is very distracting because we are led to overlook this lung infection that is mentioned so casually.

At this point, I recalled how Alexander had been fatally wounded during the Malian attack and how he hovered for many days between life and death. An arrow, three feet long, had hit him, piercing through his corselet deep into his chest above his breast. It has not been established whether the barbed arrow had been readily removed by Perdiccas, who cut it out with this sword upon the king’s order, or if it was skillfully operated by his physician. Alexander was hemorrhaging and lost a lot of blood. Because the arrow punctured the wall of his lung, the king was breathing air and blood through the cut, meaning that he suffered excruciating pain at each and every draw of breath. In time, his skin stuck to his lung, and according to some sources, the wound kept oozing a mixture of fluid and blood. History, afterwards, remained silent about the health conditions of the king.

It is clear, however, that Alexander never entirely recovered from this injury. His extensive march through the Gedrosian Desert will not have done him any good, and the unhealthy conditions of the marshes surrounding Babylon were a fertile ground for infection. This is precisely what I was thinking of when I read that GBS may have been caused by a lung infection. His immune system had attacked his nervous system, which led to gradually paralyzing his body, including the eyes but not his brain! Hence, the title of the article is that Alexander was buried alive.

The death of Alexander remains shrouded in many mysteries because so much has been hushed and covered up. After the king was pronounced dead, we are flooded with stories of the many conflicts among his generals about his succession, but it appears nobody showed any concern for Alexander’s body. None of the ancient authors, like Arrian, Diodorus, or Plutarch, spent any ink on what happened next; they all remained silent about it. 

Only Curtius tells us what happened afterwards: “when at last his friends had leisure to care for Alexander’s lifeless body, those who had entered the room saw it corrupted by no decay, nor even by the slightest discoloration. The vigor too which comes from the breath of life had not yet left his face. And so the Egyptians and Chaldeans who were ordered to care for the body after their manner, at first, as if he were still breathing, did not dare to lay their hands upon him; then after praying that it might be right and lawful for mortals to handle a god, they emptied the body of entrails, the golden coffin was filled with perfumes, and the emblem of his rank was placed upon the king’s head”. 

This could mean that Alexander was in a coma during those days of neglect or that he was in a state of near-death. The medical knowledge of that time had no way to diagnose this as we would today. However, it is comforting to hear that the priests prayed that it might be right and lawful for mortals to handle a god before they started the embalmment. I like to believe that their prayers were answered.

Among modern historians, and as far as I know, only Robin Lane Fox has put his worries about Alexander’s health in writing. He stated that the wound would hamper the king for the rest of his life and that walking would be “an act of extreme courage” – nothing less! Whenever possible, Alexander travelled by horse, chariot, or boat. So much for the faithful reports of our historians!

In the end, it is my personal opinion that this Guillain-Barré Syndrome is a very plausible cause for Alexander’s death and not his presumed drinking bouts as advertised by ancient and modern historians alike.

All’s well that ends well

End of 2017, I wrote a post about Caligula’s megalomania (see: A sample of Caligula’s megalomania) and the pleasure vessels he built for his own entertainment at Lake Nemi, some 30 kilometers south of Rome. 

Caligula’s pleasure vessels were short-lived as he was assassinated about a year after they were launched. After being stripped of their precious content, they were intentionally sunk. Over the past 2,000 years, fishermen and treasure hunters regularly retrieved small treasures from the wrecks. Among those finds was a square piece of inlaid marble which features a geometric pattern using green and purple porphyry, serpentine, and molded glass. It was acquired by a private party in the early 1970s and was turned it into a small coffee table. 

Apparently, the owners were not aware of the mosaic’s origin until an unexpected encounter in 2013 revealed the true origin of the marble piece. 

Today, it has been announced that the looted treasure has been returned to Italy where it has found a place in the Museum of Roman Ships on the shores of Lake Nemi.

Corinth before the canal was built

 It is common knowledge by now that Corinth was famous for having two harbors. As the city straddled the isthmus between mainland Greece and the Peloponnesus (less than 4 miles wide), it needed access to both the eastern and the western sides. 

Lechaion, looking towards the Gulf of Corinth, served the western sea routes to Italy, Sicily and beyond to Spain. The harbor of Kenchreai, in turn, is situated on the Saronic Gulf from where the ships sailed to and from the Aegean, Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt. Before the modern canal was built, goods had to be transported overland from one port to the other. Lightweight and heavy warships were hauled using a platform along the road connecting Lechaion to Kenchreai. This road is known as the Diolkos. 

[Picture from Haaretz] 

For more than two thousand years this cobblestone road was the only means to move between the eastern and the western harbor of Corinth unless one would round the Peloponnese peninsula, a long and risky detour of about 190 miles. 

Last year, a thorough restoration project was set in motion to protect this ancient roadway, which is still clearly visible in some areas. It ran over a distance of approximately 5 miles and had an amazing width that ranged from 3.5 to 6 meters. This marvel of technology appears to have been created at the end of the 7^th century/early 6^th century BC. It was meant to transport goods as well as warships across the isthmus and functioned far into the Roman times. 

So far, about 1,100 meters of the western section of the Diolkos has been uncovered but it has not been traced on the eastern side at the Saronic Gulf. It seems that at its northwestern end, a paved platform had been constructed to tow the ships on land. With the help of cranes, they were then placed on wheeled structures and pulled by slaves using two main tracks running 1.5 meters apart. 

Although the Diolkos ran roughly parallel to the Corinth Canal, it did not follow a straight line. S-shaped turns in the road and grades of no more than 1.5% made progress hazardous. To keep the ships on the tracks, the road was studded at places with fortifying walls. A true prowess of engineering.

The mystery about Alexander’s Wall

What is known as Alexander’s Wall is a section of the Elburz Mountains located about five kilometers east of the Caspian Sea. From what Michael Wood showed us is his documentary In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great, it looked like a straight dike in the landscape. 

Although Alexander may have passed the Caspian Gates, the obvious opening in this wall during his pursuit of Bessus in 329 BC, there is no indication why this wall was named after him. He most probably had nothing to do with its construction, even if he is known for having built comparable defenses in Margiana. 

From the geographical and historical point of view, this wall separates the arid lands in the north where the Scythians used to live from the fertile lands to the south, which were overall in Persian hands. 

Recently, archaeologists established that at least a part of the wall can be dated back to the Achaemenid Empire (6^th-4^th century BC). Later research revealed baked bricks, which were carbon dated to 47-570 AD. This may well fit the theory that the construction of this wall took place under Khusrau I who ruled from 531 to 579 AD. This Sassanid King is known for having defended Hyrcania against the Huns of Central Asia. 

Research in the area is very difficult because over the centuries much of the stones and bricks have been removed to serve as construction material elsewhere. 

The link to Alexander, however, has been kept alive mainly through the Quran. Here it is said that Dhûl-Qarnayn (The Horned One) erected a large wall to keep out the Barbarians, which the Quran calls Gog and Magog. As we know, The Horned One is a name attributed to Alexander as son of the Egyptian god Ammon depicted with ram’s horns. 

If we follow what the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus wrote in the 1^st century AD, the Scythians crossed the passage in the wall which was used previously by Alexander, and shut the opening with iron gates. Also the Syrian Christians mention the story of Dhûl-Qarnayn shortly before it appeared in the Quran. It is reportedly based on a letter which Alexander wrote to his mother. This is not unlike what is mentioned in the Alexander Romance back in the original version from Alexandria of the 4^th century AD. This means that the story, true or false, existed already before it was included into the Quran.

However, history and legend once more go hand in hand when talking about this Alexander Wall because two more sites have been identified by that name. They are situated on the western side of the Caspian Sea as they blocked the passage across the Caucasus Mountains. The most favorite version is the one mentioned by Marco Polo as the Caspian Gates of Derbent. This wall stretches over a distance of 40 kilometers and is marked by 30 fortification towers. True or not, it is up to us to make up our own mind! 

Old Buddhist complex discovered in Pakistan

Alexander the Great and the later Greco-Bactrian Empire with its unique artistic expression eventually led to the emergence of the Kushan Empire that ruled much of modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India from 30 AD to 375 AD.

It is remarkable that the common thread through that part of history is Buddhism, which existed already in Alexander’s day and still lives on today. Hellenistic art, however, was soon picked up by the Buddhist sculptors and painters to explode in fascinating and vivid artwork that lived on to the end of Kushan dynasty in the Gandhara civilization. 

The Swat region in Pakistan is very remote and only occasional archaeological excavations have been carried out. Consequently, today’s discovery of a Buddhist monastery in Barikot (Bazira in antiquity) from the 1^st century AD is headline news. 

It is a vast complex in the center of a small valley composed of several stupas, meditation halls and a school where philosophy was taught. The Buddhist monks lived in small cells cut out of the mountain walls above. 

The most remarkable feature at this Abbasahib-China Buddhist site are the fresco paintings. Six of these figures are intact and depict Buddha in different poses, including the Namaste (greeting) pose. The frescos are not only rare, they are said to be unique since no other example of such wall painting have been discovered so far in the Gandhara  area. It is difficult to see the real beauty of these paintings because they are set in niches situated right underneath the ceiling. Scholars speak of a new chapter in the historical records of early Buddhism in Swat. 

Until now, it was believed that Swat and Gandhara  possessed an important painting school but this could not be documented until these intact murals were found. A serious plea is made to preserve this unique archaeological site! 

Overall, there seem to be approximately 150 Buddhist heritage sites in the northwestern corner of Pakistan alone, including the Swat Valley. So many treasures are still hidden and awaiting to be discovered!

[Pictures from The Archaeology News Network]

The Gate of Cyrus at Pasargadae (near Persepolis)

About five years ago, I mentioned that the foundations of a city gate had been discovered in Pasargadae (see: Archaeological research resumed at Pasargadae). At that time and pending further research, it was assumed that it had probably been built by Cyrus the Great to celebrate his victories.

By now, archaeologists have been able to prove that this gateway had indeed been built upon the orders of Cyrus and that it was actually used from the reign of his son, Cambyses onward. Although the article published in the Archaeology News Network speaks of a gate near Persepolis, it is clear that we are talking about the same monument. After all, Pasargadae lies only 40 kilometers from Persepolis.

This imposing gate measured 30 x 40 meters and once stood 12 meters high. It was entirely made of mudbricks which were covered with glazed bricks as we know from Persepolis, for instance. However, the composition apparently was inspired by similar decorations from Babylon where the lower section was embellished with lotus flowers and the higher portion of the wall displayed mythical animals.

The colors have faded dramatically but the outlines of the flowers and animals are not too difficult to recognize.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the central rectangular room of 8 x 12 meters bore cuneiform inscriptions in Babylonian and Elamite.

[Pictures are from the Archaeology News Network]

Excavations at the ancient city of Olba near Mersin

Neither the name of Olba nor the modern name of Uzuncaburç rings any bell with me. The city has been in the news lately because of the excavations that are scheduled to start this year (2021).

Olba is located off the beaten track, deep into the Taurus Mountains, roughly some 30 kilometers from Silifke. The oldest remains are visible down the deep ravine and seem to go back to the 6^th century BC, when Olba was the capital of the small kingdom of Neo-Hittite Pirindu, ruled by a certain Appuašu. The ruins of Hellenistic Olba are to be found about four kilometers further west and are blending in with those of the Roman Diocaesarea from the 1^st century AD.

The Acropolis was rightfully situated on top of a hill, 1040 meters above sea level. This made it an excellent observation post to see the enemy approaching from afar. The aqueduct and the cisterns that collected and distributed the precious drinking water to the Nympheums and onward are still very present. The water was taken from the Lamos River and was led through tunnels and over an aqueduct. This 25-meter-high aqueduct ran across the gorge of the Devils’ Valley and is 150 meters long. It was, in fact, constructed under Septimius Severus. This same water supply served to irrigate the surrounding fields.

Most of the city’s remains date from Roman times. The most striking monument is the rather well-preserved theater with a two-storey-high skene andt could seat 3,000 people. This is where the excavations will start later this year because much of the building stones are lying around after the walls collapsed as a result of an earthquake.

We also find an impressive Colonnaded Street, almost one kilometer long and still lined with many intact columns. The temple of Zeus has remarkably kept its temenos and monumental entrance gate. An inscription on the surrounding wall has revealed that Seleucos I Nicator was responsible for repairing the roof of this temple. These lines, by the way, confirm that Olba was already a sacred city in his days!

There also is a temple dedicated to Tyche, two city gates known as the Ceremonial Gate (7 meters high) and the Victory Gate, a great number of workshops and residential buildings. Outside the city limits lies the necropolis with a wide assortment of rock-cut graves, sarcophagi and other funeral monuments.

Rather than focusing on the archaeological treasures which Olba/Diocaesarea may reveal, Turkish authorities keep insisting on the tourism. If the site is worthwhile – as everything tends to indicate – tourists will come anyway

Where did Bucephalus die?

The question of whether Alexander’s dear mount died at the Battle of the Hydaspes or at another location around that time has been discussed at length and obviously without any conclusive result.

Today, I have been wondering where Bucephalus actually died. It so happened that a friend of mine forwarded me an article about Bufliaz, a town on the foothills of the Peer Rattan Range in India that claims to be the place where Alexander’s horse died.

Bufliaz, according to the locals, is named after Bucephalus (Bunifales) to commemorate his death. The town is located 39 kilometers east of Poonch or Punch, roughly some 120 km northeast of Taxila. This sounds pretty odd because it is generally accepted that from Taxila, Alexander marched to the southeast to the banks of the Hydaspes, where his famous battle against Porus was fought.

Although Bucephalus may have died at Bufliaz, that does not exclude the possibility that a city in his honor was built on the banks of the Hydaspes near modern Mong (see: Locating Alexandria Nicaea and Alexandria Bucephala).

Opinions about the burial site of Alexander’s prized horse vary widely. Jona Lendering cites Jhelum, and G. Huntingford identifies a mound west of Jhelum as Alexandria Bucephala. Sir Aurel Stein tends to believe that Alexander went south from Taxila and crossed the Hydaspes near modern Behra. This town is close to Mong and could be the very site where the Battle of the Hydaspes took place. Michael Wood, although he agrees with Stein to identify Mong as ancient Alexandria Nicaea, suggests Garjak as Alexandria Bucephala. Garjak is said to have its own legend of a magical horse. Last but not least, Mansoor Behzad, a local historian, supports the idea that Bucephalus was buried in Jalalpur Sharif, 75 km northeast of Bhera.

Clearly, the possibilities are endless, and in the end, we could only establish that Bucephalus died and was buried in that general area.

A few words about Alexander’s mints and coins

Coins with the image of Alexander were widespread and accepted throughout his empire and kept circulating in large numbers long after his death.

Research has revealed that the coins with Alexander's effigy started circulating much later than initially accepted. Until then, the currencies of Philip and Darius were familiar together with those minted by individual cities. We had to wait until after Alexander's victory at Issus in 333 BC to find the first mints to be established in Macedonia, Cilicia, and Phoenicia.

[Map of Alexander's mints (from Meadows 2014, map 1)] 

Frank Holt has made an excellent analysis of the Alexander coins in his book, The Treasures of Alexander the Great. The first coins were silver ones minted in Sidon and Tarsus between October 333 and September 332 BC. Gold coins emerged after his conquest of Tyre in July 332 BC. New mints were established in Asia Minor later on, apparently after his return from India.

During Alexander's lifetime, the known mints striking his coins were spread over 25 different locations such as:

Pella and Amphipolis in Macedonia

Lampsacus and Abydos on the Hellespont

Colophon, Magnesia, Miletus, Teos and Sardes in Asia Minor

Side and Tarsus in Pamphylia
Salamis, Citium, Amathus, Paphos on the island of Cyprus 

Myriandrus, Aradus, Byblos, Sidon, and Tyre on the eastern Mediterranean coast

Alexandria in Egypt

Damascus and Babylon further inland

Each of these mints had its own assigned type. Some produced only one kind of currency, while others could generate a wide scale ranging from small coins to drachms and tetradrachms. It is important to realize that the Alexander coins were minted according to the standard Attic drachma of 4.3 grams and that his tetradrachms weighed 17.2 grams. They helped to spread his image throughout the length and breadth of his empire, from the Eastern Mediterranean to Central Asia.

The silver collected from the Royal Persian treasuries contributed widely to the production of the tetradrachms. It has been estimated that between 333 and 290 BC (which is well after Alexander's death in 323 BC), approximately 60 million tetradrachms were produced, together with 66 million drachms and 12 million gold staters! Just imagine the vast amount of money's impact on the economy!

After the king's death, his successors kept the same currency system in place, although they gradually replaced Alexander's image with their own – still in Alexander-style.

The Numismatic Museum of Athens has a wide range of coins on display to pick our choice from. This trio of tetradrachms, for instance, displays the figures of Philip II on top and underneath in Alexander-style Lysimachos (left) and Ptolemy (right).

In comparison, Seleucos I, here depicted on a coin from the Antalya Museum, carries a more pronounced lion skin still entirely in the Alexander tradition.

Once the Diadochi became king in their own right over their newly delimited territories, their own effigy replaced the Alexander-inspired image, and the reverse of the coins rightfully carried the inscription, Basileus.

For a long time, coins carrying Alexander's image kept circulating because his veteran soldiers were used to receiving their payment in tetradrachms! 

Oenoanda in the heartland of Lycia

Oenoanda or Oinoanda lies only some 60 kilometers from Fethiye, right next to the modern village of İncealiler. It is one of those untouched sites, clearly off the beaten path of which there are many in Turkey. Such places are always very rewarding to be discovered and to be explored. It is so remote that even a seasoned archaeologist like Cevdet Bayburtluoglu strongly recommends not to venture there by yourself but to take a caretaker or a villager with you to be safe from sheepdogs. These dogs are fiercely defending and protecting the flock of sheep and goats they are supposed to guard and they readily attack any intruder. No kidding!

The climb up from İncealiler to Oenoanda takes about an hour over rough terrain. It seems that, apart from a few days in 1997, the Turkish authorities never allowed the city to be excavated. Yet, that does not make the site less exciting because one can discover it as we walk on.

[Picture: Ansgar Bovet, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons]

The most striking feature in the landscape is, as always, the theater that sits higher up the hill overlooking the valley below and offers a dramatic view of the Taurus Mountains. It has been cut out of the rock and its plan closely resembles that of Myra or Phaselis, for instance.

Inside the city walls, of which many stretches are easily spotted, we find the remains of the ancient city. Unfortunately, these have not been properly documented and only the most striking features catch the eye.

A well-recognizable avenue leads from the theater to the Agora. It has been compared to Harbor Street at Phaselis as it is bordered by two steps on either side. The Agora, which is entirely paved with marble, is another prominent feature. The surrounding buildings have not been identified although we may presume based on the broken columns and stones that there was at least one temple erected alongside as is customary. A series of three distinct arches has been identified as belonging to a Library.

Otherwise, bits of columns, capitals, architraves, cornices, pedestals and stones of all sizes with or without inscriptions are scattered around in great numbers. Another recognizable element in the rubble is the broken pipes and remains of an aqueduct that must have run all the way to the Baths in the northeastern corner of Oenoanda.

The origins of Oenoanda are rather obscure but based on its name which contains the letters “-nd” the foundation could go back as far as the 2^nd millennium BC. In any case, it has been documented that Oenoanda was part of a tetrapolis annexed to Lycia. Together with Kibyra, Oenoanda became part of the Lycian League which was formed in the early 2^nd century BC and they acquired two votes each. The six main cities: Xanthos, Pinara, Tlos, Patara, Myra, and Olympos were the administrative, judicial, military, financial, and religious centers and each received three votes in the meetings of the League.

Pending serious excavations, no evidence has been found about the pre-Hellenistic Era of Oenoanda.

The city gained importance it seems, after the severe earthquake of 144 AD, when they received 10,000 denarii from Opramoas of Rhodiapolis (see: Opramoas of Rhodiapolis) to construct a Bath. It may sound strange because its own citizen, Licinius Langus of Oenoanda donated 10,000 denarii to Myra in order to rebuild their theater and its portico. He could have invested in the reconstruction of his home tome in the first place, no?

Another famous citizen of Oenoanda was the wealthy philosopher Diogenes, who spent his entire fortune on an Epicurean inscription. He had found peace of mind in the teachings of Epicurus and in order to show the people in Oenoanda the road to happiness, he commissioned an inscription 80 meters long and more than 3 meters high which set out Epicurean doctrines in about 25,000 words.  The huge inscription was placed in the agora and its large inscribed letters were painted - nobody could miss seeing them. At that time, in 120 AD, it would have been the largest ancient inscription ever found. The text included a number of instructions, letters, and epitomes defining the basic principles of Epicuraeism. In other words, a guide to happiness.

Unfortunately, the wall disappeared. It may have been deliberately destroyed or hit by an earthquake, but the scattered blocks were mostly reused as building material elsewhere. The wall with whatever remained of Oenoanda fell into oblivion, probably during the 9^th century AD.

During the 19^th and 20^th centuries, many fragments of this precious inscription were found, analyzed and partially put back together like a giant puzzle. That is a gigantic task that is still ongoing.

Oenoanda is surrounded by necropolises on all sides. Rock graves typically appear on both the east and west sides of the city and from the road between İncealiler and Oenoanda many sarcophagi, mostly of the Lycian type, are easily spotted in the landscape.