"Who Killed Alexander the Great?" Topic

"In Babylon on June 10th, 323 BC, at about 5pm, Alexander the Great died aged 32, having conquered an empire stretching from modern Albania to eastern Pakistan. The question of what, or who, killed the Macedonian king has never been answered successfully. Today new theories are heating up one of history's longest-running cold cases.

Like the death of Stalin, to which it is sometimes compared, the death of Alexander poses a mystery that is perhaps insoluble but nonetheless irresistible. Conspiracy buffs have been speculating about it since before the king's body was cold, but recently there has been an extraordinary number of new accusers and new suspects. Fuel was added to the fire by Oliver Stone's Alexander, released in 2004 with new versions in 2006 and 2008: a film that, whatever its artistic flaws, presents a historically informed theory about who killed Alexander and why.

Few events have been as unexpected as the death of Alexander. The king had shown fantastic reserves of strength during his 12-year campaign through Asia, enduring severe hardships and taking on strenuous combat roles. Some had come to think of him as divine, an idea fostered, and perhaps entertained, by Alexander himself. In 325, fighting almost single-handed against South Asian warriors, Alexander had one of his lungs pierced by an arrow, yet soon afterwards he made the most arduous of his military marches, a 60-day trek along the barren coast of southern Iran…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Interesting reading!

A character who doesn't get mentioned enough in these discussions of Alexander's death and legacy is Perdiccas. Although it is tempting to imagine (and often baldly stated) that the empire fell to pieces immediately upon Alexander's death, there was in fact a notable attempt to hold it together under Perdiccas's regency, to which all the leading commanders assented.

That the empire collapsed into the chaos of civil war was as much as anything to do with the incompetence and petty jealousy of Perdiccas in operating his regency.

With that in mind it casts the question of the motive for killing Alexander – and who benefited from it – in a slightly different light. Antipater and Cassander continue to look shady, not least for the disregard they displayed towards Alexander's memory, but Antigonus also looks pretty questionable.

I also have to query this assertion:
"If the goal of the generals was to ‘go home and spend their dough', … they failed miserably. None ever returned to Macedonia and only Ptolemy succeeded in gaining any measure of peace or security."

Did Cassander not return to Macedon, and, indeed, die there of natural causes as all-but-undisputed ruler? I thought Antigonus made it back there at some point too.

A mosquito did in "da Man."

Considering how much he drank, it might also have been his liver and kidneys failing, and perhaps also his heart.

Alexander the not so great did it. Was tired of being second fiddle.

Wasn't me, Gov; I got an alibi…

Alexander the Great killed Alexander the Great.

Glad you enjoyed it my friend.

Amicalement
Armand

It could have been Mrs. Great.

As soon as "Killing Alexander" comes out, we'll know.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand