Alexander The Great's Death Debated

Aug. 2, 2004 — What killed ancient world conqueror Alexander the Great is still a mystery, pitting scientists who favor West Nile virus against those who lean toward a death from typhoid.

History says that Alexander, king of Macedonia, died at 32 in 323 B.C. after several days of fever in Babylon. However, the cause of the fever was always unclear.

Several hypotheses have been advanced: poisoning, malaria, or cirrhosis of the liver caused by Alexander's penchant for drink, as well as typhoid or west Nile virus.

The dispute resurfaced in the July issue of "Emerging Infectious Diseases," published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which published several arguments disputing the West Nile virus theory.

In a December 2003 article in the same publication, two U.S. scientists, John Marr, epidemiologist at the Virginia department of health, and Charles Calisher of Colorado State University, argued that Alexander's death as recounted by Greek biographer Plutarch several centuries later showed that he had encephalitis from West Nile virus.

The virus infects wild birds but can be transmitted to humans by infected mosquitos. The infection generally goes undetected or has influenza-like symptoms. In some cases, the disease becomes complicated by a menengoencephalitis.

Marr and Calister lean on Plutharch's account of the deaths of a flock of ravens as Alexander entered Babylon.

"The inexplicable behavior of ravens is reminiscent of avian illness and death weeks before the first human cases of West Nile virus infection were identified in the United States. We posit that Alexander may have died of West Nile virus encephalitis," said Marr and Calisher.

David Oldach of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, said Plutarch never meant to write a history and that Marr and Calisher were "perhaps unaware of the magnitude of Plutarch's obsession with avian auguries."

Six years ago, Oldach and his colleagues at the University of Maryland published an article in which they concluded that Alexander died of typhoid, also based on symptoms described by Plutarch.

Burke Cunha, of Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, New York, also has his doubts. "West Nile encephalitis begins acutely, with initial signs and symptoms of mental confusion and muscle weakness. Fevers are not usually the most conspicuous feature of West Nile encephalitis, and in most cases the fever does not usually increase or last more than a two-week period.

"Alexander's final illness is more characteristic of typhoid fever than West Nile encephalitis," he concluded.

Finally, Massimo Galli, of the University of Milan, Italy, said, "West Nile Virus is a relatively young virus and reduces the probability of incidental infections of humans before 1,000 years ago.

"Encephalitis itself became a frequent complication of West Nile Virus fever in 1996, which suggests the recent appearance of more pathogenic viral strains."

In response to his detractors, John Marr said, "We agree that typhoid fever remains high on the list of probable causes.

"Although individual cases of this disease usually occur in a camp setting, one would expect reports of other similar cases (the same for malaria), which was apparently not the case."

The dispute, already far from over, should get a new life in a few months, with the release of a film on Alexander, by director Oliver Stone and starring Irish actor Colin Farrell.

Yeah, that route has been in use for a very long time. Not sure it was always used for silk though. Silk has been arriving since before Alexander. The route wasn't necessarily an expressway from east to west and back -- the products went from hand to hand, i.e. trade and barter. Anyway, here's an earlier topic:

#10: Niya Yields Buried Secrets (China Desert - Silk Road)) ^

To: blam; *Gods, Graves, Glyphs; A.J.Armitage; abner; adam_az; AdmSmith; Alas Babylon!; ...

10 posted on 03/12/2004 1:37:33 PM PST by farmfriend ( Isaiah 55:10,11)

Seagoing trade is also very ancient. In the 1960s Colin Renfrew et al documented the obsidian trade in Anatolia and throughout the Aegean (islands, Greek mainland, Black Sea), dating back 1000s of years into the stone age. Regarding trade in Roman times (which was part of a long continuous tradition), here are a couple of titles:

[at] Qusier al-Qadim, from the first and second centuries A.D... were inscribed with Tamil graffiti in the Brahmi script and likely came from Arikamedu in southern India (not far from the modern town of Pondicherry). These constitute the first Indian Tamil inscriptions ever found in Egypt, and their discovery, next to a small iron forge, raises the possibility that a small community of Indian merchants or metalworkers lived at Qusier al-Qadim... researchers found items typical of the east, for example, teak and cloth made from jute. [pp 82-83]

At Empire's Edge:
Exploring Rome's Egyptian Frontier
by Robert B. Jackson

Contemporary writing about the Roman ships arriving in India and leaving with goods is also discussed.

The second one (which I highly recommend; same goes for other titles by Casson) discusses Roman-era trade between China and the west, including seagoing trade.

Travel in the Ancient World
by Lionel Casson

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