Don’t know if he was an alcoholic but heard he was a fag (or Bi)
I tend to think that anyone who could afford to drink alcohol before there was clean drinking water did so as a matter of good practice. When that happens there is alway a propensity to become an alcoholic. It’s not that big of a deal when everyone else is going around half drunk too.
“Alexander consumed large quantities of undiluted wine periodically....”
I think they’d probably find something similar true of almost every soldier that ever went to war.
Within recent history, drinks with alcohol were preferred over water because the water was usually not very clean and caused disease. Alcohol in fluids does a great job of killing bacteria, and long before people knew anything about bacteria or alcohol, they noticed that people who drank straight water tended to get sick more than people who mixed alcohol in their drink. Alexander may very well have been an alcoholic - I’d guess many people of that time and for multiple centuries afterward were if they could afford it.
It has been said by others here, but until fairly recent times water was often deadly and alcoholic beverages at least killed the bacteria. A fair percentage of the population had a buzz on pretty much all the time unless they lived near a very clean source of water.
Yes.
I labeled him an alcoholic in my 1992 book, Vessels of Rage, published in the UK (Element Books) as The Secret History of Alcoholism.
The most significant sign of alcoholism and the most difficult to hide is ... high tolerance. As I note in my book Alexander would challenge followers to drinking contests which he always won.
Of course he was, based upon his nickname: Alexander the Grape.
He died at around age 33. Given the weak alcohol level of beverages back then (I believe? - no spirits back then) there must have been some other strong contributing factors.
and we should care why?
The standards by which we judge someone to be an alcoholic are remarkably low in our puritanical finger wagging world we live in today. Everyone that drinks to excess is not an alcoholic, although many Karen’s would love to label them as such. When I was in the Marine Corps in the 90’s we certainly drank a lot and many would instantly call us alcoholics, though I can’t remember anyone in my squadron who actually was one. I travel a lot in Europe for my job and by American standards the majority of Germans, French, and Italians would be considered alcoholics, though few of them are really alcoholics.
High-functioning alcoholic.
Yes, he was. Next.
“ I speared a man in Maracanda just to watch him die….” 🎶🎵
Yes if he murdered someone in a drunken rage, that would be alcoholism to me.