The King's Demise

In June of 323 BCE, King Alexander died a young man of 32 years. Why did he die so young and so soon after winning his empire? That is a mystery which has confused many across the ages and which this paper sets out to unravel. The author focuses upon the four main plausible causes of death, namely poison, battle injuries, alcohol, and disease. The first, he swiftly dismisses due to the sensational nature of the sources that mention the poison theory and the fact that Alexander's final symptoms provide no suitable candidate for said poison. The author, thus, embarks on a thorough, step-by-step investigation of the latter three, which together, may have had a role in Alexander's demise. He examines the circumstances of each of Alexander's combat wounds, looks into the nature of his drinking, and by putting various diseases beside his final symptoms, attempts to find a suitable match for the final illness that ailed the Macedonian king. Ultimately, the discovery made is that the great conqueror was brought down by none other than the tiny anopheline mosquito, which gave him a bout of pernicious malaria. To this, the author adds the unique idea that Alexander's illness was aggravated by dehydration from his frequent alcohol drinking sessions. These, in turn, could have stemmed from a stone missile that struck the back of his neck at the Siege of Cyropolis, giving him brain damage and, as a result, causing severe emotional changes like depression, disinhibition, and hyperphagia.