The Death of Alexander

After class on Friday, I was curious what exactly was the cause of death of Alexander the Great. Our professor mentioned he essentially partied himself to death. I thought that there must be extenuating circumstances or some conspiracy of assassination. I found an article by Cameron Battersby titled "What Killed Alexander the Great?" To my surprise, Battersby said that Alexander essentially partied himself to death.

Without raking over any more academic coals, it seems reasonable to conclude that modern medical knowledge seems to suggest that Alexander died from the effects of a surgical catastrophe resulting from excessive alcoholic consumption and Antipater and Cassander had no input into that. There can be little doubt that Alexander came to replicate so many of the attitudes and actions of his father, Philip. ‘In the warrior society, epic toping was a source of admiration’.

This surprised me. Battersby mentioned the prevalence of the culture of alcohol in the time of Philip II. I never expected The Great Alexander was one to succumb to alcohol. I would have thought that such a famous instance of death by alcohol would be a common argument for the evils of drinking in excess. In any case, I found it interesting that surgical historians can issue diagnoses based on the description of events thousands of years ago.

For this reason, Boerhaave’s Syndrome may be the likely diagnosis. It would fit in with the onset of pain described by Diodorus in the middle of an alcoholic binge with repressed vomiting. Philip’s son could hardly be seen to vomit his liquor!