Alexander III

Alexander III was 20 years old when he ascended to the throne of Macedonia following the assassination of his father. Over the next 12 years he would lead his armies in an historically unparalleled series of victories and conquests that would extend his empire across more than two million square miles—from northern Greece to western India to Egypt. In the wake of Alexander’s army came Hellenistic culture, and with his conquests and the cultural exchanges that followed, he knitted the Western world together more than any person before him and perhaps more than any person since. History remembers him as Alexander the Great.

In June 323 B.C., Alexander was in Babylon, residing at the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, where he was planning an invasion of Arabia. There he fell gravely ill. Over the next twelve days his condition steadily deteriorated. Despite the best medical care available at the time, Alexander could not be saved. On June 11, he died. He was 32 years old.

The cause of Alexander’s death is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of ancient history. There are certainly no shortage of theories—ranging from a wide variety of infectious diseases, to an inherited genetic disorder, to the effects of battle wounds and/or overdrinking, to poisoning. The debate continues. And it evidently will not be resolved by recourse to an examination of Alexander’s remains, because their location is also one of ancient history’s greatest unsolved mysteries.

After his death Alexander’s body was placed inside a gold sarcophagus filled with honey, which was itself placed inside a gold casket. The body was being transported to Macedon for entombment when one of the rivals to the throne intercepted the procession and diverted it to Egypt. There Alexander was entombed, first in Memphis, then later in Alexandria. There are accounts of Roman emperors visiting the tomb in Alexandria (Caligula supposedly stole and wore Alexander’s breastplate), but its exact location has since been lost to history. For hundreds of years archeologists, historians, and adventurers have being trying to locate the tomb. The Egyptian government has financed nearly 150 official search attempts. One of the most intriguing recent theories is that Alexander’s body was taken from Alexandria in 828 A.D. by Venetian merchants who mistook it for the body of St. Mark, and that the sarcophagus in the Basilica Cathedral Patriarcale di San Marco in Venice holds the body not of St. Mark, but of Alexander the Great. But for now at least, Alexander’s present whereabouts, like his cause of death, must be regarded as unknown.

Alexander’s death threw his vast empire into turmoil. His young wife Roxana was pregnant, but he had no children born before his death and he had named no heir. Some of Alexander’s generals pledged their loyalty to the unborn child (provided it was a son), but others claimed for themselves the right to rule or threw their support to others who did. Forty years of war followed as the factions battled for power. During that era of violent power struggles, Roxana and her 14-year-old son Alexander IV were murdered. The warfare finally ended with the empire divided into four parts, each under the control of separate claimants to the throne.

Alexander the Great died in Babylon on June 11, 323 B.C.

The image is the 1886 painting “The Death of Alexander” by German artist Karl von Piloty.