“The best of prophets” Fragment 963 Nuack.
one of the king’s Companions, Apollodorus Arrian 7 18 1–5. Aristobulus reports that he heard this anecdote from Peithagoras himself.
He sailed through a swamp Arrian 7 22 1–5, Diod 17 112 5–7, Strabo 16 1 11.
lèse-majesté at its worst Ibid., 7 22 4.
“Alexander had become overwrought” Plut Alex 75 1.
“Alexander dead?” Plut Phoc 22.
When the dowager queen, Sisygambis Curt 105 19–25.
The royal helmsman, Onesicritus LiberM 97.
the rumor mill only began Plut Alex 77 1.
the greatest philosopher of the age Plut Alex 77 3; Arrian 7 27 1.
with a stick Alex Rom 3 31.
consisted of ice-cold water Ibid., 77 4. The Alexander Romance 3 31 proposes a less exotic container; it says that the poison would shatter bronze, glass, or clay, but was stored safely in a lead container inside an iron container.
Cassander handed the poison Alex Rom 3 31. Also for Tolaus’s grudge.
whose drinking party The names of those attending the party are listed in usually unreliable late texts (see the Alexander Romance 3 31, p. 150, and the Liber de Morte 97 and 98). But it is a convincing list. Those we recognize are exactly the kind of person we would have expected as the king’s drinking companions.
Iolaus slipped the poison LiberM 99.
a mysterious end Alex Rom 3 32.
The king’s health gradually improved Ibid., 110.
“the business is concluded” Ibid.
“It could well be that Antipater’s recall” Arrian 7 12 6.
There is no known liquid That said, there has been talk of a highly toxic antitumor antibiotic, calicheamicin, which can subsist in limestone—as, for example in the river Styx, today’s Mavroneri, in the Peloponnese. See Adrienne Mayor and Antoinette Hayes, “The Deadly Styx River and the Death of Alexander” (Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics, 2011; available online at http://www.princeton.edu/~pswpc/pdfs/mayor/051101.pdf). The bacterium has been found in Texas. The hypothesis that the water of Mavroneri is poisonous remains a hypothesis. It has been reported that contemporary locals and visitors have tasted the Stygian water with no deleterious effect (http://www.ellieismailidou.com/2011/09/river-styx-dont-sip-from-immortal.html [inactive]).
“Nobody had any suspicion” Plut Alex 77 1.
she acted with her usual fury Diod 19 11 4–9
honored for his role in the assassination Plut Mor 849f.
Alexander’s decline and death Alexander Romance 3 31, 32 has the king survive three days after being poisoned, which is still too long for him to survive most poisons.
strychnine administered in unmixed wine This section on the cause of Alexander’s death is indebted to Engels (July 1978), who has settled the matter.
“most authorities consider” Plut Alex 77 5.
the many wounds Here is a detailed list of injuries:
i. 335 B.C. Struck on the head by a stone while fighting Illyrians
ii. 335 B.C. Struck on the neck by an iron mace while fighting the Illyrians
iii. 334 B.C. “…my head was…gashed with a barbarian scimitar” at the Battle of the Granicus
iv. 333 B.C. “…run through the thigh with a sword” at the Battle of Issus
v. 332 B.C. “…shot in the ankle with a dart” during the siege of Gaza
vi. ?* Dislocated shoulder after falling from his horse
vii. ?** Shinbone split by a Maracadartean arrow
viii. 327 B.C. “…shot through the shoulder” by an Assacanian arrow
ix. ? Wounded in the thigh by the Gandridae
x. 326 B.C. Shot in the breast by an arrow fired by “one of the Mallotes” (i.e., Mallians)
xi. 325 B.C. Received a blow to the neck while fighting the Mallians
especially common in June or July Engels (July 1978), p. 225.
CHAPTER 16. FUNERAL GAMES Diodorus leads, with a little help from Forster and Tennyson.
the blinded Cyclops Plut Gal 1 4.
“our expected hope” Phot 92 2 (from Arrian The Successors, book 1).
“Nowhere are more searing temperatures” Curt 10 10 10–12.
In 1850…a dragoman Forster, pp. 112–13.
“When he asked the man” Aug 444.
“Alexander…taught the Gedrosians” Plut Mor 328C–329D.
“To sail beyond the sunset” Tennyson, “Ulysses,” ll. 60–61.
BACKGROUND AND SOURCES
“brilliantly ingenious” Quint 10 1 74.
BY ANTHONY EVERITT
Alexander the Great
The Rise of Athens
The Rise of Rome
Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome
Augustus
Cicero
SPQR: A Roman Miscellany
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ANTHONY EVERITT is a former visiting professor in the visual and performing arts at Nottingham Trent University. He has written extensively on European culture and is the author of Cicero, Augustus, Hadrian and the Triumph of Rome, The Rise of Rome, and The Rise of Athens. He has served as secretary general of the Arts Council for Great Britain. Everitt lives near Colchester, England’s first recorded town, founded by the Romans.
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