Home » Science & Nature » Microbiology » Alexander the Great Died of Typhoid Fever

Alexander the Great Died of Typhoid Fever

© Neal Rolfe Chamberlain

Infectious diseases are not the problem that they once were. Many wars involved the use of germ warfare because there were no treatments that worked well on those nasty infections. Nearly 25 percent of the population of Europe was wiped out by the Plague in the 14th century.

Even one of the greatest military leaders of all time succumbed to an infectious disease. Alexander the Great had conquered most of the world by the time he was 16 years of age. His men trembled in fear when he was angry. One command from their leader would mean a certain execution. The great Alexander could not be conquered by armies. However, bacteria were another thing. Plutarch wrote that:

"On the eighteenth day of the month he slept in the bathing-room on account of his fever. The next day he bathed and removed into his chamber, and spent his time in playing at dice with Medius. In the evening he bathed and sacrificed, and ate freely, and had the fever on him through the night. On the twentieth, after the usual sacrifices and bathing, he lay in the bathing-room and heard Nearchus's narrative of his voyage, and the observations he had made in the great sea. The twenty-first he passed in the same manner, his fever still increasing, and suffered much during the night. The next day the fever was very violent, and he had himself removed and his bed set by the great bath, and discoursed with his principal officers about finding fit men to fill up the vacant places in the army. On the twenty-fourth he was much worse, and was carried out of his bed to assist at the sacrifices, and gave order that the general officers should wait within the court, whilst the inferior officers kept watch without doors. On the twenty-fifth he was removed to his palace on the other side the river, where he slept a little, but his fever did not abate, and when the generals came into his chamber he was speechless and continued so the following day. The Macedonians, therefore, supposing he was dead, came with great clamours to the gates, and menaced his friends so that they were forced to admit them, and let them all pass through unarmed by his bedside. The same day Python and Seleucus were despatched to the temple of Serapis to inquire if they should bring Alexander thither, and were answered by the god that they should not remove him. On the twenty-eighth, in the evening, he died."

Some people believe that it was typhoid fever that caused the 32-year-old's death on June 13th, 323. Typhoid

The copyright of the article Alexander the Great Died of Typhoid Fever in Microbiology is owned by . Permission to republish Alexander the Great Died of Typhoid Fever in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.