Was Alexander the Great poisoned by arsenic?

[AdamKvanta]

In this thread, I will try to present arguments for the arsenic hypothesis.

For a general overview of this topic:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_ ... _the_Great
https://www.academia.edu/27158916/Alexa ... able_Death
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24369045/

Wikipedia states that the arsenic hypothesis was presented by Paul C. Doherty but denied by toxicologist Dr. Leo Schep:

In Alexander the Great: The Death of a God, Paul C. Doherty claimed that Alexander was poisoned with arsenic by his possibly illegitimate half-brother Ptolemy I Soter. However, this was disputed by New Zealand National Poisons Centre toxicologist Dr. Leo Schep, who discounted arsenic poisoning and instead suggested that he could have been poisoned by a wine made from the plant Veratrum album, known as white hellebore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_ ... eat#Causes
https://www.amazon.com/Alexander-Great- ... 1841198773 (Paul C. Doherty)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24369045/ (Leo Schep)

I don't have Doherty's book so I don't know his arguments for the arsenic hypothesis but I found some arguments myself.

Arguments:

1) Similarities between the poisoning of Alexander the Great and Charles Francis Hall
Wikipedia says:

Charles Francis Hall (c.1821 – November 8, 1871) was an American Arctic explorer, best known for his collection of Inuit testimony regarding the 1845 Franklin Expedition and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death...

...upon returning to the ship from a sledging expedition with an Inuit guide to a fjord which he named Newman Bay, Hall suddenly fell ill after drinking a cup of coffee. He collapsed in what was described as a fit. For the next week he suffered from vomiting and delirium, then seemed to improve for a few days. At that time, he accused several of the ship's company, including Bessels, of having poisoned him. Shortly thereafter, Hall began suffering the same symptoms, and died on November 8.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Francis_Hall

A later autopsy confirmed the alleged poisoning by arsenic:

In August, 1968, an autopsy was performed on the body at the Greenland burial site. Samples of hair, bone and fingernail were analyzed for arsenic by neutron-activation analysis, which showed markedly increased levels in the portion of the hair and fingernails grown during the last two weeks of Hall's life.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/N ... 4022821406

I argue that this case is similar to Alexander's poisoning, as summarized by Leo Schep:

... the account in the Romance describes the onset of Alexander’s illness with a sudden sharp pain in his upper right quadrant that occurred at the banquet, followed by 11 days of weakness and an inability to speak, yet without fever. This account accuses several of Alexander’s closest allies and participants in the banquet arranged by Medius of causing his death by an unnamed poison. The existence of the poisoning tradition is also acknowledged by four of the main sources (Arrian, Plutarch, Curtius, and Diodorus), even though they appear to favor the explanation of Alexander’s death by natural causes. Justin, however, follows the Romance tradition in stating unequivocally that the king was indeed the victim of a poisoning conspiracy, and this tradition is echoed in many late peripheral accounts, such as Valerius Maximus, Orosius, and the Metz Epitome. It was allegedly Alexander’s cupbearer, Iollas (or Iolaus), who poisoned the wine, on the instructions of his father Antipater and his brother Cassander. Following bitter disagreements with Alexander’s mother Olympias, Antipater was threatened with replacement as regent of Macedonia, and fearing for his life, decided on a preemptive strike against the king. However, only during the final phase of his illness do both versions agree: the Macedonian soldiers, in a state of near-mutiny fueled by the rumors of Alexander’s ill health, were permitted to file past Alexander’s deathbed and pay their last respects. Both accounts report that Alexander was too weak to speak and could only acknowledge their presence with the odd, almost imperceptible movement of his head or fingers. His illness lingered for 11 – 12 days during which time he was weak though fully conscious, until the last hours of his life.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24369045/

One can also find other similarities that I didn't quote here, e.g. Alexander's vomiting (but described as voluntary), Hall's later dementia (compared with Alexander's later inability to speak), and a good condition of both bodies after death.

2) Descriptions of Alexander's death are compatible with arsenic poisoning
The description of Alexander's poisoning symptoms (vomiting, abdominal pain, muscle weakness, death) are symptoms as describe by WHO:

The immediate symptoms of acute arsenic poisoning include vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. These are followed by numbness and tingling of the extremities, muscle cramping and death, in extreme cases.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-shee ... il/arsenic

However, Leo Schep disagrees:

Others have suggested arsenic as the cause of Alexander’s death. The onset of symptoms following acute poisoning are rapid with nausea, vomiting and severe diarrhea, proceeded by inflammation, necrosis, and perforation of the intestine, thereby leading to hypovolemia and shock. Death occurs within 24 h to 4 days. These symptoms do not match those displayed by Alexander the Great and can therefore also be disregarded.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24369045/

When I checked the sources of these claims I found that "inflammation, necrosis, and perforation of the intestine, thereby leading to hypovolemia and shock" is a description of "acute poisoning of massive proportions, almost always as an attempt at suicide". But we don't know how much arsenic was used in Alexander's case and if it was "massive".
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... 13/?page=5

When I checked the source for the survival duration I found that the "4 days" is not an absolute upper limit:

A 23 year old male who ingested 8 g of arsenic survived for eight days. ... Depending on the quantity consumed, death usually occurs within 24 hours to four days.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... p00391.pdf

After all, I already mentioned a confirmed case of arsenic poisoning of Charles Francis Hall when the survival duration was 14 days.

3) The poisonous water from the Styx River could have extreme presence of arsenic
There are many accounts that state that Alexander was poisoned by water from the Styx river, e.g. Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, XXX. 53:

Of all known substances, it is a mule's hoofs only that are not corroded by the poisonous waters of the fountain Styx: a memorable discovery made by Aristotle, to his great infamy, on the occasion when Antipater sent some of this water to Alexander the Great, for the purpose of poisoning him.
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/te ... substances

We can also check Wikipedia:

The water of this Arcadian Styx was said to be poisonous and able to dissolve most substances. The first-century natural philosopher Pliny, wrote that drinking its water caused immediate death, and that the hoof of a female mule was the only material not "rotted" by its water. According to Plutarch the poisonous water could only be held by an ass's hoof, since all other vessels would "be eaten through by it, owing to its coldness and pungency." While according to Pausanias, the only vessel that could hold the Styx's water (poisonous to both men and animals) was a horse's hoof. There were ancient suspicions that Alexander the Great's death was caused by being poisoned with the water of this Styx.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styx#The_Arcadian_Styx

The Styx River is considered to be a real river called Mavroneri: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mavroneri. As far as I know, this river hasn't been tested for toxicity yet. However, Poland has its own Styx river called Trująca: https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truj%C4%85ca. The name could literally mean "poisonous" probably because of its naturally high levels of arsenic. This river was tested and it was found out that: "Such a high concentration of total arsenic in the second sample from Trująca Stream must be caused by the local geochemical structure... ...so high concentrations of arsenic in this region are due to its geogenic characteristics".
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... %20arsenic

4) Alexander's body was preserved after death by "arsenic mummification"
Arsenic poisoning can preserve a body after death, like in the case of Napoleon:

Chief among the theories for the exiled emperor’s death is arsenic poisoning — an idea reinforced by the remarkable condition of his body when it was exhumed in 1840 for reburial in Paris. Because it is also toxic to microorganisms, arsenic slows down the decomposition of human tissue, a phenomenon described as “arsenic mummification.”
https://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs ... n-poisoned

Now let's compare it with a description of Alexander's body in Quintus Curtius, History of Alexander, X. x.:

It was the seventh day since the king's body had been lying in its coffin, for the attention of all was diverted from so solemn a duty to the establishment of public order. ... I report what is recorded rather than believed: when at last his friends had leisure to care for Alexander's lifeless body, those who had entered the room saw it corrupted by no decay, nor even by the slightest discoloration. The vigour too which comes from the breath of life had not yet left his face. And so the Egyptians and Chaldeans who were ordered to care for the body after their manner, at first, as if he were still breathing, did not dare to lay their hands upon him; then after praying that it might be right and lawful for mortals to handle a god, they emptied the body of entrails, the golden coffin was filled with perfumes, and the emblem of his rank was placed upon the king's head.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... 07&seq=565

Ancient sources for Alexander's death:

Pseudo-Callisthenes, Alexander Romance [Greek & Armenian versions, Syriac version], III. 31
https://www.attalus.org/translate/alexa ... as%20often

Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History, XVII. 117, 118
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/ ... 0sacrifice

Quintus Curtius, History of Alexander, X. iv., v.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... 07&seq=525

Quintus Curtius, History of Alexander, X. x.
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... 07&seq=565

Marcus Junianus Justinus, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, XII. 13-16
http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/ ... 20occasion

Plutarch, The Parallel Lives, 75-77
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/ ... 0sensitive

Arrian, Anabasis, 7.24-7.27
https://www.livius.org/sources/content/ ... hat%20much

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, XXX. 53
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/te ... substances

[billd89]

I argue that this case is similar to Alexander's poisoning, as summarized by Leo Schep:

... the account in the Romance describes the onset of Alexander’s illness with a sudden sharp pain in his upper right quadrant that occurred at the banquet, followed by 11 days of weakness and an inability to speak, yet without fever. This account accuses several of Alexander’s closest allies and participants in the banquet arranged by Medius of causing his death by an unnamed poison. [...] It was allegedly Alexander’s cupbearer, Iollas (or Iolaus), who poisoned the wine, on the instructions of his father Antipater and his brother Cassander. [...]

The Cup-Bearer was in a position of sacred trust: he was responsible for confirming ('tasting') the Prince/King/Emperor's food & drink. So he was probably the last and best defense against poisoners; the importance of this role is indisputable, the betrayal absolute.

Now, for something relevant. First, recall how the Ukrainian opposition coalition candidate in the UA election of 2004, (eventual President) Viktor Yushchenko, was poisoned w/ TCDD on 4 September 2004 at a dinner arranged by Soviet-era KGB chief Ihor Smeshko (a supporter of the Kremlin's candidate) according to the victim's story. (Yushchenko obviously had no 'cup-bearer' then, and trusted his dinner hosts.)



Then consider how the Kremlin has a long, long history of poisoning their own political opponents and dissidents: Russians do love their tea, unfortunately.

In more current events, Yevgeny Prigozhin has been described as "personal chef" to fmr KGB and life-term President of Russia Vladimir Putin: effectively, Prigozhin held a modern 'Cup-Bearer' role.



There can be no doubt, now. Several days ago, a fmr. President George W. Bush (USA) was reportedly 'shocked' to see this old photo of Putin's Cup-Bearer:

What's shocking to me is I saw a picture the other day of a G8 summit in St. Petersburg, where he was the guy serving me the food," Bush said. "He was Putin's chef, and he was in the picture," the former president said, cracking a smile. Bush said he couldn't recall meeting the man in person. "All I know is I survived," he added.

And as we all know, that same Cup-Bearer just tried to grab his Emperor's mantle, an Epic Fail. And so he became, in short order, a dead Cup-Bearer. The current events of a history we have already forgotten? The youth Iollas was reportedly dead within 6 years, by uncertain cause.

Will the living 'Pantokrator' be poisoned next? Stay tuned, folks!

[andrewcriddle]

The Alexander Romance is basically a piece of historical fiction, It is not a reliable source for evidence about Alexander's death.

Andrew Criddle

[AdamKvanta]

The Alexander Romance is basically a piece of historical fiction, It is not a reliable source for evidence about Alexander's death.

Andrew Criddle

I just want to clarify that the arsenic hypothesis is not dependent on Alexander Romance. All of the evidence for the hypothesis can be found in earlier, more reliable sources (I listed them at the end of my first post):

Several ancient Greek and Roman historians described Alexander’s last days. They had access to many contemporary texts that no longer survive, including a mysterious source called the “Royal Diaries” or “Journal”. We know that five men close to Alexander wrote accounts of his death: Alexander’s bodyguard and friend Ptolemy, his admiral Nearchus, his secretary Eumenes, his chamberlain Chares, and his military engineer Aristobulus. Unfortunately their memoirs are all lost except for fragmentary quotations preserved by later historians, including Diodorus Siculus (first century BC); Plutarch (about AD 100); Pliny and Quintus Curtius Rufus (both first century AD); Arrian, Pausanias, and Justin (second century AD); Aelian (about AD 200); and the so-called History or Romance of Alexander (dating to about AD 250; several manuscript versions exist).
https://www.academia.edu/27158916/Alexa ... able_Death

The only piece of evidence from Alexander Romance that I couldn't find elsewhere is Alexander's vomiting (as a symptom of arsenic poisoning):

Alexander, wishing to disgorge most of the wine, called for a feather. For he was wont to use one for an emetic. Then Iollas, smearing one with the poison, gave it to him. So the poison worked rapidly, as it was taken into his body in full strength. Alexander now, vainly convulsed with spasms and cramped with violent pains, spent the night in patient suffering.
https://www.attalus.org/translate/alexa ... 20disgorge