Alexander the Great died at the age of 32, in 323 BC. The exact cause of his death is still unknown, but there are several theories about it.
Alexander had been traveling throughout Persia for over a year when he became ill with fever and pain in his side. He also had difficulty breathing because his lungs were filling with fluid. Doctors tried to treat him, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him.
Alexander continued to get sicker and sicker until he died on June 10, 323 B.C., in Babylon (now Iraq). His body was buried in Alexandria (Egypt) with plans to move it someday to Macedonia (Greece). However, those plans never came true because his body was lost during the Arab invasion of Egypt in 641 A.D.
The ancient historian Arrian wrote that Alexander’s physician Antipater said that Alexander “was seized by an acute fever which caused him intense suffering.” Aristotle also wrote about Alexander’s illness in his book Causes of Diseases.”
According to Plutarch, who lived in the 1st century AD, it was not malaria but poison. He says that Antipater, who was regent of Macedonia, asked his son Cassander to poison Alexander with a drink during a banquet. Cassander did so and then assumed control of Macedonia as king. However, this story is not supported by any other sources and has been dismissed by modern historians as unlikely.
