Alexander poisoned with Arsenic.

[ruthaki]

That is a most interesting theory and I'd love to see that documentary!

[Theseus]

Usually I watch these things and pay a bit of interest, but this one captivated me completely! I am trying to see if it is airing again. This seems to make so much sense and being that they had historians in the research process as well does help with the validity of it all. The things they said made so much sense and I had to hit my head like in those V-8 commercials. Why hadn't I thought of this before?
I forgot to add that the historians were able to find information from Alexander's time that showed the usual dosage of Hellebore as a medicine. This isn't to say that possibly the doses were tampered with as well.



http://science.discovery.com/tv-schedul ... .23976.0.0

[marcus]

I just got done watching a very interesting one hour special on the Science channel named " Alexander the Great Murder Unsolved". These people took a year to research all aspects of this topic. Was Alexander murdered? Poisoned? They had scientist, doctors, psychiatrist, detectives, and historians working together. While we will never know for sure how Alexander died, I found what they had to say very interesting and well researched.

...

Has anyone else seen this special?
I am interested in what all of you think of this theory.

If this is the same programme that I saw 3-4 years ago, then I agree that it was rather interesting. What I particularly liked was that they weren't afraid to leave the question open - rather than stating "this is what happened for definite" at the end. Therefore it was populist without dumbing down the difficulty of the whole matter.

I've always argued that Alexander cannot have been in terrific shape by 323, that is previously robust constitution must have been breaking down, therefore leaving him susceptible to illness/disease that might not have floored him before, or others at the same time. It is intriguing that the doctors might have thought they were helping him shake off a bout of something, and inadvertantly managed to finish him off!

ATB

[Theseus]

Well I've checked their schedule and it doesn't seem to be re-airing any time soon. I found some info. on the program:

Premiered: November 24, 2004
Rating: TV-G
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Premise: Forensic pathologists, toxicologists, epidemiologists and historians examine the circumstances surrounding the death of Alexander the Great at age 32. Included: theories about what caused his demise, including disease, poisoning and alcoholism.


It has aired on both the Discovery channel and the Science channel as far as I know.

[Theseus]

Marcus,
I agree that this program seemed to handle things so well. They never said this definately is what happened and even left you pondering at the end that could it have been because too much hellebore was used? Did someone maybe tamper with the doses? Did Alexander insist on stronger doses to speed up the process of getting better faster? I feel this is one of the best theories I have watched/read. It all seems to make sense and to fit into place.

[Theseus]

Okay I did find one airing of this show but it's on a channel that I'm not sure I even get. It's called I.D. Investigation Discovery, it is one of the branches of the Discovery channel. It is set to air on May 16th at 5:00 am est. I will check periodically to see if it will re-air on another channel in the future and will post it here.


For Dish network subscribers it's channel 192.

[aleksandros]

they said no poison matches the symptoms.

Arsenic does!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C0CeN-X9to

r we talking about this?

[Theseus]

These people researched what poisons were around back then and also the effects the poison has on the body. Hellebore was known to be around back then and they had information from that time period on the dosing used by physicians. I know other shows have done the same thing as well. I feel these people involved in this year long research know what they are talking about.

[Efstathios]

You are missing one fact here. Apart from Alexander having good knowledge of medicine, he had the best physicians around him. He, or they would have known about how risky would be a large amount of hellebore.

[Theseus]

The show didn't say that it was Hellebore by itself that caused Alexander's death in their research/opinion. They did say that Alexander did have the best phycisians of the time. I took what they were trying to say as that Alexander was in ill health to begin with (possibly from the injuries and his life style) and his body was weakened and that coupled with the hellebore was his downfall. If a healtier person had been given hellebore as a treatment it probably wouldn't have had the same out come as it was used quite a bit in those times.
Again we will never truly know, this is just discussing what was in this show and the possibilities.

[agesilaos]

I have seen this programme and what struck me was the constant lack of reference to the sources and an evaluation of their worth ; the theory is firmly grounded in the events related in the Liber de Morte which no one would cite as an accurate and reliable account of the events around Alexander's demise (unless they were complete virgins new to the Alexander histories - or Doherty!).

The Ephemerides make no mention of purgatives nor does the so-called Official tradition, whereas during his illness at Tarsos this treatment was mentioned. All the same the theory vis-a-vis the hellebore seemed sound but the accidental suicide stretched things too far for the meagre evidence.

There was another documentary suggesting Nile virus which did at least use named sources, Plutarch for the birds falling dead and Arrian for the course of the illness, I can't remember if the Hellebore prog disproved this theory.