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Let me present you with a new hypothesis of Alexander's illness in Tarsus: Pontiac fever . It's a natural (non-poison) hypothesis but it doesn't have any adverse long-term effects on health. There is a type of bacteria called Legionella and it causes one of two lung diseases: Legionnaires' disease -...

on cold water shock ... I applaud your enthusiasm, but occasionally one can learn from older folk. they've seen a lot and learnt that when the truths of textbooks enters the complexity of reality, it looks unexpectedly different. not wrong. different. I'm not entirely sure if you see a connection b...

Ah, but the Hegelochus business did not become public knowledge in Egypt - the first we ever hear about it is during Philotas' trial (and, remember, only in Curtius). I meant what Arrian wrote (and I already quoted it before): Here also Alexander discovered the conspiracy of Philotas , son of Parme...

There was a rumour of a plot, involving Hegelochus, Parmenion and Philotas, which must have been discussed in Egypt, when Hegelochus arrived there from the Aegean fleet. This is reported in Curtius (6.11.22-28). However, the first we hear about it is during the trial of Philotas, when Parmenion was...

Curtius description of what happened *in* the river is that of cold water shock. It's so textbook, he couldn't have made that one up :D the incredible detail suggests that he got it from a source who was within a few meters of Alexander when it happened, possibly one of the rescuers. Yes, that's ex...

The problem is, that you are not providing any evidence. I produced source material that contradicted your source material ... then you just say "and then Parmenion changed his mind" or some such. Obviously you are perfected entitled to your interpretation of events, but you have to subst...

Sorry, Adam, but I am going to have to disabuse you of the seriousness of pneumonia. This is the case history of a real person. X had pleurisy as a child, which left scarring on his lungs - not extensive. In 1960, X caught pneumonia and was off work for six weeks. Despite being a smoker, X was neve...

in medical terms, chills and convulsions are two very different things. ancient physicians knew which one was which, but non-medical writers may have used words that give rise to confusion, which is confounded by translation. I totally agree, I wanted to exclude pneumonia at first but I guess, a no...

There is nothing to indicate a crisis of confidence in Parmenion before Issus, or indeed after. He was a very good and experienced commander, and he would have known it, not least because Philip made no secret of his admiration of Parmenion's talents as a general. The army was on a roll, with confi...

First of all - why would Parmenion warn Alexander about Philip the Acarnanian if he wanted Alexander dead? If Philip were going to poison Alexander, then he would surely have been happy about it. We know Philip didn't poison Alexander so Parmenion was wrong. He might have been mistaken or he himsel...

Interesting. It's possible but on what arguments has it been long accepted? Was his memory blackened in all sources? I'm skeptical... The short answer is "no", it wasn't blackened in all sources. The sources we have which paint Parmenion in a negative light are generally considered to hav...

Yes, there were tensions between the older generation - who seem to have favoured a smash 'n' grab raid on Persia, or at this stage, consolidation of Anatolia - and the younger, more ambitious generation. But would Parmenion have chosen this point in time to eliminate Alexander? They knew Darius wa...

I think we need to see some detailed reasoning behind this to believe a further conspiracy theory. Yes, I was going to but I was delayed. I hope I post it soon. ... as it has long been accepted that the anti-Parmenion bias in the sources was the result of Alexander's court attempting to blackened h...

Well, apparently pneumonia *does* cause shaking chills (convulsions): https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-disease-lookup/pneumonia/symptoms-and-diagnosis https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/pneumonia#:~:text=Key%20points%20about%20pneumonia&text=A%20cough%2...

Therefore even if the arrow wound was at first small it was later enlarged surgically, becoming a second and more dangerous wound. And Alexander bore it life-long. But we don't know whether his lungs were cut again. They certainly needed to cut the flesh from the barbed arrowhead. However, the barb...