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on cold water shock ... Yes, that's exactly what I thought. The problem is that people usually recover from shock relatively soon (in hours) and there are usually no adverse after-effects like high fever or sleepless nights. So again I can't see a connection with pneumonia. I applaud your enthusiasm...

It is also possible that Alexander was already carrying a fever when he jumped into the river to cool down as he was hot and sweaty. Yes. Kathleen Toohey pointed it out, too. It's very astute. Curtius description of what happened *in* the river is that of cold water shock. It's so textbook, he coul...

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...

as a doc, I'm always interested in discussions on Alexander's illnesses. they are Sherlock Holmes style diagnostic puzzles where the clues are not just in the texts, but in the wide contextual field that spans the actual event (set within its own time and place), the aspects of the story considered ...

Does typhoid fever really match the account of Hephaestion's death? in a word: no. Hephaestion went from walking, talking, eating & drinking to being dead within about hour. there are very few pathologies that can do that and infection isn't one of them. chris. PS: thanks for the chronology of ...

Thanks for the comment, hiphys. I didn't mention Alexander's pneumothorax because usually, a healed pneumothorax has no long-term effect on health. Here are two sources: in the interest of accuracy: it is correct that a spontaneous pneumothorax does not have long term effects on health (except some...

I came across this in Strabo thanks Alexias for the quotes. I'm sure there was an island called Peuce in the Danube delta and obviously quite well known in the ancient world, but I maintain that it was not the Peuce Arrian spoke of: Arrian is very clear that Alexander couldn't land because of the f...

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chris

marcus wrote: ↑Mon Feb 19, 2024 2:32 pm I hadn't seen the Dionysius version of the story before, which it seems came originally from Hegesias of Magnesia. (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, On Literary Composition, Chap 18.)

Marcus, welcome back from me, too. Good to see you

Sorry, I don't see any smaller stones. That is fairly uniform in construction. You could probably get a mule up that pathway. I was wondering whether these square blocks outlined in black are manmade, to clad the mountain side to prevent rock fall. the wall outlined in red is new, but I agree with ...

Thank you for this photo. Am I right in thinking that the photo shows a built up pathway on the right slope? I know Alexander had, certainly later on, excellent engineers, but this looks too big a construction to have been done rapidly, and speed was Alexander's intention. Maybe therefore the const...

That's an amazing photo and assuming this is a pass between Olympus and Dion, then it is a possible location for the crossing. Apparently, Friedrich Staehlin was an expert on ancient Thessaly, so his views are not to be discarded lightly. I'd be keen to match this to an exact location. did you get t...

Incidentally, I have been thinking about Hephaestion's funeral lately and the pyre described by Diodorus I think, must refer to Alexander's planned monument. A pyre that size would have reduced any bones to ash, and it seems to have been the Macedonian custom to gather the large bones and inter the...

thanks for the best wishes for travel. but west of Pakistan, it doesn't look as rosy as you think for people wanting to retrace his route: * Turkey was struck by an earthquake earlier this year that affected tens of thousands around the wider area of the battle of Issus. (I did see the Granicus batt...

I found a UK based travel agent who can arrange a custom made tour that follows Alexanders footsteps through Uzbekistan & Takjikistan. The only section not accessible is along the Amyr Darya to Kelif where he crossed the river. the border crossings are still closed. Mosque visits are optional, t...