Samarkand by Michael Woods

[jan]

On page 157 of Michael Woods In the Footsteps of Alexander, he discusses a battle in which Alexander is hit on the back of the neck by a stone and is knocked unconscious, losing his vision and his speech. Can anyone describe this occasion in which this event occurred, how Alexander recovered, and who tended to him? I would like to know how long his recovery took if anyone knows. Thanks, Jan

[susan]

This happened during the Jaxartes campaign. Alexander had occupied Samarkand, the capital city of the region, and summoned the Sogdian chiefs to a council. They were suspicious and rose in revolt, massacring his troops and laying siege to Samarkand.
In the ensuing battles to raise the siege, Alexander was injured; his larynx was bruised by a stone & he lost his voice, and a head blow gave him clouded vision. Just before this episode, his legbone was split by an arrow in a clash with tribesmen.
The Afghanis in these regions still talk of their forebears killing Alexander in battle here, so maybe the folk tradition of his injuries has persisted.RegardsSusan

[Tre]

Hello Jan!We're talking a gray area here. Alexander was struck in the lower leg by an arrow a few weeks before the head/neck injury. The fibula was broken and apparently splinters came out. Alexander was forced to travel by stretcher. While a broken fibula is not a major injury and you can walk (not march long distances mind you), it would make riding on a horse quite unbearable because of the pressure one has to apply with the legs on bareback. Alexander apparently felt he had recovered enough to seige Cyropolis (a major big deal because it was named after one of his heroes) and what is said historically is he crawled under the wall using a dry riverbed with a select group of fighters, emerged somewhat unseen as others were making a ruckus outside to distract the enemy, and then opened the gate to the city. The fighting was fierce with a number of important men injured, Craterus being one as I recall, and Alexander was struck either on the head (back of) or neck (side of) or both by a large stone and fell unconscious and was carried out. Curtius reports that his neck was injured, referring to a wound that caused his voice to be quavering and weak and he had difficulty eating because of it and was in rather sorry shape,still unable to sit a horse from his previous wound (doing battle and being knocked unconscious and the subseqent fall probably didn't do anything good for his sore leg). Plutarch on the other hand makes mention that he had problems with his vision from the blow on the head and that there were fears he might go blind. A Greek doctor wrote an article on how he thought Alexander might have suffered from temporary blindness because of the blow.Alexander ordered that a city be built while he waited some 21 days or so before he decided he was well enough to attack the people who were taunting him from across the river. Curtius makes mention that the King was still in horrid shape and his men wanted nothing to do with it, but that he felt he was strong enough and for the first time since the first wound put on his armor. He was among the first to cross the river by raft, then pursued the routed enemy on horseback until he drank some bad water and got dysentery and had to be carried back. After that, Curtius says he remained in camp.

[Tre]

Curtius mentions that the unbearable jolting on horseback from the pursuit and his head wound caused him to lose consciousness, rather than mentioning the dysentery. In Arrian it is related that it is Ptolemy who mentions the dysentery and that Alexander became very seriously ill.Sometime after while Alexander was still in camp, one of his columns was ambushed and destroyed(the worst loss in battle of Alexander's career) and Aristobulos mentions that Alexander was to blame for the loss as he did not make clear who should have been in charge of the men and the confusion that this caused when they were ambushed was majorly responsible for the loss. It is quite probable in my view, that Alexander's various injuries and illnesses affected his judgement adversely. Needless to say he had to get back on his feet to pursue the enemy again, having sworn the survivors to silence before more bad news broke out. These were not pleasant times - the wedding to Roxanne was a quick fix to get himself out of there so he could go on exploring. By then certainly Alexander had figured out it would take years before he could subdue the area entirely, and he would probably end up wiping out most of the population, which would have been counter productive. So he made a personal sacrifice by taking a wife he had not intended to.Regards,Tre

[Bill Giannakos]

Jan this think that you refer is written in plutarch's book "vioi paralliloi Alexandrou Kaisaros".He recovered very fastly it was nothing bad.His doctor Phillipos helped him recover.The serious wound you have to know that his knee was destroyed but again his doctor helped him recover.If you have another question let me know.Istudy literature in Thessaloniki.Iam Makedonian.And for your knowledge i let you know that FYROMis not Makedonia they called Illyrioi in ancient history.

[jan]

I find it interesting that he was offered a princess to marry, according to a text I am now reading, but he declined to marry her, yet goes on to marry Roxanne, daughter of Oxyartes.Oxhead, Roxanne, and Oxyartes intrigue me!Anyway, I have read that despite his men's grumblings and discontent about the marriage, he had fallen in love with Roxanne at first sight and married her. So while some seem to think it a marraige of convenience, others seem to believe that it was a torrid love affair. Just fuel for the fire.My reason for asking about the stone is because of my birthmark which is located at the base of my neck. Something on the ARE channel made me think of it, and I wanted to know more about this wound. Thanks, everyone, for helping.