Commentary. The diseases of Alexander the Great.
The accompanying articles that speculate that Alexander the Great had a traumatic carotid dissection or congenital cervical scoliosis demonstrate the difficulties in retrospective diagnosis as a historical enterprise. The extant primary sources were written centuries after Alexander's death and are ambiguous in their original languages, and even more so in translation. Thus we cannot be certain what illness Alexander actually had. Furthermore, anachronistic diagnosis removes Alexander from the medical context of this time, telling us little of historical significance about him. Such investigations also illustrate the more general limits that the absence of context imposes on the study of ancient history.
York
George K
GK
Department of Neurology, Kaiser Permanente Stockton Medical Center, Stockton, CA, USA. gkyork@ucdavis.edu
Steinberg
David A
DA
D000328:Adult; D020212:Carotid Artery Injuries / Q000266:history*; D020215:Carotid Artery, Internal, Dissection / Q000266:history*; D002574:Cervical Vertebrae / Q000002:abnormalities*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005197:Famous Persons; D000076145:Greece, Ancient; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D019838:Neck Injuries / Q000266:history*; D012600:Scoliosis / Q000266:history*; D014857:Warfare