title: What killed Alexander the Great?
abstract: The cause of the death of the Macedonian King, Alexander the Great, at Babylon in 323 BC has excited interest and conjecture throughout the ages. The information available in the surviving ancient sources, none of which is contemporaneous, has been reviewed and compared with modern knowledge as set out in several well-known recent surgical texts. The ancient sources record epic drinking by the Macedonian nobility since at least the time of Phillip II, Alexander's father. Alexander's sudden illness and death is likely to have resulted from a surgical complication of acute alcoholic excess.
authors.affiliation: cambat@gil.com.au
authors.forename: Cameron
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Battersby
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000266:history*; D004066:Digestive System Diseases / Q000266:history*; D005197:Famous Persons; D000076145:Greece, Ancient; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007493:Iraq; D008297:Male