Travels with Alexander the Great

[magicmountain]

Was Hephaistion poisoned?

In spring 324 BC Hephaistion left Susa, where he had been married, and accompanied Alexander and the rest of the army as they travelled towards Ecbatana. They arrived in the autumn, and it was there, during games and festivals, that Hephaistion fell ill with a fever. Arrian says that after the fever had run for seven days, Alexander had to be summoned from the games to Hephaestion, who was seriously ill. He did not arrive in time; by the time he got there, Hephaestion was dead. Plutarch says that, being a young man and a soldier, Hephaestion had ignored medical advice, and as soon as his doctor, Glaucias, had gone off to the theatre, he ate a large breakfast, consisting of a boiled fowl and a cooler of wine, and then fell sick and died.

Piecing the accounts together, it seems as if Hephaistion's fever had run its course for seven days, after which time he was sufficiently recovered for his doctor, and Alexander himself, to feel it was safe to leave him, and for Hephaestion to feel hungry. His meal, however, seems to have caused a relapse that led to his rapid death. Precisely why this should have happened is not known.
As Mary Renault says, "This sudden crisis in a young, convalescent man is hard to account for." The explanation that fits most of the facts is that the fever was typhoid, and that solid food perforated the ulcerated intestine that the typhoid would have caused. This would have led to internal bleeding, though it would be unusual in that case for death to follow quite as swiftly as it seems to have done here. For that reason, it is not possible altogether to discount other possible explanations, one of them being poison.

One recent theory propounded by Graham Phillips, author of a popular history entitled Murder in Babylon suggests that Hephaistion was the victim of a plot by Alexander’s wife, Roxane. She is said to have poisoned him with what was then a little-known toxin taken from the strychnine plant. Phillips believes Alexander was murdered by Roxane in revenge for taking another wife. She is known to have poisoned Alexander’s widow Stateira after the king’s death. Phillips believes that both Hephaestion and Alexander suffered the classic symptoms of strychnine poisoning.

Alexander and the poisoning of Hephaistion

Bronze sculpture, Private collection

The intimacy and reality of raw uncontrollable grief portrayed in the sculptor is given a classical treatment
that counters the traditional mythic poses of Alexander conquering the world with a stoic gaze. Much of the story is
told in the initial gesture of atg gripping close the limp, heavy form of Hephaistion’s corpse in one arm, his other
arm thrust backward, his weapon a useless defense against this moment. His laurel crowned war helment is shoved back
to reveal Alexander’s confusion; attired for victory, Alexander is defeated. Hephaistion's murder may be one of
history’s first recorded hate crimes and it is debated by historians as to how the death of his lover began Alexander’s
own  swift decline and death, soon thereafter. At times Alexander seems to have possessed the mystique and charisma
of a god,  but he existed as all humans do in life, struggle and death. – Dianne L. Cooper

[Nikki]

Jo, thanks for the pictures of Hep and Alex. The sculptor captured the desipair of Alex, I think.

[CANSTANDIT]

Just a sidenote of congrats to our very best Follywood Alex, Colin Farrell, for winning the Golden Globe. What a cutie pie.

[Nikki]

Just a sidenote of congrats to our very best Follywood Alex, Colin Farrell, for winning the Golden Globe. What a cutie pie.

   I second that

[magicmountain]

Just a sidenote of congrats to our very best Follywood Alex, Colin Farrell, for winning the Golden Globe. What a cutie pie.

   I second that

I third that. I read that our boy got into strife for joking about cocaine use at the ceremony saying his snuffles were because of the flu. Oh dear.

[magicmountain]

British gold hoard motifs based on coins minted in ancient Macedonia by Philip II.

The largest hoard of prehistoric gold coins in Britain in modern times has been discovered by a metal detectorist in East Anglia. The 824 gold staters, worth the modern equivalent of up to £1m when they were in circulation, were in a field near Wickham Market, Suffolk. Almost all the coins were minted by royal predecessors of Boudicca, the warrior queen of the Iceni tribe who revolted against Rome in AD 60.

The solid gold staters – each weighing just over 5g – were made between 40BC and AD 15, most of them in the final 35 years of that period. They were buried in a plain pottery vessel, possibly inside a rectilinear religious compound, between 15 and AD 20. Although it has not yet been proved, it is likely the hoard represented part of the wealth of an individual or community and was buried as a votive offering at a time of a political stress, drought or other natural disaster.

The latest coins bear an assortment of motifs, most of which were derived ultimately from Macedonian coins minted by Alexander the Great's father, Philip II in the 4th century BC. Nearly all bear images of horses portrayed in a highly stylised Celtic manner, totally different from the motif's distant Macedonian precursor. But one motif – two crescent moons – which appears on almost half the coins are a purely Icenian numismatic device, possibly associated with the importance of the moon in Iron Age Druidic religion.

The find is the most substantial Iron Age gold coin hoard found in Britain since 1849, when a farm worker unearthed between 800 and 2,000 gold staters in a field near Milton Keynes. The 824 gold staters were worth the modern equivalent of up to £1m when they were in circulation. Almost all the coins were minted by royal predecessors of Boudicca, the warrior queen of the Iceni tribe who revolted against Rome in AD 60. The solid gold staters – each weighing just over five grams – were made between 40BC and AD 15. They were buried in a plain, wheel-thrown pottery vessel, possibly inside some sort of rectilinear religious compound, between 15 and AD 20. Although it has not yet been proved, it is likely that the hoard represented part of the accumulated wealth of an individual or community and that it was buried as a votive offering at a time of a political stress, drought or other natural disaster.

[magicmountain]

[magicmountain]

NEWSFLASH

Macedonia's government has renamed a main highway after the ancient conqueror Alexander the Great, whose ethnic origin is one part of the thorny 17-year dispute between Macedonia and its southern neighbour Greece over Macedonia's name. Government spokesman Shefik Duraku told local Alfa TV that "Alexander of Macedon" will be the new name of the country’s main highway that runs from Serbia to the north to the Greek border to the south as part of the pan-European Corridor 10.

Duraku added that the main soccer stadium in Skopje would be renamed to Arena Philip the Second, after Alexander's father, and the same name was chosen for the planned cargo airport near the central Macedonian town of Stip.

Local media have speculated that such moves, guaranteed to provoke vehement protests from the Greeks, are part of the government’s “plan B” after Athens blocked Macedonia's membership to NATO last April, and indicated it would veto the country's European Union entry as well. Greece says Alexander was a Greek hero and the name Macedonia implicates territorial claims on its own northern province of the same name. A move last year to rename the Skopje airport to Alexander the Great raised a storm of protest in Athens.

[magicmountain]

"The night before the consummation of their marriage, Olympias dreamed that a thunderbolt fell
upon her body, which kindled a great fire, whose divided flames dispersed themselves all about, and
 then were extinguished. And Philip, some time after he was married, dreamt that he sealed up his wife's
body with a seal, whose impression, as be fancied, was the figure of a lion." – Plutarch

[magicmountain]

Here is beauty.

[magicmountain]

Many things won Alexander the affection and admiration of his forces. On one occasion he arranged a furlough for recently married men, enabling them to spend the winter with their wives in Macedonia. After battles, Alexander visited the wounded, examined their wounds, praised soldiers for their valorous deeds and honoured them by a donation in keeping with their accomplishments. He shared the spoils of war with them. Whenever there were spoils after a siege he cancelled the debts of his men, making no inquiry as to how the debts were incurred. The conquest of Persia gave up a lot of wealth which was given to the troops and land was often given to soldiers as well. As for those who fell in battle, Alexander arranged for a splendid burial. The parents and children of the fallen men were exempted from all taxes and services. He treated his soldiers like family, and would talk too many of them. Alexander also gave soldiers time off and let older soldiers go home. He would also hold Olympic style games in many parts of the empire especially after important victories. He did this to give the soldiers entertainment and to make them happy.

[magicmountain]

[magicmountain]

[magicmountain]

Sunset in Babylon By Raphael Lacoste

Curtius describes Alexander's entry into Babylon after the Battle of Gaugamela

Moving on to Babylon, Alexander was met by Mazaeus, who had taken refuge in the city after the battle [of Gaugamela]. He came as a suppliant with his grown-up children to surrender himself and the city. Alexander was pleased at his coming, for besieging so well-fortified a city would have been an arduous task and, besides, since he was an eminent man and a good soldier who had also won distinction in the recent battle, Mazaeus' example was likely to induce the others to surrender. Accordingly Alexander gave him and his children a courteous welcome. Nevertheless, he put himself at the head of his column, which he formed into a square, and ordered his men to advance into the city as if they were going into battle.

A large number of the Babylonians had taken up a position on the walls, eager to have a view of their new king, but most went out to meet him, including the man in charge of the citadel and royal treasury, Bagophanes. Not to be outdone by Mazaeus in paying his respects to Alexander, Bagophanes had carpeted the whole road with flowers and garlands and set up at intervals on both sides silver altars heaped not just with frankincense but with all manner of perfumes. Following him were his gifts - herds of cattle and horses, and lions, too, and leopards, carried along in cages.

Next came the Magians chanting a song in their native fashion, and behind them were the Chaldaeans, then the Babylonians, represented not only by priests but also by musicians equipped with their national instrument. (The role of the latter was to sing the praises of the Persian kings, that of the Chaldaeans to reveal astronomical movements and regular seasonal changes.) At the rear came the Babylonian cavalry, their equipment and that of the horses suggesting extravagance rather than majesty. Surrounded by an armed guard, the king instructed the townspeople to follow at the rear of his infantry; then he entered the city on a chariot and went into the palace. The next day he made an inspection of Darius' furniture and all his treasure, but it was the city itself, with its beauty and antiquity, that commanded the attention not only of the king, but of all the Macedonians.

[Nikki]

Hi Jo, where have you been?  Beautiful pics, especially the shot of Babylon at sunset.

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BTW who's the nude dude