THE HOMECOMING

326 BC

At 30, Alexander decided to turn back home. In the autumn of the year 325 BC, Alexander could have been seen in the neighborhood of Karaci, heading for Babylon, which in the meantime had become the center of his world and empire. He divided his army into three units:

1. His first unit was under Craterus' command and was made up of 3 bodies of phalanxes consisting of over 10,000 veterans (who were going back home this time to be transferred to the reserve); this first division also included 20,000 soldiers and 200 elephants that would leave the valley of the river Indus, cross the Bolan Pass, and make for the territory occupied today by Iran (this was a route that did not raise many difficulties).

2. His flotilla (or small fleet), commanded by Nearchus, would go down the river Indus, towards the Arabian Sea, following the shore, and then pass through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf and as far as Chrax (Alexandria). He did not come up against serious difficulties; the only problem he encountered was that he could not meet Alexander at Gwadar.

3. As for Alexander, he chose a rather strange route home. He crossed Makran's unfriendly desert, along the coast of the Arabian Sea, between nowadays' Iran and Pakistan. He was leading an army numbering approximately 80,00 foot soldiers and 18,000 horsemen.

The 1000 km between Karachi and Bampur are hostile, arid, barren and poor in water. Yet, when nature will have it its own way, water, rain, torrents, and floods can make their appearance when one least expects them. This is what Alexander and his army had to brave down the valley of the river Kech. The flood took them all by surprise, partially destroying the Macedonian army, weapons and military equipment included. After reaching the fertile Turbat Oasis, Alexander rested his army and offered his troops not only good drinking water and food, but also plenty of amusements. Approximately 140 km separate Turbat from Pasni, but the route is unexpectedly difficult. Alexander planned to get to the sea to meet Nearchus and his fleet. However, luck did not smile on Alexander this time: his exhausted army, in agonies with diseases, starving and thirsty, turned into a desperate horde, trudging across the merciless desert. Maybe Alexander's intention was to punish his unfaithful troops who had refused to follow him beyond the river Beas. They continued their march along the Arabian Sea shore and reached Bandar-e-Abbas where Alexander met Nearchus. Historian Arrian mentioned that their meeting was so touching that it moved them both to tears. Alexander's ill-nourished, sun-burnt, filthy-haired, but fearless soldiers met Nearchus' healthy, robust, untouched troops.

Plutarch's description shows the Macedonian (not Greek) officers as strongly built and having a remarkable appetite for drinking, sex and violence. They were wearing elegant clothes and were almost always blind drunk, spoiling for a fight.

Alexander reached Persepolis in January. In February he was at Susa. He changed

the capital of the empire to Babylon. In the meantime, his dear friend Hefaistion, who had married another one of Darius' daughters, died under

strange circumstances, according to some. Alexander would talk almost all his men into marrying local women and thus lay the foundations of a new people. As for the most stubborn of them, Alexander gave them their worthy reward and sent them home earlier,as veterans.

Alexander himself was always on the booze, according to the fragments (dating from October 324 BC), written by Eumenes of Cardia, his secretary.

The Macedonianking is a classical example of alcoholic. On the other hand, Plutarch in his turn described Alexander as an alcoholic, this fact accounting for the king's behavior during those years: megalomaniac, suspicious, maniacal, depressive, and abusive. From a medical point of

view, Alexander confirms this. The deficiency in vitamin B1 (thiamin) with alcoholics is characterized by mental disorders which can include even confusional states that can cause a form of apathy known today as the Wernicke encephalopathy (usually associated with a specific, ataxic gait and with the paralysis of the cranial nerve 6).

Can it be that Alexander suffered from this? The so-called Korsakoff syndrome - usually referred to as chronical alcoholism - is also frequent with alcoholics, and can lead to confusion and confabulation. If the liver is affected (alcoholic hepatitis), the symptoms include vomiting, fever, and jaundice (icterus). In cases of alcoholism, the cardiac disorders caused by the phosphate deficiency, associated with muscular exhaustion count among the most frequent symptoms. Also, a deficiency in magnesium is likely to cause tetany. The best known effect of chronical alcoholism is ...delirium tremens, whose signs are anxiety, trembling of the hands, mental confusion, hallucinations, and delusion. I personally consider he already suffered from the Korsakoff psychosis, associated with a deficiency in thiamin (vitamin B1) - typical of alcoholics, and also from the Wernick disease, which can trigger off mental problems, depression, cerebral lesions, and even death.

I would to mention David W.Oldach ,infectious-disease expert from the University of Maryland and historian Eugene N.Borza of Pannsylvania State University who were puzzled by historical accounts stating that Alexander's body did not begin to decay for days after his death They believe he most likely succumbed to ascending paralysis , a complication of typhoid fever that can slow down a person's breathing and make them look dead.

Alexander died on the 10th of June 323 BC, at about 33 years old, after lying in bed in a feverish state for more than a month. During that month he was apathetic, and manifested muscular dystrophy (weakness). Moreover, he was almost constantly mentally confused. Some accused the Greeks of having poisoned him. Yet, Plutarch writes that "hardly anybody had any suspicion that he had been poisoned."

Others hold that Olympia, his mother, was involved in his death; still others speak about Iolas, old general Antiparter's son, and suspect him of having administered the poison to Alexander. Aristotle himself was accused of having advised Antiparter to plot Alexander's death..."

Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator, suggested that the people should publicly thank Iolas for having poisoned Alexander, and liberated the Greeks from under the barbarian Macedonian yoke. The fact that Alexander and his friend Hefaistion died both under approximately similar circumstances and right after each other, could raise this suspicion. The botanist and philosopher Theofratus, Aristotle's friend, had thorough knowledge about strychnine. Actually, a combination of alcoholism and poisoning is not excluded.

However, one should not forget that those two men had made their way about the world, bearing up well against hunger, squalor, and diseases such as malaria, diphtheria, and dysentery; they were wounded and attended under the unfavorable circumstances of those times. Moreover, excessive drinking did not build up their health.

On the contrary. Diodorus Siculus would say, 100 years later: "Alexander did for the Macedonians what no other king had or ever would". The fact that he died poisoned or like any other alcoholic did not make much difference actually. What mattered though was who succeeded to the throne. Seemingly, on his deathbed, surrounded by his reliable generals - Ptolemy, Seleucus, Nearchus, and others - he told them: "May the strongest succeed me!"

Thus, Ptolemy, king of Egypt, created a Macedonian dynasty, which ended with the well-known Cleopatra. Seleucus, married to Apama of Bactrian, rebuilt Babylon and founded the Seleucid Dynasty. The conquistadors became kings.

As for Alexander's wives, Roxana is known to have killed Stateira, Darius' daughter. The former was later killed, in 313 BC, together with her son. No information whatsoever exists about Barsine and her son Heracles.

Olympia, Alexander's mother, was lost track of during the Macedonian civil war.

CONQUERED TODAY - TOMORROW CONQUERORS

The Greeks conquered by the Macedonians, subjugated and suffering at the latter's hands, were ordered to join the Macedonian army and die for Alexander's glory. However, the Greeks were the ones who later took over. They crossed Egypt and India and spread Hellenism along the routes once trodden by the Macedonian officers. Asia, India and Egypt were to be influenced by the Greek culture.

In Egypt, Alexandria became a center of civilization. Greek inscriptions were everywhere in Asia, India, and Pakistan. The once defeated Greeks were now the conquerors. What happened with Alexander's body - and his coffin - nobody could tell. On its way to Macedonia, it was stolen by Ptolemy and taken to Egypt, to Memphis, and from there, to Sema, where tens of thousands of pilgrims came to see him. Where Alexander's body was taken next is yet unknown. Michael Wood's theory about what would have happened in the world if Alexander had not died seems extremely interesting:

1. He would have built a pyramid bigger than the Giza one, in memory of his father, Philip II.

2. He would have built a naval force consisting of over 1000 battle ships with which he would have conquered the whole basin of the Mediterranean Sea.

3. He would have built a road connecting northern Africa to Gibraltar, harbors and military bases.

4. He would have erected 6 magnificent temples in memory of his friend Hefaistion, all of them wonders of the world, placed in Macedonia and Greece.

Today Alexander of Macedon is referred to as Alexander the Great; he has become no more no less than a Bulgarian, Albanian, or Greek (that beats it!) hero. This means the world is still fascinated by the courage of the young Macedonian who, more than 2000 years ago, set off, in the wake of his Carpatho-Danubian-Arryan-Pelasgian (or whatever you may wish to call them) ancestors, to conquer the WORLD.