THE CASE OF THE KING WHO DIED TOO SOON

Alexander the Great survived battles, arrows, sieges, deserts, mutinies, and more than a decade of relentless conquest. By the age of thirty-two, he had destroyed the Persian Empire, reshaped the ancient world, and become one of history’s most famous military commanders.Then, in Babylon in 323 BC, Alexander the Great suddenly fell ill.Within days, he was dead.More than two thousand years later, the mysterious death of Alexander the Great remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of ancient history.The Case of the King Who Died Too Soon: Alexander the Great, His Mysterious Death, and the Tomb the World Lost investigates the final days of Alexander the Great, the competing theories surrounding his death, and the disappearance of one of archaeology’s most famous lost tombs.Was Alexander the Great killed by typhoid fever, malaria, pancreatitis, neurological disease, or another natural illness? Was he poisoned by someone inside his own court? Did powerful Macedonian generals have a motive to remove him? And why did ancient writers later claim that Alexander’s body showed unusually little decomposition after his death?The mystery only deepened after the king died.Alexander’s generals immediately struggled over succession and control of his empire. His body became a political prize, eventually falling into the hands of Ptolemy and being taken to Egypt. Alexander the Great was ultimately buried in Alexandria, where his tomb became one of the most famous royal burial sites in the ancient Mediterranean.For centuries, the tomb of Alexander the Great was known. Roman rulers reportedly visited his remains, and ancient writers described his burial place in Alexandria.Then the tomb disappeared.Today, the lost tomb of Alexander the Great remains one of the most important unresolved questions in archaeology. Historians and archaeologists continue to debate where Alexander was buried, what happened to his remains, and whether his tomb may still survive beneath modern Alexandria.Drawing from ancient historical sources, modern scholarship, archaeology, and medical theories, James P. Patterson examines the evidence surrounding the death of Alexander the Great, the ancient poisoning accusations, the succession crisis that followed, the journey of Alexander’s body into Egypt, and the mystery of his missing tomb.This is not another conventional Alexander the Great biography. It is an ancient historical mystery and cold-case investigation into the final days of one of history’s greatest conquerors.Readers interested in Alexander the Great history, ancient Macedonia, ancient Greece, Babylon, Alexandria, the Persian Empire, ancient warfare, historical mysteries, lost tombs, archaeology, ancient kings, unsolved history, and famous deaths in history will find a detailed investigation into a case that remains open more than two thousand years later.