The Ancients - The Murders of Alexander the Great

Episode Date: October 22, 2023

This episode contains strong language, and references to sexual assault.Alexander the Great - conqueror, legend, murderer. After ascending to the throne at aged 20 in 336BCE, his rule started with mass executions and political assassinations - themes that would follow throughout his tumultuous reign. But why was Alexander's reign so bloody, and what does it tell us about Hellenistic society at the time?In this special crossover episode with History Hit's new podcast 'After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds, and the Paranormal', Tristan chats to Dr Anthony Delaney and Dr Madeline Pelling, about this bloodthirsty moment in ancient History - and together they delve into the violent rule of Alexander the Great. With funerals riddled with assassinations, murderous brawls, and asking whether Alexander was truly dead when they started the embalming process - welcome to After Dark, taking you down the shadiest routes of history.You can listen to After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds, and the Paranormal here.Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code ANCIENTS sign up now for your 14-day free trial here.You can take part in our listener survey here.

Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the Ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit. With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabataeans, and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. It's The Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. And in today's episode, well, it's a special one. We're talking about the murders of Alexander the Great.

We're going to be exploring these crimes, these killings of figures close to Alexander during his reign and just before. And it was an absolutely brutal time to be alive. We're going to start with the assassination of Alexander's father, King Philip II. The bloody purge that followed as Alexander secured his control of the kingship, and then a series of terrifying killings that occurred over the course of Alexander's reign as a result of either conspiracies or drunken brawls, particularly the story of Clitus the Black. That is a pretty gruesome one. This is all to come, and it's special not because it's just Alexander the Great,

but also because I am the guest. I headed to a studio near History Hit HQ a week or so ago to be interviewed by the hosts of a new History Hit podcast. They are the historians Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling. Now, Anthony and Maddy, they are brilliant. They work so well together. It was a delight to be interviewed by them for the podcast, which is called After Dark.

Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal. That's going to be released every Monday and Thursday on History Hit. They've already got episodes out on murders in ancient Rome and the origins of Halloween. They've already got episodes out on murders in ancient Rome and the origins of Halloween, so go and check out After Dark right after you've listened to this special crossover episode today. I really do hope you enjoy, and here I am talking all

things The Murders of Alexander the Great. Hello and welcome to this episode of After Dark, Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal. We are doing a really special episode today. We are doing a crossover episode with Tristan Hughes, the presenter of The Ancients, which I'm sure you all listen to, know and love as I do. We're going to be talking about murder under Alexander the Great. Anthony, we're both 18th century historians. I feel a little out of depth in the ancient world. Do you know who Alexander the Great is?

I mean, I've heard of him. He's not in my phone contacts, but I've heard of him. Sure, sure. But I'm going to defer to Tristan. Tristan, tell us a little bit about Alexander LeGray. What do we, how would you sum him up on a dating profile if you had to? Oh, jeez. And you do now. Right, okay.

Well, first of all, don't worry, I haven't got him in my phone contacts either. Okay. So quite elusive in that respect. He is, well, in a dating profile, well, I guess very charismatic, very athletic, but also on the negative side, very, as his reign goes on, more and more megalomaniac, paranoid. And let's just say there are quite a few murders during his reign, too, that he orchestrates. You don't want to get on his bad side. Fantastic will be the wrong word to say. He's an extraordinary figure, a great conqueror, but also one you don't want to upset there are red

flags is what you're saying there are quite a few red flags yes yeah there are things there to lead on a tinder profile and there's things to leave off yeah no the megalomaniac thing i'm gonna leave that one off things you wouldn't want to reveal until maybe you know like seventh yeah i was gonna say second no that's more generous yeah yeah no seconds too it's too much it's a lot about you and it's a lot it's a while since I've been dating. That's what it says. Okay, so he's this kind of, this figure of sort of mythical status, although he was a real person. Before he becomes the man, the myth, the legend, how does he begin?

What are the origins of Alexander? The origins of Alexander. Well, the story is, I mean, the date we normally have for his birth is the 21st of July, 356 BC. So Alexander the Great, you're right, he's very much this kind of mythical figure now because there are so many fantastical stories that now surround him. I mean, during the Middle Ages, for instance, these Arthurian stories of Alexander become medieval bestsellers. And in a couple of stories, there's one where he goes to the bottom of the ocean in an ancient submarine, another when he develops a flying contraption and goes flying into the sky and all of that. So dissecting the actual story, the factual story of Alexander the

Great from the later legend is a challenge in itself. And sometimes we have to rely on what we see as our most accurate sources, which are figures like Arian, who's using another figure called Ptolemy, who was one of Alexander's companions and so on. But we can get a good outline of who Alexander was. So going back to your question, he's born in the mid-4th century BC. He is a royal son. He belongs to this royal Greek family called the Temanid or the Argeid line. royal Greek family called the Temanid or the Argeid line and they were the family that ruled a kingdom that is now in northern Greece, the kingdom of Macedon. His father is a man called Philip II and Philip is always the starting point when you explore any part of Alexander's story

because Philip lays the groundwork for Alexander when Alexander becomes king at the age of 20 to then go and conquer the superpower of the time, which is the massive Persian Empire, which stretched from Turkey to the Indian subcontinent. What Philip does is he transforms Alexander's kingdom, the kingdom of Macedon, from this kingdom, basically a backwater in the Greek world into becoming the dominant power on the Greek mainland. So that's Alexander's backstory. He's born into royalty. He inherits a very powerful kingdom. And then he uses it as the base from where he goes on to conquer large swathes of territory in the Near East and beyond. So how does he come to the throne? And how does he, is it just a passing away? Or is it something a little bit more? No, no, no, no, no. Of course not. Of course, this is after dark.

So straight away, we're in with the murders and the assassinations. I think the first thing to stress is that the whole Macedonian succession, it's not like the succession of the crown today in the United Kingdom, where there is lots of pomp and ceremony, but it's the passing of a monarch and then there's the new monarch. And it's all quite well choreographed. In the Macedonian succession, it's always chaos

and it's very much, there's no settled succession. If you want to succeed, your dad or whoever came before you, you normally have to knock off a few other rivals who are lurking about and also wanting the Macedonian kingship. So when Alexander's dad Philip came to the throne he actually had a few other challenges to the

throne that he has to defeat in battle or get others to kill on his behalf, these pretenders. And then he also spends 10 years killing three stepbrothers who he also saw as a threat. So first thing to set in stone here is that with Macedonian successions at the time of Alexander, they're always chaotic. There's always murders. It's always bloody. And it's the same with Alexander because the first murder we come to is his dad, Philip II. He's not that old at the time. I think he's in his 40s or his 50s. He's assassinated at his daughter's wedding ceremony. This is very Game game of thrones that's a ruined wedding i thought my wedding was rough it is he's a red wedding kind of thing isn't it but he's

assassinated and the story behind this is interesting in its own right because the official story is that philip one of his guards a man called pausanias, had previously been Philip's lover. Philip had several wives, but he also had male lovers too. And apparently, this figure Pausanias, Philip had then kind of thrown to the side, got bored of him, and then moved on to someone else. And Pausanias had then basically been gang-raped by some of Philip's companions at a previous, another wedding feast, actually, a wedding feast a couple of years earlier or a year or so earlier, maybe less than a year, but relatively recently. Pausanias has, you know, had this great disgrace. He wants revenge and Philip doesn't give him the revenge.

He basically pushes it aside and Pausanias is feeling greatly aggrieved and he decides right i'm going to get my own back at philip by assassinating him and so what he does in plain sight of everyone at philip's daughter's wedding ceremony in this great public theater he assassinates philip the second himself and he dies in the process he tries to escape and he is killed there is thoughts as to whether he had any accomplices and he probably did alexander the great his son is sometimes implicated and he would have motive i mean it's looking suspicious right he's set to inherit the throne his father's died convenient that just points something you just said that just points to something. You just said Alexander the Great, but he must have been just

Alexander the Normal at that point. He was absolutely Alexander the Bogstand Normal at that point, absolutely. Alexander the may have murdered his father, may not have done. I'd say he didn't do it. I have no proof of that.

It just doesn't feel like he did. That's a bold claim. I don't know. Anyway, go on, sorry. I would actually kind of agree with you. I don't think he does, but we can never know for sure. However, as I mentioned earlier, there are several other figures who could have seized the throne when Philip dies.

And so Alexander kind of taking action there, he can actually almost get a foot ahead of the others, which he does. And he is named the new king. Because he needs to, right? Like as soon as his father dies, he needs to assert himself. Yes, exactly. So he is sometimes being seen as, was he involved to an extent in the assassination of his father? Maybe, we'll never know. There's also a theory that Alexander's mother, Olympias,

Angelina Jolie, in that 2004 epic we were talking about before recording. The most important historical source, obviously. Well, there you go. She might have been involved too but it's unclear. What Alexander does is he very much pushes any blame away from himself and basically to help cement himself on the throne he blames potential rivals to his throne. Two brothers who also have royal blood in them, a rival Macedonian noble family. straight away he blames those two brothers and says you were involved with Pausanias you were helping him murder my dad and so you're gonna die so he really takes control of the situation and he's twisting it to his advantage whether or not he was involved

absolutely super quick and these two brothers you know they don't have much time to react there is a third brother who's saved for now but these two brothers when it comes to Philip's funeral not much later they're killed at the funeral they're basically sacrificed at the funeral basically because alexander's convinced these family events are a shit show for want of it's a real shit show i mean it's absolute chaos weddings funerals deaths galore this so now alexander i'm still not alexander the great but he's kind of alexander the cunning at this point alexander the cunning and alex Alexander not to be messed with straight away. I mean, he also, because they're very religious, they believe very much in the omens and what happened.

The morning of Philip's assassination, a soothsayer had read the signs and said, oh, it's going to be a good day today. It looks great. And so he's also used as a scapegoat. So he's murdered. He's killed alongside those two brothers at Philip's funeral. The soothsayer. The soothsayer, basically because he got the omens wrong that day. He's blamed because obviously Philip died that day.

So it wasn't going to be a good day. It's also his fault. So he gets murdered straight away as well. I mean, that's so interesting as well, isn't it? I mean, we're laughing, but there's something there about, I mean, it is hilarious in the scale of it. But there's something there about the real investment in magical thinking in the ancient world, right? And the fact that if you predict something wrongly as a soothsayer, it can be a matter of life and death. And you can be blamed because you should have seen these things coming because what you do is a real art and it has tangible impact on the world, right?

So Alexander becomes king. He's not quite Alexander the Great yet. How does he maintain control? He's come to the throne, whether or not he's involved on a route that is chaos-y. He's had to justify it. He's had to already take revenge and kind of, you know, deal out some quote-unquote justice. So how is he going to maintain his kingship? By taking out even more revenge and making sure that there's no potential challenges to his rule before he then embarks on his great campaigns in the East. He needs to basically get rid of any potential threats and make sure that they are killed at Philip's funeral. He then decides, right, who are these other potential threats to me now that I am king? Now with the Macedonian royal family, Philip,

his father, was polygamous. He had married seven different wives and so he had many different children. And the last wife that he marries was a Macedonian noblewoman called Cleopatra. last wife that he marries was a Macedonian noblewoman called Cleopatra. So not Olympias, who gives birth to Alexander. Now this Cleopatra had married Philip basically just a year earlier, something like that. But what's important for this story is that her family, another noble Macedonian family, her uncle was a figure called Attalus. And where this gets tricky is that at a wedding feast, at the ceremony of that marriage to Philip and Cleopatra, the year before Philip's assassination, Attalus had toasted them and basically said, with Alexander present, may you have legitimate sons. And, you know, God bless

this marriage. I'm so looking forward to when you produce an heir who is going to be the next king of macedon and alexander is absolutely furious when he hears this because atlas has basically just said out loud alexander you're illegitimate you're nowhere getting near the throne you better watch out buddy and one of the reasons behind that is because olympias alexander's mother wasn't actually a macedonian she came from a neighbouring kingdom and was kind of derived as being this barbarian figure, even though she actually was married to Philip for diplomatic reasons. But anyway, I digress. So Attalus and Alexander don't have that very good relationship. And so when Alexander takes the kingship right after Philip's death, because he's on the scene, he's on the spot, he's proclaimed king, he gets the most important nobles in Macedon behind him and the support of

the army. Attalus is nowhere in sight. He is actually the other side of the sea preparing a small army for invading the Persian empire. But as soon as Alexander kind of settles in, he's like looking at other potential rivals and he looks straight away at Attalus. And he sends an official to go to Attalus and basically to bring him back to Macedon. And if he resists, to kill him. Attalus does resist. He gets no protection from the other figure who's leading that army. And he's assassinated straight away.

He is murdered straight away as well. So Alexander didn't like him, saw him as a threat. that army and he's assassinated straight away he is murdered straight away as well so alexander didn't like him saw him as a threat he later calls atlas the greatest enemy he ever had and so he's removed straight away the last figure that he has to murder he has to get rid of before he goes east so it's quite a list but this is kind of alexander straight away he's getting through them yes good yeah good pacing he is he is well actually before i get to that figure i must also mention astellas's niece cleopatra you know she's now a widow she basically just married philip a year earlier she's got a an infant daughter with philip she might also have a son it's unclear but she's murdered as well well she's forced to commit suicide and her

young daughter infant daughter is killed it's brutal. It's probably not Alexander, this one. This is probably Alexander's mother, Olympias. But it's still another murder. All in the cause. Well, kind of thing. And it is kind of Game of Thrones horrific kind of levels. And then there's one more figure that Alexander removes, which is his cousin, a man called Amintas. Now, Amintas actually had a stronger claim to the Macedonian throne as Alexander did.

And there's this story that maybe Amintas was urged to make a claim for the kingship by his wife, who was also Alexander the Great's elder half-sister. It's all very confusing and kind of familial and all of that. But whatever actually happened to Amintas supposedly does, he's arrested and he's killed executed straight after as a threat to alexander so within a couple of years within a year or so suddenly you have all of these big figures either noblemen or princes who have been murdered or executed under charges of treason by alexander but that's so important for him to kind of feel

safe and then going east and starting this great conquest against the persian empire so in answer to your question about you know what he kind of does to kind of solidify and this is kind of what he does more and more revenge more and more murders more and more killings to try and secure his throne to try and shore up the family business. If you think about like, if you think kind of about the profile of that where you're talking about the disappearance,

well, the murder of all of these kind of prominent figures in the course of, what, 12 to 18 months kind of a time after Alexander comes to succeed.

If you think about it in contemporary terms, I know it's not exactly comparable, but like, if you can imagine like well-known political figures just suddenly being taken out. I mean, again,

it's not a straight comparison time-wise, but people would know this was happening. People would have opinions on this. This isn't just some shady figure necessarily. They might be doing shady things, but they're very much

public figures. And their deaths are taking place in public arenas often right like at public events at funerals at weddings that this is very much all playing out with witnesses who's doing this people will know well you know this is likely alexander are linked to alexander's cause that they will have an idea that he's behind this in one way or another this is where alex Alexander needs the support of these other leading nobles first before he goes on doing this kind of killing spree. Because these nobles have a choice now that Alexander has been proclaimed king. Do they support the king?

Or do they support this figure who the king is targeting? And when I mentioned Attalus, he loses the support of this one other figure who is with him that other side of the sea from where Alexander is. That was his son-in-law i believe a parmenion this general is related by marriage to atlas and he has a choice to make he is like do i kind of let this agent of alexander do i step back and let him get rid of atlas and show my loyalty to the crown but lose a a relative in the process? Or do I protect Attalus, maybe try and get this small army on my side, but then spark a civil war and, you know, absolute chaos in Macedon? So this is what those nobles had to kind of think about. And Alexander

plays it well enough that, I mean, Parmenion, he does decide to step back and he sacrifices Attalus, basically, that enough of the most important no does decide to step back and he sacrifices Attalus basically that enough of the most important nobles decide to support Alexander rather than any of these potential rivals it's such an interesting balance of like political intrigue and familial tension and how people navigate those and what they prioritize is absolutely fascinating now Tristan I want to talk about is it Philotas yes yes so the, yes. Yes, so the Philotas affair. This is where it gets extremely Game of Thrones-y, right? It does, it does.

So this is four years into Alexander's campaigning against the Persian Empire. So it's 330 BC. He's actually already conquered great centres like Babylon and Susa, Persepolis, Ecbatana. And he's now marching even further east into one day Afghanistan. He's at a place called Farah, which I believe is just in Afghanistan, not Iran. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong on that. But basically, Alexander, there's a Macedonian, one of his soldiers, someone we don't actually know much about his background.

But we hear in a couple of our sources that there's this figure called Dymnus. He's quite dim, actually, as well there's that nominative determinism it's just called dimness so it's d-y-m-n-u-s and he does prove quite dim what follows but basically he loves this other young man who's in the army and then he reveals to this young man and says you've got to keep your word you've got to keep this secret but i'm hatching a plot i'm in on a plot to kill alexander the great and this young male lover of his is just i'm not not too sure about this not too sure about this but then he pretends to say like okay i promise i won't tell anyone about this at all you know you can trust me go straight away to his brother to say by the way this crazy dude here dimness he's actually planning to murder alexander the great and you never tell a twink a secret that's all i

have to say it just is not worth it you can't you can't wise words yes i've learned learn the hard way so his brother then decides to go to the tent of Alexander, King Alexander. We won't call him Alexander the Great. We'll call him Alexander. Yeah, he's pretty great at the moment. He's doing pretty well. He's doing pretty well. Yeah, but of course, this guy is just an everyday Macedonian figure in the army.

He's not one of the leading generals, so he's not going to be able to butt in and see Alexander go straight into his tent. Alexander goes straight into his tent. He has to kind of tell this information to one of Alexander's leading generals, adjutants, who would have been on watch and they would have relayed the information to Alexander. And so what happens is he approaches the tent and he sees the figure who is there on that day on duty is the man Philotas. So Philotas is the commander of alexander's elite heavy cavalry he's a young man he's very confident he's actually portrayed being quite arrogant in the sources as well he's disliked by many of the other generals because he's too arrogant and he pisses people off basically but he is a really important figure in alexander's army and a figure that alexander trusted and had known for many many years his father was also parmenion who we talked about earlier that other general i'll come back to

that a bit later i don't want to confuse it a bit too much at the moment so the brother approaches the tent sees philotas and says philotas i've got some disturbing information here i know of a plot to kill alexander and it's going to happen in a few days time. And Philotas is just like, okay, this is really, really disturbing news. Thank you for telling me. I'll go and let Alexander know when I'm in the tent and chatting with him.

And the guy goes off. He's very happy because I've done my duty. Philotas is now going to tell Alexander and we've now stopped this potential assassination attempt on Alexander the great's life wait today nothing happens and he gets a bit concerned and so he goes back to the tent and he sees philotas again he's just like please don't don't forget what i told you okay there is this

assassination attempts which is going to happen in a few days time we've got to act and philotas yes yes i'm sorry i couldn't tell him yesterday but i will tell him today i promise and he's just okay okay and i think and so he goes away again and nothing happens once again so this is the third day now this is like a nursery rhyme the brother's just like hang on i've told this guy philotas twice now about this plot and nothing has happened i've had no follow-up no announcement or anything like that he obviously hasn't told alexander and so what he does next time is that he goes to get someone else to tell alexander he doesn't tell philotas again because he's now getting suspicious of philotas if he's in on the plot so what happens is he tells someone else who is actually the guy in

charge of alexander's armory and bizarrely stumbles upon this guy then stumbles upon alexander in the bath and then goes alexander there's this assassination attempt uh you need to be worried and he tells alexander straight away and then alexander meets this brother and just like so how long ago did you hear of this plot and he was like i heard about it three days ago it's like three days why did you wait this long to tell me you must be in on a plot as well and he's just no no no i did i went to the tent i told philotas twice and he never relayed the information to you it's not looking good for philotas it's not it's not at all and basically alexander he forgives this brother because i mean he's convinced and he was right that this brother

had actually gone straight away to tell him of this plot but it's philotas who had not told him he brings philotas in it's a very elaborate account i'll try and sum it up because this elaborate account is filled with speeches that almost certainly didn't happen but i think the bare bones of it is probably true and supposedly he then asked philotas you know philotas i've heard that there was this assassination attempt story and you were supposed to tell me and you never did and Philotas was like yeah I did that's true but this guy seems like such an unreliable source that I didn't really want to bother with you with it and I'm sorry for not telling you but I just thought this just seemed like rumor and there wasn't much truth behind it at all so I didn't bother with telling you and basically philotas

was playing and he probably was just the negligent card he was just being a bit of an idiot and alexander at first supposedly forgives him just like okay okay i forgive you that was understandable i mean he probably was quite an unreliable source so fair enough don't do it again kind of thing the problem is is that philotas as i mentioned earlier he's very arrogant and he's not liked by the other generals the other generals then have a chat with Alexander later saying, Alexander, you can't let this slide. This guy I know is important. He's one of your leading subordinates. But he has just deliberately and knowingly not told you about this threat on your life.

He may well have been in on the conspiracy. And this gets a short story. This gets Alexander's guard up. He then decides to change his mind. For Lotash, there's a very emotive scene where he's invited to dinner the next day, not knowing that Alexander and those other generals there had decided, basically, you're going to go on trial. And if found guilty, you're going to be executed.

And then he's put in chains. There's a great trial of all of these speeches. And the generals really show their true colours of basically saying that he's put in chains. There's a great trial of all of these speeches and the generals really show their true colours of basically saying that he's guilty. Alexander then decides that he's guilty as well. He's later tortured and forced to confess under torture. And then he's ultimately executed. He does confess under torture,

but I think most people probably would, right? You just want the pain to stop. So I think it's more than likely that Philotas wasn't involved in this conspiracy. But because of his negligence and because he's really annoyed these other generals, they bring him down. They want his power.

They want him gone. And so he's ultimately executed, along with the actual conspirators of the plot who were also revealed. So it doesn't end go over for Lotus. I mean, one of the things that strike me about this is, you know, we're talking about murder under Alexander the Great, but actually it must have been the case,

was it not? You tell me, Tristan, but like it must have been the case that murder was almost an acceptable tool with which to rule in that this is happening so frequently and at such a high level and with such prominent figures without much repercussion.

I'm sure there's rumblings here and there, but it seems to me that it's a tool with which he can execute his power. And also that it's not a question of whether or not you execute people, but just who you deal that punishment out to, right? It's almost the calculation comes in who's going to end up dead. There's so much calculation behind it because if I execute this figure, who has he got supporting him? Who is he related to? If I get rid of him, do I have to get rid of her and him and her and so on and so forth?

And actually, Riffalotus is a great example because his dad is the all-important Parmenion, one of Alexander's most senior generals, who was then a key governor a bit further west. And so what Alexander ultimately does is he sends a hit squad to go and murder Parmenion as well. You know, sins of the son is also sins of the father. Parmenion was probably involved in this conspiracy. So Parmenion, unknowingly,

you know, not knowing that the last of his sons, he's already lost two other sons fighting for Alexander, had just been murdered by Alexander. You know, you can imagine him getting the news and then straight away he's killed,

he's murdered himself. So this was absolutely brutal by Alexander removing not just one of his key subordinates but also his son too it was absolutely gruesome so Alexander's faced all these threats coming to the throne and then once he's maintaining the throne there's people supposedly plotting against him left right and center but there are also people who do protect him and save his life occasionally. They seem to be in the minority. Who is Clitus the Black? We know that he supposedly saves the life of Alexander the Great, right? Good old Clitus the Black. So Clitus the Black is one of Alexander, another kind of like Parmenion, one of these older generals who had first served with his father, Philip, and helped kind of create this Macedonian empire, and then is a senior general under Alexander as he campaigns in the east.

And the story that you're alluding to is that in the first battle, Alexander fights against the Persians. He's in the thickest of the fighting, and two Persians attack him. Alexander is able to beat off the first of the Persians, but then he's whacked on the back of the head by the other. And he's defenseless. And this Persian raises up his scimitar or whatever weapon he's got. And he's about to land a death blow on Alexander.

And Clitus the Black on another horse rides up and cuts off the Persian's arm and saves Alexander from being killed right at that first battle. So right at the beginning of the campaign. So Clitus, that's the story of him saving Alexander's life. And he serves with Alexander's army for several years following that until they're in modern-day Uzbekistan, ancient Marikanda. That's where they have a great feast a few years later once they've done all of this conquering.

And Cleitus is still with Alexander at this time. However, he's grown more and more disillusioned with Alexander. Alexander, by this point, now thinks he's the son of a god. And yeah, he's getting that in his mind and he's allowing people to bow down before him almost as if he's a god as well. This kind of Persian practice, which the Macedonians hated, particularly of the older, dare I say, more conservative Macedonians, lower C. Sorry to interrupt you, Justin, but that's very interesting there that Alexander is taking on some of the traditions and cultural characteristics of the people that he is colonizing why is that so unpopular why does he choose to do that how is

it kind of imbuing him with power if it's unpopular amongst his own people because it is you know it's kind of that local kind of respect idea that the locals can do and alexander now believing that he is the son of a god. I mean, the Greeks hate that idea that if you're alive, that you are comparing yourself with the likes of Heracles and so on, which Alexander was doing. This was something that Clitus the Black had very much to stomach. Alexander didn't make his Macedonians kind of do that bowing down. But even them just watching others do it really annoyed them because it was against how they viewed the world. They thought it was quite, it was sacrilegious, sacrilege.

So that's made Alexander not very popular with some of these figures, which includes Clitus the Black. To add insult to injury, this is modern day Uzbekistan, an area called Sogdia, and it's one of the most unruly provinces of Alexander's empire. He spends a lot of time having to fight there and crush local resistance. And ultimately, Alexander decides, I need a lot of forces up here i need a strong garrison and i need a really capable guy to look over this northeastern frontier of the empire and he chooses kleistis and kleistis is not happy about that he doesn't want to be stuck there this is a bad posting this is a bad really bad posting for him and so all of this kind of combines and then you have this feast that night lots of drinking involved big booze up right usual part of macedonian elite culture these massive booze ups and kleitos is there and then you have all these sycophants around alexander basically

lording his achievements saying yes you are obviously the son of Zeus. And, oh, you've done so much more than your father ever could. I mean, forget Philip. He did barely anything. You've conquered the Persian Empire. You're great. Screw him. As a name, it's kind of funny for somebody who was very powerful.

But anyway, sorry. That's beside the point. I apologise on behalf of After Dark to all the Philips. Stop it. Philip. Just good old Phil. Sorry. Go on behalf of After Dark to all the Philips. Stop it, like, Philip. Just good old Phil. Sorry, go on. Sorry to Phil there.

Yeah, sorry. All the Phils. But, I mean, with Clytus, you know, he's had a few to drink. He's already quite annoyed because he's given this posting he didn't want. And now he's just having to listen to all of this crap, you know, of the king that he had served before Alexander and greatly respected. And he starts launching an absolute tirade

against Alexander saying like, how can you say this? Your dad did all of this stuff when you were just a little kid. And also Clytus had to save Alexander in battle. So he brings that up. But also Clytus, stay quiet. Like, come on.

Have you not seen Alexander's travel records? Yeah, we know what this is. We know what this power dynamic is. I think we know what's coming. He does raise that thing like, you know, I saved your life at the Granicus. And now you're bowing to these sycophants, you know, saying that you're almost on the level of Heracles. And, you know, you take all of these honors and so on and so forth. It makes me sick.

That's kind of the stuff that Cleitus is saying. And he goes on deriding Alexander. I love this story. It's written by a Roman historian, this particular story. So it's probably absolute nonsense. But he was saying that your uncle, who was also called Alexander confusingly, and led a campaign, a different campaign, west into Italy and had died in Italy. But he alludes to his uncle saying like your uncle

just before he died was saying how you campaigned against the Persians and you were just fighting against women he went and fought in Italy and was fighting against real men kind of thing like that and that's just nonsense but it's in the lute written by the Romans but basically he throws all of these

insults at Alexander and Alexander's like you bastard and he's supposedly what he says in one of the sources. Fantastic. It's very EastEnders at this point. It is kind of. But Alexander gets more and more annoyed. It's actually very well done in the 2004 epic film Alexander with Colin Farrell, which is a weird choice for Alexander, but still.

And basically, one version of events has Clive just being escorted out of the room before he can say any more, but then he comes back. Big mistake. I wanted to shout more. And Alexander, at that point, he grabs either a spear or a pike from one of the guards nearby or by his side, and he runs Clitus through. So one of his most senior subordinates, you know, another one. Another one has just bitten the dust. That's three senior subordinates he's killed in the space of a few years. How does this play out for Alexander?

I mean, is there a reluctance to support him, to be close to him? Or are people still desperate to be close to this great ruler? They're still very desperate to be close to him because actually many people who just abide by Alexander and think, OK, I'm going to support this. I mean, just don't you dare to kind of like voice big opinion like that kleiters very much went over the line kind of thing yeah so accept your postings and don't drink too much at the bar well alexander supposedly mourns for three days or so afterwards it's just like i can't believe this because what makes this even more kind of tragic is that kleiters's sister called lanike had been alexander's wet nurse um so he supposedly mourns just like you know oh like lanike must you know she's back in maston you know she raised me and now how have i repaid

her now that i'm an adult i've just gone and killed and butchered her brother see that i think that intimacy is really interesting because i don't know about in the ancient world but certainly in the early modern world in europe there's a sense that wet nurses imbue the children that they're feeding with something of their own characteristics whether it's I mean in reality it was often diseases would pass that way and you know the infant mortality rates were kind of attributed to that eventually but there's yeah there's a sense that anxiety sometimes in like elite homes in particular that wet nurses who were of lower classes feeding aristocratic offspring would give them something of their sort of you know their lower class morals or whatever it was and it's like a real you know anxiety that people have so I don't know if that's the same in the

ancient world but there's definitely an intimacy there that's kind of really broken by Alexander I guess I think I think that's kind of what they want to hint at is you know it is so intimate kind of thing and that the fact that he's actually bloody done this you know it adds insult to injury kind of thing so that's why that the clouds at the back of all the murders by alexander during his reign of people over his campaigns this is the one that's always like the striking scene because it is just it's very good drama just saying that is the mother of all hangovers as well for the next few days you're like oh lads i went too far that was too much yeah yeah so he throughout his career as king he's killing people left right and center as he used to maintain his power what happens to alexander in the end tristan what becomes tell me somebody kills him great well i mean we could do

a whole podcast on that in its own right. So basically, I think the historic story, and I think the most accurate story, is that Alexander, through a combination of illness, maybe also grief, many war wounds that he'd suffered over the course of his campaigns, he kills over and dies after a very quick illness in Babylon in late May, early June, 323 BC.

It all starts once again at one of these great booze-ups where supposedly he has a great time and then the next day has a terrible hangover. But that hangover then develops into a fever, which gets worse and worse and worse over the next week or so, ultimately leading him to become mute. And then a few days after that, when he's consigned to his bed, you know, it's all over and he dies so that story is that he just dies from illness and there's no kind of like a bad play behind the scenes however as with many things that becomes more legend a bit later and there is an added story that he is in fact poisoned yeah yeah see i think something we often come up against on this podcast is the desire by historians to diagnose illness in the past and especially causes of death. But there is some quite gruesome details about Alexander and there has been work done on this, right?

That his death and what happens to his body after he's died or maybe not so much. You know, it's fascinating stuff. So do you want to talk us through some of that? I know what you're alluding to. Yeah, come on then. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I always find it really interesting with these scientists and people who are medical backgrounds

who kind of look at the sources and try to suggest what Alexander died of because ultimately you are using either one or two lines of ancient literature to base your whole argument on. And the truth is, unless they do find his body one day mummified and in a very good state somewhere under Alexandria, or maybe in the

tomb of St. Mark at Venice, who knows, then they might find out some more information about it. But the story that you're alluding to is a great story. Basically, as soon as Alexander dies, there is absolute chaos, right? And in Babylon, it takes a week or so for this chaos to subside. The army is in mutiny. The generals are forced out of the city. They get back in control of the mutinous army, ultimately. And then they have the ringleaders of that mutiny trampled to death under the hooves of elephants. So it's really kind of brutal stuff.

More Game of Thrones after Alexander's death. Kind of why I think the aftermath is more interesting than the actual Alexander story. Supposedly,, for these generals, who would then decide what was going to happen to Alexander's empire, they don't think about Alexander's body for a whole week and a half. And then they come back to Alexander's body. Remember, this is June. This is Babylon.

This is sweltering summer heat. What would you expect? A rotten corpse? Is that unusual for the traditions of the time as well, in terms of dealing with a dead body? To long yes especially his body well exactly and that's why i think actually this story is later fiction to kind of but the crux of the story is that rather than seeing a rotting corpse when they finally come back and attend his body what they find is alexander's body in pristine condition and so that has led some to theorize from this one passage from one source the roman source courteous but actually alexander had not died

on the 11th of june 323 bc but in fact entered a coma or being paralyzed entered a catatonic state and so was actually still alive now i don't know the medical stuff behind that the science whether you could still be alive for a week and a half in that kind of state but even if he was alive then he wasn't alive for much longer because in come the priests the egyptian priests and they embalm him in the egyptian manner so they take out all of his organs so even if there is any hint of truth that alexander was actually paralyzed and didn't die you know he's killed straight after quite horrifically if you think of that he's just extracting all of his organs kind of thing so um i'm gonna call it that didn't happen no like i think it's a good story but like i kind of wish it did but there's

no way they'd leave that body no way even with the chaos there's no way with the importance of burial and everything like that and attending the dead, that someone or people didn't attend the body of Alexander and prepare it straight away. They wouldn't be washed it over, whatever it is. Absolutely. Sorry to whoever came up with that theory, but you're wrong. That's the end of that. Anthony rules it.

I think that's probably all we've got time for. But Tristan, thank you so much. Where can people listen to the ancients? Oh, just like with After Dark on your favourite podcast player whether that's Spotify, Apple or another podcast player of your choice. Fantastic. And I have to say, I've been really enjoying the mini-series

you've been doing on Pompeii. Oh, yes. So listeners will very much enjoy that. And there's a lot of After Dark-related topics in there as well. So do go and check that out. Thank you very much for listening to After Dark today. You can follow us along

and even leave a review if you've enjoyed it. And I think the overall message from today's podcast is very much don't attend a royal wedding in the ancient world. Which I was planning to do this weekend, but now not so much. Change your plans, change them. Tristan, thank you very much. It's been an absolute delight and we will see you all for our next episode soon. Well, there you go. There was myself talking all things the murders of Alexander the Great with the historians Maddy Pelling and Anthony Delaney. It was a really fun episode to record. Definitely do go and check out After Dark, Myths, Misdeeds and the Paranormal,

the newest podcast from History Hit, which has just launched. Last things from me, you know what I'm going to say. If you have enjoyed today's episode and you want to help us out, for me you know what i'm going to say if you have enjoyed today's episode and you want to help us out well you know what you can do you can leave us a lovely rating or comment on apple podcasts on spotify wherever you get your podcast from it really helps us as we continue to grow the podcast to get bigger and better and to share these amazing stories from our distant past with you and with as many people as possible. But that's enough from me and I will see you in the next episode.