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00:00Throughout history there have been many great military leaders, but their achievements are dwarfed by those of one Macedonian king, Alexander the Great, the most successful commander of the ancient world.
00:22But at the age of 32, he died under mysterious circumstances.
00:26Was it disease or murder?
00:34Over 2,000 years later, experts are reopening the case.
00:40As we unearth the ancient secrets of Alexander the Great, can science finally reveal the truth?
00:56To be continued...
01:16The life and death of Alexander the Great has become the stuff of legend.
01:32By 26, he had carved out an empire stretching from the deserts of Egypt to the mountains of Afghanistan.
01:39But in the 13th year of his reign, at the age of 32, he fell sick and died.
01:54Ever since, generation after generation of scholars have failed to discover what caused the death of Alexander at such a young age.
02:03Now, modern science will attempt to succeed where history has failed.
02:09Former commander John Greve was one of Scotland Yard's most successful detectives.
02:16As head of the anti-terrorist squad, he helped stem the tide of IRA bombings in Great Britain.
02:23He has cracked hundreds of modern murder cases, from gangland killings to sinister poison.
02:31Now, Greve will use all his experience and expertise to try to get to the truth about Alexander's demise.
02:39Alexander dies at the age of 32.
02:45At the height of his power and fame, he's about to embark on another expedition of theft and violence.
02:54And there is a cast of suspects who have never been resolved in circumstances that nobody truly understands.
03:02Although little is known about Alexander's death, the events leading up to it are well documented.
03:12In order to crack the case, Greve will have to re-examine the existing evidence.
03:17Minute by minute, he'll analyze Alexander's final days.
03:28In 323 BC, Alexander was at the height of his power.
03:32From his base, in the captured city of Babylon, he now plans to attack Arabia.
03:44His most ambitious plan yet, the capture of Arabia would be a key milestone in his relentless campaign to expand his empire.
03:52Just days before the planned invasion, Alexander is drinking heavily with friends at a banquet.
04:02Like that night, he is taken ill.
04:05After 12 days of sickness, at the age of 32, Alexander dies.
04:11He left behind one of the biggest mysteries of all time.
04:19Who or what killed the greatest commander of the ancient world?
04:27He was a Macedonian king.
04:30Macedonian kings just don't lie down and die in their sleep.
04:34Was it disease?
04:36West Nile fever fits in with the diagnosis like a hand in a glove.
04:40Or murder.
04:43I can bring a toxicology angle to the story that hasn't been considered before.
04:48And I believe he was poisoned.
04:52For Greve, this very cold case needs a closer look.
04:58The death of Alexander is a deeply suspicious death.
05:02And to identify a possible cause of death,
05:05Greve calls in a team of medical and forensics experts from around the world.
05:09Between them, they'll use the very latest scientific techniques to try to uncover the truth.
05:17And they'll perform an unusual experiment
05:19to recreate Alexander's documented medical condition
05:23and monitor his symptoms closely.
05:26But Greve has one final analytical method which he hopes will help him find out what happened to Alexander.
05:35On every case, he builds a complex matrix of thoughts, connections, and visual references
05:41known as a mind map.
05:43It may appear unconventional, but it's a technique that has made him one of the most successful detectives
05:49in the history of the British police.
05:55Greve hopes that by pulling together these different techniques,
05:58he and his team will finally solve the case.
06:05First, he wants to investigate Alexander's background
06:08to better understand the legendary king
06:11and to see if it holds any clues.
06:17In ancient Macedonia, a kingdom renowned for its military strength,
06:22Alexander was brought up as a warrior prince.
06:25Aristotle, the great philosopher, was his tutor.
06:35As a Macedonian prince, he grew up with a passion for hunting, drinking, and war.
06:41But, aged just 20, he witnessed the brutal assassination of his father, Philip.
06:59Alexander was made king of Macedonia, but its borders could not contain it.
07:04With a small force, the restless young king left his homeland.
07:14His sights were set on a greater prize, the Persian Empire.
07:21Alexander pitched his Macedonian units against Persia's vast armies.
07:25And, against all odds, he defeated them in battle after battle.
07:40Next to fall was Egypt, where Alexander was made a god.
07:48His engraved image in the Temple of Luxor
07:51still shows him as the first European pharaoh.
07:55Alexander was made in the middle of the world.
07:56He was made in the middle of the world.
07:57Searching for the edge of the world, and still in his 20s,
08:01he drove his army east, into the unknown.
08:06He crushed the warlords of Afghanistan.
08:10Then stormed on to lead the attack against the Rajas of India.
08:16Alexander led by example.
08:18He was amazingly inspiring.
08:19The men revered him, stunningly brave.
08:23The companions have to dissuade him from risking his life on a scale that you, I, everybody watching,
08:28we couldn't possibly do this.
08:29We'd be scared out of our wits.
08:31He did it every day.
08:33Naming cities after himself wherever he went.
08:36In just over ten years, he carved out an empire covering two million square miles.
08:41To John Grieve, it seems as if Alexander never knew when to stop.
08:48In the weeks before his final illness, he planned yet another ambitious campaign.
08:53He had enormous plans for a conquest of Arabia.
08:58He was already looking westward to conquering Italy and to conquering Carthage.
09:03If he had lived, the prospects of these conquests might have changed the history of the world.
09:09And so naturally, people want to know why did he die as young as he did.
09:15To begin his investigation, Grieve is on the hunt for evidence.
09:19He wants to establish a precise date for Alexander's death.
09:25The British Museum in London houses thousands of clay tablets from ancient Babylon in Iraq.
09:33Dr. Irving Finkel has unearthed one that relates directly to the case.
09:37So what does this fragment tell us about Alexander?
09:41This fragment tells us about the death of Alexander in Babylon.
09:45It's only a fragment, but it's very important.
09:47It's part of what we call an astronomical diary.
09:49Now, the guys who wrote this, they made close observations of things in the heavens
09:53and phenomena like the height of the river and the price in the market.
09:56And they wrote these things down in chronological order.
09:59This was the secret work of the Magi.
10:02The scientists of their day, their precise diaries combine readings from the stars
10:07with accurate records of events in Babylon.
10:11Can their chronicles help Grieve with his investigation?
10:13So the man who wrote this says that there were clouds and the king died, that's all.
10:20And we know from the associated material that this must be dated to the reign of Alexander,
10:24therefore the king is Alexander.
10:26And by examining the bits of astronomical information,
10:29we can say that it comes out to June 11th, 323 BC.
10:33It's tantamount to the death certificate.
10:35So what we're looking at is a piece of evidence that was created very close to the time of Alexander's death,
10:45within days of his death.
10:46That's exactly right.
10:47John Grieve has his first piece of hard evidence, the date of Alexander's death.
10:56But to put together a strong case,
10:59he must now establish what the historical sources say about the events leading up to this date.
11:09Many of the sources were written years after the event and give conflicting accounts.
11:14So just as he would on a modern case, Grieve decides to call on an expert witness.
11:23Robin Lane Foxx of Oxford University is one of the world's leading authorities on Alexander the Great.
11:31It is the most disputed immediately, the most controversial death in antiquity.
11:37Lane Foxx explains that the ancient sources divide into two main camps.
11:41One describes Alexander as having died from a fever.
11:46The other claims he was poisoned.
11:50Detailed in the pages of a book of romantic legends about Alexander,
11:53the poison plot has always intrigued historians
11:56because it contains precise information that cannot be found anywhere else.
12:01It names very specifically and not implausibly people who were present at Alexander's last party
12:08and divides them into those who knew and those who didn't of a plot to kill him.
12:12The other explanation that Alexander died from a fever is detailed in a source known as the Royal Diaries.
12:25Claiming to give a detailed account of Alexander's last days,
12:28Lane Foxx can analyze the diaries and provide Grieve with a time frame for his investigation.
12:34From the Babylonian tablet, you can date his death to the 10th, 11th of June.
12:40If you turn to the Royal Diaries, which are themselves not above suspicion,
12:46you have a period of some 12 days between the party and the time of death.
12:54How do you fill the gap?
12:55If he is to discover the truth about what really happened during those 12 days,
13:02Grieve must treat the historical sources with the same caution he would an unreliable witness.
13:10To test the theories, he will use the latest forensic tools available.
13:15Did Alexander die of disease or was he poisoned?
13:21Or will Grieve's research unearth an entirely new explanation?
13:25Grieve uses historical accounts of Alexander's physical condition to construct a virtual body.
13:38The sources say that Alexander was riddled with wounds.
13:42Once in battle, a Persian sword cut his head to the bone.
13:47In India, he nearly died when he took an arrow to the chest, possibly puncturing a lung.
13:53His thigh was ripped open at the Battle of Issus.
13:58Arrows shattered a shin bone and pierced an ankle.
14:06Other physical damage was self-inflicted.
14:09Could Alexander's lifestyle have been his downfall?
14:17Grieve turns to his expert on ancient medical conditions, Robert Arnott.
14:21He was a heavy drinker, he was a heavy party-goer, and of course, this would have had a drain on his body.
14:29It would have reduced his immunity in many respects.
14:32Heavy drinking, his liver could well have been shot to pieces.
14:36He may have had kidney problems.
14:38And he may well have been treated by his doctors for many of these symptoms.
14:42If Alexander's body was already weakened by wounds and hard drinking, there's a chance that a fever, as described in the royal diaries, might have been fatal.
14:56But what could have caused the fever?
14:58The diaries say that Alexander was drinking heavily at a banquet at the end of May.
15:07That night, he developed a high temperature.
15:13And died 12 days later.
15:16One traditional explanation has been that Alexander was struck down by malaria.
15:20He'd been in the Babylonian, Mesopotamia, and Iraq marshes only a few weeks, perhaps a month or two before.
15:28And many people think he may have caught malaria there.
15:30It was dormant in him.
15:31They had no quinine.
15:33How is he going to stop it?
15:34He can't.
15:34We can hardly stop it nowadays.
15:38Cerebral malaria, the strain that could have killed him, has very particular symptoms.
15:43But do they match Alexander's?
15:45Grieve calls in Dr. John Marr, who has extensive experience of tropical diseases.
15:56Cerebral malaria is where the parasites literally eat up the red blood cells, turning the blood to a thick black soup.
16:03They can develop heart failure.
16:04They can develop black water fever, which is a passage of black urine.
16:10But the royal diaries make no mention of black urine.
16:13And there's something else which doesn't add up.
16:18Cerebral malaria causes a high temperature, which then fluctuates over several days.
16:24But the diaries say that Alexander's high fever was sustained throughout his illness.
16:29For the first time, Dr. Marr believes it is possible to rule malaria out of the investigation.
16:37He analyzes Alexander's recorded symptoms again and finds a clue he believes has been missed until now.
16:45He emails John Grieve with an entirely new diagnosis.
16:53He believes Alexander could have died from West Nile fever, a disease carried by birds and mosquitoes.
17:00I wanted to look at the larger picture surrounding Alexander's death.
17:08So I went back a few pages before he became ill and started reading Plutarch's description of his approach to the city of Babylon.
17:16There was a striking passage that others had missed.
17:25What Dr. Marr found was the description of a sinister event, seen at the time as a bad omen for Alexander.
17:32The king was said to have seen a flock of birds pecking at each other.
17:40The birds then fell from the sky, dead.
17:47Dead birds.
17:48They died in front of him.
17:50And this was an omen.
17:53But it also, to me, it was a clue.
17:55Dr. Marr made the connection between this event and one that occurred over 2,300 years later.
18:03In 1999, New York City also faced an outbreak of dying birds.
18:10They were suffering from West Nile fever.
18:13Just two or three weeks later, the first human case was recorded.
18:17A mosquito-borne viral infection, West Nile fever can be caught by humans as well as birds.
18:28In humans, the virus causes an extremely high temperature, which lasts for days.
18:36This pattern exactly fits the account of Alexander's illness in the royal diaries.
18:41John Grieve is intrigued by the West Nile fever theory.
18:50But as a detective, he only wants to deal in proof.
18:54It's a very interesting development, and it's something totally new.
18:59Got some doubts.
19:01He knows that the fever account was written over 20 years after Alexander's death.
19:07So its reliability is questionable.
19:11Some believe it was simply a cover-up to murder.
19:18In this state of investigation, you've got to keep an open mind
19:20and have a look at the other theories that have held sway for a long time, not least poison.
19:30The theory that he's poisoned is one that's worth taking seriously.
19:34There was an awful lot of poison in the ancient world,
19:36and there were an awful lot of people who hated Alexander,
19:39feared him, were jealous of him, and would have been happy to murder him.
19:44Grieve's sights now turn to a place where the assassination of kings was common.
19:50Alexander's homeland, Macedonia.
19:52If you can look for a murderer, then you start off looking amongst people who know the people who've been killed,
20:07people who've got access and opportunity.
20:09The sources tell us that the man behind the poison plot was Antipater, governor of Macedonia.
20:19He had been stripped of his powers by Alexander and feared for his life.
20:24Antipater planned to assassinate Alexander in Babylon,
20:27using one of his sons, Cassander, to fetch poison from Macedonia.
20:34Another son, Iolus, is already in Babylon, ideally placed to poison the king.
20:41A Macedonian power struggle at its most deadly.
20:44Could Alexander have been the victim of this family plot?
20:48The Macedonian nobility is notable for its cruelty.
20:53This is a world in which feud, blood feud, murder, violence, these are all the order of the day.
21:02And Antipater may have felt desperate, but Alexander could be ruthless.
21:07He'd possibly killed more human beings in warfare than anyone else in the history of the world had done up to that date.
21:15With Alexander on the throne, you never knew how good the odds of living to the next day were.
21:21Alexander might turn on you in an instant.
21:24Alexander could even kill good friends.
21:28One drunken argument led to murder at the point of a spear.
21:31Alexander's violence could have given someone very close to him a motive to assist in the poison plot.
21:44Aristotle, his former tutor and one of history's greatest philosophers,
21:49is said to have supplied the poison in revenge for the execution of his nephew.
21:56Within months of Alexander's death,
21:58Aristotle was publicly accused of involvement.
22:07Grieve's research confirms that Antipater's son Cassander
22:11did make the 1,500-mile journey from Macedonia to Babylon just before Alexander's death.
22:22What's more, Grieve learns that all was not well at Alexander's army headquarters.
22:28And Alexander was becoming an increasingly remote, godlike figure.
22:38Alexander might have called himself the great king,
22:41the king of kings in a style of the Persian monarchs,
22:44but to his men he was simply Alexander the Macedonian, the son of Philip.
22:47They did not enjoy his grandiosity.
22:50They did not enjoy his unending desire
22:52to continue marching to the ends of the world in conquest.
22:58And now Alexander was determined to invade Arabia and its hostile deserts.
23:05Only a year before, 60,000 men, women, and children had died in a similar expedition.
23:12Is that going to Arabia that he had planned just one step too far for those who'd already felt that they'd gone to the end of the world with him?
23:32If you get the right set of circumstances and the right triggers,
23:36then loyalties and allegiances change.
23:40Even the closest relationships can change.
23:43Grieve sees how resentment and distrust among the military commanders in Babylon
23:48could have given Cassander confidence as he planned the murder.
23:51It is said that his first step was to make contact with his younger brother, Aeolus.
24:03As a detective, what interests Grieve is that the family had both a motive to kill Alexander
24:08and direct access to him.
24:11The records claim that Aeolus was the man who actually killed Alexander.
24:18As his cupbearer, responsible for pouring the wine at banquets,
24:23Aeolus was ideally placed to administer the poison to Alexander's own cup.
24:30But what actually happened that night?
24:33Grieve uses the records of the plot to recreate the crime scene.
24:37At the end of May, 323 B.C., Alexander was invited to what would become his final banquet.
24:51Grieve has learned that several guests were in on the plot,
24:55including his admiral of the fleet, the host of the banquet,
24:58and even his personal doctor.
25:07The conspirators divert Alexander's attention
25:13while Aeolus pours the poison into a massive ceremonial cup
25:17to be used only by Alexander.
25:32Unaware of any threat, Alexander drains the cup in one.
25:37At first, it is said he just seemed drunk.
25:49But about half an hour after he drank the toast,
25:52he began suffering intense pain.
25:57Some say he cried out as if struck by an arrow in the liver.
26:01The 12-day countdown to his death had begun.
26:14John Grieve feels he has established both motive and opportunity
26:18to support the claims of the poison plot.
26:21But he still wants proof.
26:24Dr. Leo Shep is a specialist from the world-renowned Poisons Institute in New Zealand.
26:38He'll be using the latest medical simulation techniques
26:41to help test the possible effects of poison
26:43during the final days of Alexander's life.
26:46He took the wine on board, and he became unwell within half an hour.
26:52And when I read that, it made me quite excited,
26:55and it suggested to me that we may have a poison.
26:59Dr. Shep needs to find a poison known to the ancient Greeks
27:03that could have caused Alexander's reported symptoms.
27:07Sharp pain after half an hour.
27:09Vomiting.
27:10Difficulty in talking and increasing weakness.
27:15There were about probably 25, 26 poisons, toxins that I looked at
27:20and discounted all but two or three of them.
27:24After painstaking research,
27:26Dr. Shep thinks he has identified a poison
27:28that could fit this time frame.
27:31A plant called white hellebore,
27:34which grew widely in Alexander's homeland.
27:37It's quite distinct.
27:37You've got these veins running through the leaves.
27:40It's a perennial plant.
27:41It can go up to 0.5.
27:42But it's the harmless-looking root that contains the poison.
27:50Grieve asks Dr. Shep and his toxicology team
27:53to analyze a sample of hellebore root.
27:59He wants to discover if it contains toxins
28:02which could cause Alexander's fatal symptoms.
28:07Could this be the evidence they need?
28:13A final moment of truth.
28:15A moment of truth.
28:17We'll put it on the machine.
28:21So, Leo, this is it.
28:23It's finished.
28:23Okay.
28:24Have the tests revealed the root's deadly secrets?
28:28It looks positive.
28:30The peaks on the graph match up with readings of known toxins.
28:33The significance of finding these peaks
28:37is that we've got these principal toxins present.
28:40This root is potent.
28:42This root is a nasty failure which can cause serious toxicity.
28:47After this initial breakthrough,
28:50Dr. Shep searches modern medical cases
28:52to establish exactly how hellebore affects the body.
28:55He discovers an incident of hellebore poisoning
29:01in the Korean War in the 1950s.
29:07Soldiers became seriously ill
29:09after hellebore plants were accidentally included
29:11in their vegetable soup.
29:13What we found was very interesting
29:18regarding some soldiers in the Korean War.
29:2114 soldiers were given a soup
29:23that was accidentally spiked with hellebore.
29:26Within half an hour,
29:27they came down with symptoms
29:28that were similar to what we see with Alexander the Great.
29:33The records show that hellebore's most dangerous effect
29:36is to slow down the heart rate.
29:39This can be fatal.
29:40By the time the doctor saw the soldiers,
29:45they were weak.
29:46Their pulse was very weak.
29:48They were lethargic.
29:49They were vomiting.
29:50They can't respond to outward stimuli.
29:52The extremities are cold.
29:54We're dealing with soldiers
29:55who are experienced to harsh conditions
29:57smitten by this plant.
30:00And we see the similarity with Alexander the Great.
30:04In Hellebore,
30:05Grieve finally has a poison
30:06that matches Alexander's symptoms
30:08but can it fit the 12-day time frame for his death?
30:15To find out,
30:16they travel to a state-of-the-art simulation unit in London
30:20where Dr. Shep and his medical team
30:24plan to use a computer-controlled dummy body.
30:27And even his blood pressure
30:29is not really coming up.
30:32Its blood pressure,
30:33breathing,
30:34and pulse rate fluctuate
30:35to show the effect of Hellebore
30:37at key stages
30:38over the 12 days
30:39leading to death.
30:45The poison plot suggests
30:47that Alexander may have been given
30:48several doses.
30:50So Dr. Shep works out
30:51a series of steps
30:53starting with a first dose
30:55at the banquet.
30:57My reading of the texts
30:59suggests that he took on board
31:01the wine
31:01of that night
31:02when he's carousing
31:03with his officers.
31:05Liquids rapidly absorbed
31:07from the stomach.
31:08Taken up in the body,
31:10the heart rate starts dropping.
31:12The blood pressure starts dropping.
31:14We start to see it now.
31:15There's a drop in the heart rate.
31:17They have difficulty breathing.
31:19At that state,
31:20they become very weak.
31:21If you notice his breathing,
31:28if you put your hand
31:29on his chest,
31:30you can sort of feel
31:32he's barely breathing
31:33extremely slow.
31:34You can even see
31:35that the heart rhythm itself
31:37is very, very abnormal.
31:38So you're getting abnormal beats.
31:40So the poison is actually affecting
31:42the way the heart beats.
31:44But this first dose
31:46given at the banquet
31:47may not have been enough
31:49to kill Alexander.
31:50The trouble is,
31:51within a day or so,
31:52the haliboa could start
31:53to be eliminated
31:54from the body.
31:57It's clear to Green
31:58that a second dose
31:59was required.
32:01And the account
32:01of the poison plot
32:02suggests how it might
32:03have been given.
32:07Alexander had asked
32:08for his throat
32:09to be tickled
32:10with a feather
32:10to help him vomit.
32:12Common medical practice
32:14for the day.
32:15They possibly,
32:17with the tickling
32:17of the throat,
32:18introduced more
32:19of the poison.
32:21Now, we know
32:22one gram of powder
32:24is enough
32:24to kill somebody.
32:25The body is weak.
32:27The elimination processes
32:28are compromised.
32:30When this second dose
32:32is simulated,
32:33the dummy's vital signs,
32:34heart rate,
32:35blood pressure,
32:35and breathing,
32:36deteriorate steadily.
32:37that he was in no state
32:40to be able
32:40to get up and walk.
32:41Absolutely.
32:42He's almost about
32:43to go into
32:44a cardiac arrest now.
32:45In the simulation,
32:46the body responds
32:47to the third dose
32:48with a fatal collapse.
32:49And beating
32:50at a random manner.
32:53This man is almost
32:55about to die,
32:56really, now.
32:57And...
32:57Here he goes.
32:58That's it.
32:59I find it utterly inconceivable,
33:24and I would need
33:25an awful lot
33:26of evidence
33:26before I started
33:27putting Aristotle
33:28a suspect here
33:30of any kind.
33:31Sounds like
33:31killing your own son,
33:32almost.
33:35As he closes in
33:36on the truth,
33:37Greaves' experience
33:38of modern poison cases
33:39prompts him
33:40to look at this ancient one
33:41from a totally
33:42different perspective.
33:43He must now re-examine
33:49whether the death
33:50of Alexander
33:50was even murder.
33:54From the evidence
33:56assembled,
33:57John Greaves
33:57sifts out
33:58the strongest clues.
34:03First,
34:04he's convinced
34:05that the 12-day
34:06time frame
34:06for Alexander's
34:07sickness
34:07is believable.
34:10It's supported
34:11by both main sources
34:12and it would be
34:13unlikely
34:14that anyone
34:14would fabricate
34:15such a prolonged decline.
34:19Greaves also believes
34:20his poison team
34:21have come up
34:22with a potential
34:23cause of death.
34:25Hellebore.
34:26The simulation
34:26showed that it
34:27could have killed
34:27Alexander
34:28over 12 days.
34:34This is the
34:34scheme of things.
34:37So,
34:3869.
34:39But there is
34:42one fact
34:43which increases
34:44Greaves' distrust
34:45of the plot theory.
34:47Poison was not
34:48the favored weapon
34:49of the Macedonians.
34:55I don't think
34:56that poison
34:57was part of
34:58the macho
34:58Macedonian tradition.
35:01If somebody
35:02was going to kill
35:02Alexander,
35:04he would have been
35:05struck down
35:06with a sword.
35:09If he wasn't
35:10murdered,
35:11the other
35:12traditional view
35:12is that he
35:13became sick,
35:14continued drinking,
35:16and then collapsed
35:17into his fatal
35:18decline.
35:24But there is
35:25something missing
35:26from the accounts
35:27that has always
35:28bothered Greaves.
35:30Neither version
35:31of Alexander's death
35:33details his medical
35:34care during
35:35those last days.
35:37There's lots
35:38of bits missing
35:38from this jigsaw
35:39puzzle,
35:40but one of the bits
35:40that's missing
35:41is where were
35:42the doctors,
35:42because they appear
35:43in other parts
35:44of the account
35:45of Alexander's
35:47campaigns.
35:49As Greaves
35:50explores
35:50the practices
35:51of doctors
35:52in the ancient
35:52world,
35:53he makes
35:54a startling
35:54discovery.
35:57Hellebore,
35:58the poison
35:59which allegedly
35:59killed Alexander,
36:01was also used
36:02in small doses
36:03as a medicine.
36:06Hellebore purges
36:07the body.
36:09It cleans you out.
36:11And purgatives
36:12in the understanding
36:13of the period,
36:13the changing
36:14of the humors
36:15within the body
36:16was what medicine
36:17was all about.
36:18And Hellebore
36:18would have been
36:19right up there
36:20at the top
36:21as one of the
36:21medicines they
36:22would have used.
36:23But of course
36:24in large amounts
36:25it's a poison.
36:28Greaves now searches
36:29for any evidence
36:30that Alexander
36:31might have been
36:32taking Hellebore
36:33as a medicine.
36:36We have to remember
36:37that he may
36:38have been young
36:39but that he had
36:40pushed his body
36:41beyond the breaking
36:42point for many years.
36:43In particular
36:44he'd suffered
36:45a grievous wound
36:46in the retreat
36:47from India
36:47and he could not
36:48have been
36:49in the healthiest
36:50of shape.
36:53But Greaves' research
36:54has uncovered
36:55something intriguing.
36:57Hellebore was not
36:58only used to treat
36:59physical illness
36:59but emotional trauma too.
37:03Re-examining
37:04the historical sources
37:06Greaves searches
37:07for another reason
37:08why Alexander
37:09may have been
37:09prescribed Hellebore.
37:11Eventually
37:12he finds one.
37:21He was more
37:23than Alexander's
37:24leading general.
37:25He was his
37:26emotional prop.
37:28Alexander once
37:29declared
37:30Hephaestian
37:31loves me
37:31for myself
37:32not as the king.
37:36When Hephaestian
37:37fell sick
37:38and died
37:39Alexander
37:39was so devastated
37:41that he ordered
37:42the building
37:42of a five-story
37:44funeral pyre.
37:48To establish
37:49the effect
37:50of this traumatic
37:51loss on Alexander
37:52former Commander
37:53Greaves
37:54consults top
37:55forensic psychiatrist
37:56Dr. Harold Burstein.
37:58Once that loss
38:00occurred
38:00once Alexander
38:01was beset
38:02by grief
38:02his loss
38:04would have
38:05left Alexander
38:06with a burning
38:07rage
38:08a grief
38:09which knew
38:10no bounds
38:11it's likely
38:13that he would
38:14have been
38:14not as able
38:16to protect himself
38:17not as able
38:18to use
38:18his best judgment
38:19he would have
38:20drank more
38:21all of which
38:22would have made
38:22him more vulnerable.
38:23for any
38:24interpersonal problems
38:25which may arise.
38:26Dr. Burstein
38:27explains to Greaves
38:28that Alexander's
38:29immune system
38:29and behavior
38:30could have been
38:31seriously affected
38:32perhaps causing
38:33his doctor
38:34to treat him.
38:35One potential
38:35form of treatment
38:36for mood swings
38:38for post-traumatic
38:39stress disorder
38:40could be
38:41hell of a
38:42a piece
38:44of the puzzle
38:44suddenly falls
38:45into place
38:46it prompts
38:47Greaves
38:48to reach
38:48an entirely
38:49new conclusion
38:50could Alexander
38:51have died
38:52of an overdose
38:53of medicinal
38:54hellebore
38:54the crux
38:56of this
38:56may lie
38:57in that
38:57he may have
38:58been poisoned
38:58but he may not
38:59necessarily
39:00have been poisoned
39:00directly
39:02he may not
39:02have been poisoned
39:03intentionally
39:04he may have
39:05been poisoned
39:06as part of
39:07his therapy
39:08to determine
39:12the likelihood
39:12of this
39:13accidental
39:13overdose theory
39:14Greaves
39:15asks his
39:16toxicologist
39:17Dr. Shep
39:17to assess
39:18the dosage
39:19used by
39:20the ancient
39:20doctors
39:21here we've
39:23got some
39:24examples
39:24of how the
39:25ancients
39:25prepared the
39:26hellibore
39:26for therapeutic
39:27doses
39:28now I did
39:29some quick
39:29calculations
39:30and worked
39:31out how
39:32much
39:32hellibore
39:33would be
39:34in these
39:34doses
39:35his research
39:37shows that
39:38to encourage
39:39vomiting
39:39and purge
39:40the body
39:40patients
39:41were regularly
39:42given
39:43toxic
39:43doses
39:44and Dr. Shep
39:46discovers
39:46concrete proof
39:47about the
39:48risks
39:48of taking
39:49hellibore
39:50in the
39:521950s
39:53doctors
39:54tried to
39:55use it
39:55to reduce
39:55high blood
39:56pressure
39:56but its
39:58toxic
39:58effects
39:59proved
39:59just as
40:00dangerous
40:00as they
40:00had
40:012300
40:02years
40:02earlier
40:03what was
40:07intriguing
40:07about it
40:08was that
40:08it didn't
40:09stay long
40:09on the
40:09market
40:10because the
40:11doctors
40:11were concerned
40:12that the
40:13window or
40:14the border
40:14between what
40:15was therapeutic
40:16for treating
40:16the symptoms
40:17and what was
40:17toxic
40:17was too
40:18narrow
40:18if Alexander
40:20the Great
40:21was taking
40:21more and more
40:22hellibore
40:23in an attempt
40:23to restore
40:24his health
40:25accidental death
40:26becomes a
40:27real possibility
40:28he was a
40:30young man
40:30still in a
40:31hurry
40:31you know
40:32it's like
40:32even today
40:33I want to be
40:33out of hospital
40:34now
40:34I want to
40:34be discharged
40:35today
40:35because I've
40:36got so
40:36and so
40:36to do
40:36I think
40:38Alexander the
40:39Great
40:39died
40:39of a
40:40combination
40:41of himself
40:42together
40:43with what
40:44the doctors
40:45were pumping
40:45into him
40:46and towards
40:47the end
40:48they got
40:48it wrong
40:49Grieve considers
40:54the possibility
40:55that Alexander
40:56desperate to
40:56invade Arabia
40:57ordered his
40:58doctors to
40:59up his dosage
41:00of hellibore
41:01unknowingly
41:02taking risks
41:03with this
41:03dangerous
41:04medicine
41:04terrible thing
41:09though it
41:09might be
41:10maybe
41:10Alexander
41:11was so
41:11impatient
41:11to get
41:12well
41:12that he
41:13overdosed
41:14he wants
41:15to get
41:15better
41:16he wants
41:16to go
41:17to Arabia
41:17and
41:18the dosage
41:19is wrong
41:20after a
41:24year of
41:24investigation
41:25former
41:26commander
41:26John
41:26Grieve
41:27believes
41:27that
41:28modern
41:28forensic
41:28and
41:29medical
41:29techniques
41:30have
41:30finally
41:31allowed
41:31us
41:31to
41:31dissect
41:32the
41:32myths
41:32surrounding
41:33the
41:33mysterious
41:34death
41:34of
41:34Alexander
41:35the
41:35Great
41:35a man
41:38who
41:39in just
41:3910
41:39years
41:40became
41:40one
41:41of
41:41the
41:41greatest
41:41empire
41:42builders
41:42of
41:42all
41:43time
41:43a man
41:45whose
41:45legacy
41:46still
41:46lives
41:47on
41:47today
41:47had
41:52he lived
41:53we can
41:53only
41:54imagine
41:54how
41:54we
41:55would
41:55have
41:55changed
41:55the
41:55history
41:56of
41:56our
41:56world
41:57we
41:59have
41:59been
42:00here
42:02to
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41:46
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