Whatever Happened to Alexander the Great’s Nose?

Few figures in historical past have captured the creativeness like Alexander the Great. Conqueror of an empire stretching from Greece to the Indus Valley, pupil of Aristotle, and a grasp of navy technique, his demise in 323 BC on the age of simply 32 marked the top of an period. But, his passing was not the ultimate chapter of his story. As an alternative, it sparked a brand new saga – one in every of intrigue, betrayal, and centuries of hypothesis.

His physique, very similar to his empire, grew to become a contested prize. Historic accounts declare that his corpse resisted decay for greater than every week – divine proof of his godhood? His funeral procession, meant to hold him dwelling to Macedon, was hijacked in what can solely be described as one of many best heists in historical past, and rerouted to Egypt. As soon as enshrined in Alexandria, his mummified stays have been revered, looted, probably desecrated – after which, misplaced to time.

But, amongst these mysteries, one stands out as each weird and oddly poetic: what occurred to Alexander’s nostril?

The Mysterious Loss of life of a Conqueror

Within the last days of his life, Alexander was a person on fireplace.

Historic sources recount that in early June of 323 BC, whereas feasting on the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon, the king immediately collapsed with a raging fever. His situation worsened over the subsequent ten days – his voice failed, his energy light, and, wracked with extreme belly ache, he finally misplaced the flexibility to maneuver. Writing within the 1st century BC, the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus described how Alexander was “struck with ache” after consuming a big bowl of unmixed wine, a libation in honor of Heracles.

Because the fever consumed him, his generals – determined for steering and, extra importantly, to be taught who would inherit his empire – filed previous his deathbed. They discovered their king silent, unblinking, already midway to the underworld.

Then, between the night of June 10 and June 11, 323 BC, he was gone. Or was he?

Alexander’s demise stays one in every of historical past’s nice enigmas. Was he assassinated? A few of his personal officers believed so. Many later biographers, together with Arrian, Diodorus, and Plutarch, alluded to foul play. Writing within the second century AD, the Latin historian Justin alleged in his “Historia Philippicae” that Antipater, Alexander’s regent in Macedon, poisoned him with a slow-acting toxin smuggled from Greece – a poison so lethal it needed to be “conveyed within the hoof of a horse.” Researchers in 2014 proposed that the medicinal plant white hellebore (Veratrum album) may have been used to poison Alexander.

Trendy students have debated various explanations for Alexander’s demise, based mostly on their very own assessments of the signs recorded within the historical sources. Might his relentless years of consuming have led to acute alcoholic liver illness? Or was it malaria or typhoid fever, each endemic in Babylon? In a chilling new study, Katherine Corridor, a senior lecturer on the College of Otago in New Zealand, means that Alexander might have died from Guillain-Barré syndrome – a uncommon neurological dysfunction that would have left him paralyzed, but absolutely aware, entombed in his personal physique.

Surprisingly, based on Quintus Curtius Rufus (1st century AD), Alexander’s physique confirmed no indicators of decay for over seven days after his demise – leaving embalmers hesitant to start their work.

But, regardless of the trigger, Alexander’s physique discovered no peace. His bodily stays would quickly grow to be essentially the most coveted relic within the historical world.

The Stolen Corpse

Image the scene.

An unlimited, golden funerary carriage, gleaming within the Babylonian solar, begins its gradual journey westward. The construction is monumental, adorned with sculpted lions, towering columns, and golden reliefs depicting Alexander in battle. Pulled by sixty-four mules, it traverses the desert like a shifting temple to a fallen god.

However within the shadows, Ptolemy watches. 

One among Alexander’s closest associates and most trusted generals – and one of many highly effective Diadochi (“Successors”) who would carve up his empire – Ptolemy had fought alongside him for over a decade, witnessing firsthand his triumphs and conquests. However now, his loyalty lay not with the lifeless king, however along with his personal ambitions.

He is aware of that Alexander’s corpse is greater than a physique – it’s an emblem of energy. Whoever controls it could declare legitimacy over his huge empire. And so, because the procession winds towards Macedon, he strikes.

Someplace close to Damascus, in 321 BC, Ptolemy’s forces intercept the funeral cortege. The golden carriage, meant for a hero’s burial in his homeland, is forcibly rerouted to Egypt – the seat of Ptolemy’s new kingdom. The troopers seize the physique, its silent kind nonetheless draped in golden material. Instantly, the best funeral march in historical past turns into an audacious political coup.

“Ptolemy took possession of the physique,” wrote Diodorus Siculus, “and introduced it to Egypt, the place he laid it to relaxation as an object of nice veneration.”

In response to Quintus Curtius Rufus and Justin, Alexander himself had allegedly wished to be buried in the temple of Zeus Ammon at Siwa Oasis, and never alongside his father, Philip II of Macedon, at Aigai. However Ptolemy had different plans. He first positioned Alexander’s stays in Memphis, the outdated Egyptian capital, earlier than his son and successor, Ptolemy II Philadelphus (r. 284–246 BC), moved them to Alexandria, the town Alexander himself had based.

By 274 BC, Alexander’s tomb had grow to be a spot of pilgrimage, drawing kings, philosophers, and conquerors from throughout the identified world. To face earlier than his stays was to face within the presence of divinity. His tomb grew to become greater than only a resting place – it was the sacred coronary heart of a Ptolemaic cult, the place Alexander was worshiped not as a person, however as a god who had as soon as walked the earth.

However even in demise, his physique was not protected.

Centuries later, based on the Greek author Strabo (64 or 63 BC–c. 24 AD), Ptolemy X (r. 107–88 BC) defiled this sacred relic for wealth, melting down Alexander’s golden sarcophagus and changing it with one fabricated from glass. Some students imagine this “glass” was truly alabaster, a semi-translucent materials used for sacred enclosures and temple home windows. Whether or not an act of desecration or necessity, this alteration marked one more chapter within the lengthy saga of Alexander’s stressed corpse.

The Curious Case of the Damaged Nostril

In 48 BC, one other mighty conqueror stood earlier than Alexander’s stays: Julius Caesar.

On the time, Caesar was locked in a brutal civil warfare towards Pompey and had arrived in Alexandria searching for each refuge and allies. But, amid the political turmoil, there was one website he couldn’t ignore. Standing earlier than Alexander’s tomb, the nice Roman basic was transfixed. Right here lay the person who had reshaped the world, a warrior-king whose empire had stretched to the perimeters of the identified world.

Historic writers comparable to Plutarch have been keen to attract comparisons between the 2 males. Like Alexander, Caesar was a navy strategist of unmatched brilliance, a frontrunner whose ambition knew no limits. Alexander had swept via Persia like a storm; now, Caesar was poised to carry Rome to even larger heights. As he gazed upon the stays of the Macedonian king, it’s straightforward to think about him measuring himself towards the legend – a silent problem handed between the conqueror of the previous and the conqueror of the current.

But, it was not Caesar’s go to that would go away a long-lasting mark on Alexander’s stays.

In 30 BC, recent from his overcome Cleopatra and Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium, one other Roman entered Alexandria as its undisputed grasp – Octavian, the longer term Augustus, first emperor of Rome (r. 27 BC–14 AD).

He didn’t search out the temple of Serapis, the nice deity of Egypt. He didn’t supply sacrifices to the gods of Rome. As an alternative, he went straight to Alexander’s tomb.

In response to the Roman historian Suetonius (c. 69–c. 122 AD), Octavian “seen the physique with veneration, positioned a golden crown upon the top, and scattered flowers.” The younger conqueror, standing within the presence of his best predecessor, was overcome with awe.

Then, one thing unusual occurred.

As Octavian leaned in – maybe to whisper a tribute, maybe to put a hand upon the sacred stays – catastrophe struck.

With a brittle snap, Alexander’s nostril broke off.

In Guide V of his “Roman Historical past,” Cassius Dio (c. 165–c. 235 AD) recounted the fateful second: “After this he seen the physique of Alexander and truly touched it, whereupon, it’s mentioned, a chunk of the nostril was damaged off.”

For a second, time should have frozen. Did the assembled dignitaries gasp? Did whispers ripple via the chamber? The emperor, who had come to honor Alexander, had as a substitute defaced him.

Was it a mere accident, the inevitable fragility of a corpse practically 300 years outdated? Or was it an omen? And, extra importantly, did it actually occur, or was it merely fiction?

In Egyptian custom, a damaged nostril was extra than simply bodily harm – it symbolized the severing of energy, the destruction of a ruler’s divine essence. If this unlucky occasion did happen, had Octavian – now grasp of the Mediterranean – unknowingly shattered Alexander’s godhood?

Caligula and the Breastplate Heist

Octavian wasn’t the one Roman emperor captivated by the legacy of Alexander the Nice. Some 70 years later, Octavian’s great-grandson, the infamous emperor Caligula (r. 37–41 AD), pushed by his personal need to say the mantle of historical past’s best conqueror, set his sights on Alexander’s tomb in Alexandria.

In response to Cassius Dio and Caligula’s biographer, Suetonius, the emperor orchestrated a daring heist, breaking into the sacred burial chamber and seizing Alexander’s famed breastplate – a “double linen breastplate” or linothorax, as described by Plutarch, and famously depicted within the Alexander Mosaic at Pompeii. This ornate armor, as soon as worn by the legendary Macedonian king, was now within the fingers of a Roman emperor whose delusions of grandeur prolonged to claiming divine standing.

However this wasn’t merely theft – it was a daring proclamation. By carrying the breastplate, Caligula didn’t simply purchase a relic of historical past; he declared himself Alexander reborn, the reincarnation of a conqueror who had as soon as reshaped the world. In response to Suetonius, Caligula wore the breastplate whereas crossing a bridge of ships over the Bay of Baia in Italy, someday in 39 AD.

Whether or not this audacious act actually occurred or was later embellished by historians keen to color Caligula because the embodiment of insanity stays unclear. What is for certain, nonetheless, is that it stands as but one other weird episode in Alexander’s posthumous saga – one which continues to blur the road between historical past and legend.

The Destiny of Alexander’s Tomb

For hundreds of years, Alexander the Nice’s tomb stood as a revered landmark, a silent witness to the centuries of energy and delusion that adopted his demise. Septimius Severus (r. 193–211 AD) is claimed to have sealed it off, forbidding additional guests, whereas the emperor Caracalla (r. 211–217 AD) made a pilgrimage there, leaving his personal navy cloak as an providing – a gesture of respect for the legacy of the person whose conquests had reshaped the world.

Then, the tomb vanished.

By the 4th century AD, references to it disappeared. Was it swallowed by an earthquake, intentionally hidden as Christianity’s affect unfold, or submerged beneath rising sea levels? Nobody is aware of. The tomb of Alexander, one in every of historical past’s most iconic figures, slipped from view, leaving solely fragments of its story behind.

Right now, its destiny stays one in every of archaeology’s best mysteries.

Alexander the Nice left behind extra than simply an empire; he left a legend – and, it appears, a lacking nostril. His physique, like his huge empire, was fought over, stolen, and misplaced to time. From Babylon to Alexandria, from Octavian’s grasp to Caligula’s audacious heist, his stays grew to become the final word political relic, an emblem of energy and divine proper that no emperor may resist claiming for themselves.

Maybe, someday, his tomb can be discovered, its secrets and techniques laid naked for the world to see. However till then, Alexander sleeps beneath the sands of time, his legend alive within the myths and mysteries that proceed to encompass him.