Alexander The Great: A History From Beginning To End (One Hour History Military Generals Book 1) by Henry Freeman

Author:Henry Freeman [Freeman, Henry]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2016-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Changing Tides

When Alexander heard that the Menmon was poised to invade his homeland of Macedonia with the full backing of many of the Greek city-states, the outlook for Alexander couldn’t have been worse. Yet fate, or “the gods” as Alexander probably believed, were smiling upon him on that day. By sheer chance, right before Menmon was to undertake the invasion, he fell ill and died.

This struck a severe blow to any plans of invasion. His successor was inexperienced and unlike Menmon virtually unknown among the Greeks, causing them to become unsure of themselves and back out of their plans of treachery altogether. This was a definitive stroke of good luck for Alexander, and with the Persian invasion of Macedonia scrapped he was now free to finalize his conquest in the East.

Ironically enough, while subduing villages and city-states all throughout the region, Alexander almost single-handedly ruined the whole expedition. It wasn’t military defeat that ground the Macedonian military machine to a halt but Alexander’s own youthful ignorance. Unexpected calamity occurred when Alexander, who was suffering from heat exhaustion, thought it would be a good idea to take a dive in the cool rivers of Tarsus.

His army had been marching for days in the staggering heat of the Cilician plains when they reached the city. Upon seeing the cool rivers that ran along its outskirts, Alexander ripped off his clothes and jumped right into water. Despite the scorching heat outside, the source of this river was from the frigid mountains; to the surprise of Alexander, the water was ice cold.

The unexpected frigidness of the water sent Alexander into shock, and as the blood drained from his face he found that he could no longer move his limbs. He began to sink to the bottom of the river bed. His soldiers immediately rushed forward and carried him out of the water before he was swept away by the icy currents. The quick action of his men saved him from sudden death, but as he lay in his tent on the outskirts of Tarsus, Alexander’s condition went from bad to worse as he spent the next few days with a dangerously high fever, just barely clinging to life.

This was certainly a strange turn of events for the conquering Macedonian hero who had come to be known as Alexander the Great. As a consequence to this drama his army was thrown into a terrible panic, wondering what tragic fate would befall them if Alexander passed away and left them all stuck deep behind enemy lines with no one to lead them. It was in a state of both compassion for their king and terror for their own fate that his men patiently waited outside of his tent for him to recover.

Alexander had been languishing between life and death when his personal physician proposed to give him a special concoction that, allegedly, would stimulate his body and reverse the effects of the cold. Special potions and tonics were the standard treatment of the day, as Greek medicine of that time usually focused on maintaining a balance in the body.

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