alexander

Leadership Process Three: Establishing Identity 89
19: On Life and Death
How we die says something about who we were. Alexander
was a general who truly cared for his troops. It is said he knew
the names of 10,000 of them. He was regularly observed treating
his soldiers’ wounds himself, before he permitted his own
wounds to be tended to. He shared their hardships on the
march. His last act, while deathly ill, was to personally say
good-bye to each member of his army. One might say his army
was his identity.
Alexander died in Babylon at age thirty-three, having covered
more than 10,000 miles in just over ten years, conquering
the greatest empire the world has ever known, integrating
diverse peoples, introducing coinage, revolutionizing trade
and commerce, and promulgating a common language and
culture, among other accomplishments.
Shortly after his closest friend, Hephaestion, died at Ecbatana,
Alexander himself grew ill with fever. Toward the
end, his army asked to see him and filed by. For each soldier,
he raised his head and signaled acknowledgment with
his eyes.
Despite vulgate records and endless speculation, we do
not know for sure what caused Alexander’s death. It was
fairly sudden, possibly preceded by copious drinking (which
was nothing new for Alexander). During the fever, he repeatedly
bathed in the river. He ate little. Some speculate
that he was not dead but rather just in a coma, because his
body did not putrefy for weeks. He probably died of a tropical
disease.