Alexander The Great's Sarcophagus

[frankq]

Anyone immediately know the real deal with Alexander the Great's Sarcophagus?

 

According to Wikipedia, which can be either on target or highly inaccurate:

 

 

Alexander's body was placed in a gold anthropid sarcophagus, which was in turn placed in a second gold casket and covered with a purple robe. Alexander's coffin was placed, together with his armor, in a gold carriage which had a vaulted roof supported by an Ionic peristyle. The decoration of the carriage was very rich and is described in great detail by Diodoros.

 

According to legend, Alexander was preserved in a clay vessel full of honey (which acts as a preservative) and interred in a glass coffin. According to Aelian (Varia Historia 12.64), Ptolemy stole the body and brought it to Alexandria, where it was on display until Late Antiquity. It was here that Ptolemy IX, one of the last successors of Ptolemy I, replaced Alexander's sarcophagus with a glass one, and melted the original down in order to strike emergency gold issues of his coinage. The citizens of Alexandria were outraged at this and soon after Ptolemy IX was killed. Its current whereabouts are unknown.

 

Many Romans went to pay their respects to his body. Caesar, Antony, Augustus, Germanicus. And naughty Caligula even had his gold breastplate removed. I've been searching for reference that, since his body was moved to Egypt, it might have been mummified.

Edited April 22, 2006 by frankq

[Neos Dionysos]

I think for once Wikipedia is kinda on target here... I have seen no other descriptions except for the above and the same information, (though slightly more detailed but not by much), has been told to me in lecture by professors I've had.

[Segestan]

Rollin 1829: Vol. 5

 

 

Aridaeus , the brother of Alexander ;

[Kosmo]

No crusade ever reached Alexandria!

I think Lara Croft did it!

They are still looking for the mausoleum and it could be under the waters of the sea, like it happened with the Pharos and with Cleopatra's palace. Some say it's under an old mosque.

Rather hard to believe that so much gold will be in place after so much time.

[phil25]

The Emperor's removed various items from the sarcophagus - didn't Caligula dash about in Alexander's breastplate when he built a bridge across the bay of Naples?

 

I suspect that in the shift from paganism to Christianity, with all the riots and unrest that ensued in Alexandria - the mausoleum and many of the artefacts may have disappeared or been destroyed.

 

On the other hand, as had happened in dynastic times in Thebes, priests might well have removed the bodies of the Ptolemies (including "our" Cleopatra and maybe Antonius) as well as Alexander, to a place of safety. One day maybe, they will be discovered, as just mummified remains, shorn of their gold and valuables. But just perhaps, people in the future may gaze on the face of Alexander of Macedon.

 

There was a rumour about 10 or more years ago that the tomb had been found in the desert - highly unlikely, in my view. In that case it proved to be untrue.

 

But I don't think that the bodies would have been destroyed thoughtlessly.

 

Did you know we still have fragments of the funerary urns and inscriptions from the tomb of Augustus in Rome. If they can survive, why not remants of the Ptolemaic tombs of Alexandria?

 

Phil

[Pantagathus]

Rather hard to believe that so much gold will be in place after so much time.

 

Yep, if Ptolemy IX didn't complete the melting down of the gold someone else sure as day did!

[Rameses the Great]

No crusade ever reached Alexandria!

I think Lara Croft did it!

They are still looking for the mausoleum and it could be under the waters of the sea, like it happened with the Pharos and with Cleopatra's palace. Some say it's under an old mosque.

Rather hard to believe that so much gold will be in place after so much time.

 

Yes, I heard that too. Its a mosque in Alexandria under the floor boards. The mosque was converted from a chuch actually so it may be a bit off location. Many of Alexander's followers wanted to bury him in Macedonia, but he wanted to be buried in Alexandria. Pretty neat stuff. Great topic.

[Pertinax]

I think our new member "Krackalakin" may have meant to post this item: but inadvertently pmd it to myself, as he says "this is a little off topic" but I thought it best to enter the post into the thread,for now-it can always be moved if it looks totally off beam.

 

"This is a little off topic but I have a strong feeling Alexander didn't really die of a fever but was actually murdered. It makes perfect sense. I think he was asassinated for the same reason Lincoln and Jfk were. "Race integration". It's been one of the biggest reasons to kill political leaders for centuries. As you all probably know, Alexander was taking steps at integration as well as changing his own style from hellenic to Persian. I personally think he did this because he thought it would be the best way to ensure his throne but I don't think he realized how selfish and detached it made him to his army and a lot of his administrators. This is just a theory I've put together after reading a great many books on him. It seem to me to be way more logical. If you think about it, doesn't it seem odd that for a man that was documented so well his whole life, posterity doesn't know for certain how he met his end? To me it sounds like they assasinated him, and destroyed all recorded testimony of this and rewrote history. Another thing that points to this is one of his surviving statues is beheaded but no one admits that it had. I don't understand how people can really think a head of a statue can break off like that so clean and neatly. It looks plainly obvious to me that at some time, someone cut off his head and a good guess would be when he was murdered. They hated everything he stood for so if they murdered him, they probably wanted or would destroy anything they could get their hands on that reminded them of his empire. This is all speculation but it's what I believe happened. There's so many things that point to it"