BYCU Historical Edition

Died of a Hangover?

Among my store of historical esoterica that I use to entertain and disgust friends and families with my erudition and hauteur: Alexander the Great died of a hangover. It is one of those things that has long amused me.

And, occasionally, it's been one of those things that have scared me, mostly when I have found myself in the throes after an evening of enjoyment.

But I might to remove that piece of historical furniture from the mind room. New evidence indicates Alexander the Great was poisoned.

Albeit with wine.

[T]he most plausible culprit was Veratrum album, known as white hellebore.

The white-flowered plant, which can be fermented into a poisonous wine, was well-known to the Greeks as a herbal treatment for inducing vomiting.

Crucially, it could have accounted for the 12 torturous days that Alexander took to die, speechless and unable to walk.