Ohio Civil Service Exam

At 32, Alexander the Great passed away in Babylon in 323 BC. Before his passing, he had been ill and febrile for two weeks. The reason for his demise is a subject of much conjecture. Theoretical explanations include poisoning, murder, and several infectious diseases. A Plutarch-referenced instance could offer a crucial hint. A group of ravens greeted Alexander when he approached the city of Babylon just before his illness. Many of the birds came to perish at his feet because of their odd behavior. These birds' unusual behavior, interpreted as a bad prophecy at the time, is comparable to the illness and deaths of birds seen in the United States in the weeks before the discovery of the first instances of the West Nile virus in humans. According to this information, Alexander the Great may have passed away from encephalitis brought on by the West Nile virus. The author believes that the illness and death of birds observed in the United States indicated that the birds in Babylon.