by Amanda
Callisth., 3.34. Fraser 1972, i, pp. 15-16 and n. 79 (ii, pp. 31-32); Pietrzykowski
1976; Erskine 2002; Chugg 2002.
23 Paus., 1.7.1. Habicht 1988; Schlange-Schöningen 1996.
Death, Last Plans, Tomb
385
far from the sea. That much can be deduced from what is written in the
ancient sources alone. However, modern historians trying to find its exact
location have come up with various sites – most frequently on the western
or eastern slope of Kom-ed-Dik. A tempting hypothesis has emerged
which sees the vestibule of the Soma in the so-called Alabaster Tomb in
the Latin Cemetery of Alexandria. Our current state of knowledge simply
does not allow us to formulate any convincing theses about the exact
location of Alexander’s tomb. Worse still, inevitable changes in the
coastline since ancient times make possible the eventuality that the part of
the Ptolemaic palace complex including the Soma is now under the sea.24
Alexander’s tomb was venerated for centuries and regularly visited by
very distinguished guests from afar, including the Roman emperors
Augustus, Septimus Severus and Caracalla. It is last mentioned as still
existing in the work of Herodian describing events of 215 AD. Most
scholars therefore assume that it was destroyed in that same century,
perhaps during fighting over Alexandria between the Palmyrean and
Emperor Aurelian forces in 272 AD. The writings of 5th-century Christian
authors St John Chrysostom and Theodoretus of Cyrrhus have been put
forward as evidence of the disappearance or even erasing of Alexander
from people’s memories. Yet this is exceptionally weak evidence.
Theodoretus only states how the tombs of even the most famous pagans
are now forgotten to contrast it with how the graves of the Christian
martyrs are now venerated and thus emphasise the power of the Lord. The
writer mentions the lost tombs of Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, Augustus,
Vespasian, Hadrian and Alexander. Yet most of these tombs have survived
to this day and they were also known in the 5th century. Therefore the
evidence provided by these Christian authors is merely rhetorical and we
can only conclude that we cannot know for certain when Alexander’s
tomb disappeared. It is possible that it was still in existence in 361 AD if
we accept that it is the ‘splendid temple of the Genius’ ( speciosum Genii
templum) mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, for on some Alexandrian
coins Alexander was presented as a Genius ( Agathos Daimon).25 It is
totally unknown what the connection was between Alexander’s tomb and
an Alexander’s cenotaph which appears in the medieval Muslim records of
Alexandria. It is also worth mentioning that Alexander is mentioned in the
24 Fraser 1972, ii, pp. 31-39; Fiaccadori 1992; Schlange-Schöningen 1996.
Alabaster Tomb hypothesis: Adriani 2000.
25 Hdn., 4.8.9; Amm. Marc., 22.11.7; Ioannes Chrysostomus, Or. , 26.12 ( PG, 61, p.
581); Theodoretos Kyrrou, Hellenikon therapeutike pathematon, 8.60-61.
Disappearance of Alexander’s tomb in the 3rd c. A.D.: Fraser 1972, ii, pp. 35-36;
contra: Chugg 2002, Erskine 2002.
386
Chapter VIII
Koran as Dū’l-Karnain (the ‘two-horned’) and that that was also the name
of one of the mosques in medieval Alexandria.26
Finally it was Arab tradition which identified an object believed to be
Alexander’s sarcophagus. In 1798 it was robbed from Atarine mosque in
Alexandria by Napoleon’s soldiers. After the French army’s capitulation
the sarcophagus ended up in the British Museum in London. It was
examined by E.D. Clarke, who also maintained that it was Alexander’s
coffin, but when the hieroglyphs were deciphered, it the turned out that it
had actually been created for Nectanebo II. Nevertheless, today the theory
that this was Alexander’s sarcophagus has been revived. Already A.J.
Wace noted that although the sarcophagus may have been made for
Nectanebo II, his body could not have been placed there as the pharaoh
had died beyond Egypt. Moreover, it would have been considered
sacrilege to lay the body of a mere mortal in such a coffin, so in 321 it
would almost certainly have still been unused. If the association between
Alexander and Nectanebo II (i.e. in Egyptian public opinion rather than
reality) as related in the Alexander Romance was true, laying the body of
the Macedonian king in this sarcophagus would have seemed the most
natural and proper thing to do. The official tradition associating this
sarcophagus with Alexander goes back at least the 16th century and there is
circumstantial evidence that it already existed as early as the 9th century. It
is therefore possible that the British Museum has the only surviving relic
of Alexander’s tomb.27
26 Quran, 18.83-98. Fraser 1972, ii, pp. 36-39.
27 Clarke 1805; Wace 1948; Chugg 2002. Contra: Fraser 1972, ii, pp. 39-40.
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