The king had regained some colour, but
he was still unconcious and his eyes were closed.
'We have to empty his stomach,' said
Philip. 'Quickly. Otherwise he won't make it. Leptine, have you
prepared that decoction?'
'Yes.'
'Go and fetch it hten.I'll continue
with the massage.'
Leptine arrived with a phial full of an
intense green liquid.
'Right, now give me a hand here,'
ordered Philip. ' You Hephaestion, hold his mouth open, he must drink
this.'
Hephaestion, did as he was told and the
physician administered the liquid, pouring it into Alexander's mouth.
For a while there was no sign of
reaction but then came a spasm and a violent retching as the King
brought up the contents of his stomach.
'What is that mixture?' Leptine asked ,
even more frightened now.
'An emetic which now is working as we
can see, together with a medicine which will force his body to
react.'
Alexander continued to vomit for a long
time, while Leptine held his forehead and the servants cleaned the
floor bellow the bayh tub. Then there came a series of violent
convulsions which wracked his body and were accompanied by terrible
rattling noises from his throat as he struggled to breathe.
Philip's medicine was a powerful one,
which provoked this violent reaction in the King's body, and it also
debilitated him considerably. He came through it, but the
convalescence seemed interminable and involved frequent relapses,
accompanied by persistent and insidious fevers which slowly consumed
him for days and days at a time.
It took months for there to be any sign
of improvement and during this period the morale of the army suffered
greatly. Rumours of his death continued to spread among the men,
elaboated and seemingly confirmed by the parallel rumour that no one
in command dared coomunicate the news officially. Finally, as summer
moved into autumn, Alexander was able to get up and appear before the
troops to give them heart, but he had to return to bed immediately
afterwards.
He would stay in his room for hours,
pacing back and forth , as Leptine followed him aroud with a cup of
broth, begging him,' Drink my Lord, drink this and it will make you
better.'
Philip came by every evening for his
daily visit. The rest of the morning was spent out in the camp
because many soldiers had fallen ill with the change of climate and
food. Many of them had diarrhoea, others fever, nausea and vomiting.
From the book: Alexander: Child of A
Dream. By Valerio Massino Manfredi. Translated by Iain Halliday
