Note 285 — Front matter (continued 5)
Reading edition
The poison theory is not mentioned by Burchard or the chief ambassadors, and is positively advanced only by Neapolitan or later writers. No historian seems now to entertain it. Alexander's illness, which lasted thirteen days, followed a course more consistent with malaria, and the very rapid decomposition of his body, which seems to have impressed Lord Acton, is not inexplicable at that season.