With the warmer spring weather of 323, it was time to move from Ecbatana to Babylon. Along the road, Alexander found ambassadors from around the Mediterranean and deep into Asia awaiting his pleasure. Arrian laconically notes that, among others, envoys from northern Africa and Carthage, the Italian Etruscans, the Scythians, the Gallic Celts and the Iberians all appeared to ask for Alexander's friendship. This is astonishing. Only a portion of these ambassadors came from lands Alexander had ever touched (although later rumors suggested Rome also sent envoys, the evidence is lacking). His fame had spread worldwide, and now concerned peoples in the western Mediterranean,worried that the King's eye might now fall on them. The belief was now that he was "master of the world."

With the warm spring came plans for further campaigns and explorations. Alexander had been fascinated by the information brought back by Nearchus and his fleet, and now sent a party of shipwrights into Hyrcania to fell timber and build warships 'on the Greek model.' He had plans to invade Arabia and part of that invasion required exploring its coastline; where the Arabian Sea ended, where the Caspian began, and a scientific study closing the geographical gap between Egypt and Iran and the lands lying between. The plans proceeded with Alexander's usual taut oversight and he gave orders for gathering and quartering new troops.

Mourners at an Athenian Funeral, 6th century BC. In one source, Alexander is said to have ironically noted that his followers would provide him with remarkable 'funeral games' - whether he meant that literally, or referred to the struggle for supremacy following his death, is unknown.

Returning to Babylon, Alexander was met on the Royal Road by a party of Chaldean Magi, or priests, from the city, who prophesied ill omens if he returned by its eastern entrance. (Arrian notes Alexander's suspicions that the real motive for the Magi expedition was to keep a tight grip on their financing, after he had vowed to restore their temple). But - always careful of religious injunctions - Alexander agreed that he would enter the city from another direction. However, the swampy areas around Babylon rendered that impracticable, so in spite of himself, Alexander entered from the ill-omened eastern gateway.

From now on, those sources we have fly thick and fast with the supposed premonitions of the passing of this gigantic figure. They are too numerous to ignore totally, but all smack of hindsight and the desire to thrill. In reality, Alexander briskly returned to business, greeting numerous envoys from Greece who wished to "offer him the victor's crown and congratulate him on his many successes, especially his triumphant campaign in India, and to express their pleasure on his safe return." (Arrian, VII.19). One wonders if a smile twitched Alexander's mouth at the site of his former enemies earnestly conciliating him. He set up a strict protocol in meeting with them: " "First, he heard those who came on matters concerning religion; second, those who brought gifts; next, those who had disputes with their neighbors; fourth, those who had problems concerning themselves alone; and fifth, those who wished to present arguments against receiving back their exiles...In all cases he made every effort to deliver replies which would be gratifying, and sent everyone away content so far as he was able." (Diodorus Siculus, XVII, 113.). Upon their departure, Alexander pressed on them all the statutes, images, and votive offerings, stolen by Xerxes and taken to Persia, which he had recovered from around Asia. They were to be returned to the cities of Greece. He also sent word to the faithful Antipater, who had now ruled Macedonia and Greece in his name for over a decade, to bring reinforcements to meet him in Babylon; the faithful Craterus was sent to Hellas to assume Antipater's duties. Much has been made of this decision, but hindsight cannot confirm what was in Alexander's mind. Antipater has now well into his 70's; Alexander may have intended to replace him, but there is no evidence in any source confirming that the old marshal had lost Alexander's trust.

There were meetings with Nearchus, whose newly-restored fleet was ready for the next great campaign in Arabia. Alexander ordered dredging around Babylon to build a proper harbor, sufficient to supply 1,000 warships with maintenance facilities and docks. His days were filled with business, his nights in poring over maps and descriptions of unknown islands, far lands, navigational problems, the advice of subordinates, all in preparation for his conquest of Arabia. The King sailed from Babylon down the Euphrates 100 miles to investigate its juncture with the Pallacopas River and to improve the sluices that controlled spring flooding there. He even found yet another excellent town site and settled it with Greek mercenaries and retirees. Having briskly disposed of the supposed prophesies of the Chaldean seers, he sailed back towards Babylon. There he frequently saw Roxanne, now close to term with his legal heir. He must have wondered whether it would be a boy or girl, and surely his own fraught relationship with his own father came into his mind. But there would be time to plan if, at last, he had a legitimate son.

Once in Babylon again, he learned that Peucestas had returned from a recruiting expedition with another 20,000 Persian troops for the spring invasion. They were promptly enrolled with his other troops; the protests of the past at working in a polyglot imperial army were apparently at an end. He met with the couriers from the Oracle at Siwah, who had returned with word that Hephaestion could appropriately be worshipped as a hero. Shrines were ordered to be built in Hephaestion's honor, and plans continued for a remarkable funeral memorial and games to be held in Babylon for his dead friend. The king himself would be dead before the memorial could take place.

On a given night in late May, Alexander met with his usual drinking cronies to party after the working day. Leaving the party, he met his friend Medius, who asked him to his own quarters, where the party - and the drinking - continued throughout that night, and into the next day. At some point, Alexander returned home, bathed, and slept, but felt feverish. Perhaps he thought it was the cyclical return of the malarial bug he had acquired so long ago, en route to the Issus. The King continued working the next day, issuing orders as usual for the entire land army to be ready to march within days; Alexander himself would take ship a day later. Several more days passed in which he treated his illness as a minor matter, making sacrifices and issuing instructions. The only possible deduction is that Alexander himself completely misjudged the condition of his body and continued at the breakneck pace that he had followed since his youth. The insidious fever worsened; now, Alexander had to be carried to his place of prayers and needed assistance performing the daily sacrifices. The departure of the army was delayed first one day, then a second. After a week, Alexander and those around him realized that this illness was different than the hundred small physical maladies normal in the life of a hardened soldier. The King ordered that his officers be called and kept close to him. At some point, he lost the ability to speak (which, as an aside, makes any reported deathbed words unlikely). Before that happened, he had given his great seal-ring - mark of the Lord of Asia - to his marshall, Perdiccas, so that administration could continue. It was likely then that they asked him who would rule after him. Ambiguous to the end, he replied "to kratisto." That could mean either "to the best man" - or "to the strongest."

His constant, wearing fever had now become life-threatening, and rumors of his death began to frighten the army. Sources suggest that Alexander was now in great pain. Any claims that Alexander lost the devotion of his soldiers is refuted by their frantic actions in Babylon. They thronged about the palace; they shouted questions to the white-faced messengers they saw coming and going and begged news of their officers. They were determined to see the King at all hazards:

Towards evening on the 28th day of the Greek month of Daisios, June 10, 323 BC, Alexander died. As Arrian summed up, "Alexander died in the 114th Olympiad, in the arconship of Hegesias at Athens. He lived, as Aristobulus tells us, thirty-two years and eight months, and reigned twelve years and eight months."

It is one of history's ironies that, for so careful a planner, Alexander apparently did not realize that he was dying until it was too late to discuss plans for his successor. It may be, however, that with a pregnant wife and a room full of ambitious subordinates, he saw no point in ordering what he would not be there to execute. His body was left in the death room; his marshals and the army leaders immediately began to fight for precedence, prior to tearing his empire apart. It was considered a religious sign when, days after his death when slaves returned to begin funeral preparations, Alexander's body was allegedly found to be as fresh and beautiful as if the Great King was merely asleep. Such rumors implied the divinity of the dead man and were widely believed. Or - more frightfully - they could suggest that he had remained in a death-like coma when he was abandoned by his officers.

Far away in Susa, pounding messengers brought word to Queen Sisygambus, mother of Darius, that great Alexander was dead. Turning her people away, she refused nourishment and, within five days, followed him to the grave. No source tells us of the reaction of Olylmpia in far-off Macedon to the news that her son was gone.