Then there's Alexander's single-minded, obsessive, Ahab-esque pursuit of the Persian king Darius, who he chased across modern-day Iraq and Iran for no real reason except that he desperately wanted to kill him. And when Bessus, one of Darius's generals, assassinated him before Alexander had the chance, Alexander chased Bessus around until he could at least kill him. These almost comical pursuits of glory and heroism are accompanied in classical histories by stories of Alexander walking through the desert and it's suddenly raining and these ravens coming to lead him to the army he's supposed to fight. And stories of his hot Persian wife, Roxana, who, while still a teenager, engineered the assassination of many of Alexander's fellow wives. And even in his death, people tried to make Alexander live up to this heroic ideal. Like Plutarch tells us that he died of a fever, but that's no way for a masculine empire-building awesome person to die. So rumors persist that he died either of alcohol poisoning or else of assassination-y poisoning.