Plutarch, a Greek biographer who wrote around AD 100, tells us that Alexander’s body was unceremoniously left to lie in a storeroom.  Strangely, although it should have begun to decompose in the hot Babylonian summer, the body remained preserved.

 

During the dissensions among the commanders, which lasted several days, the body continued clear and fresh, without any sign of such taint or corruption, though it lay neglected in a close, sultry place. 

 

(Plutarch, The Life of Alexander, vs. 77)

 

Curtius Quintus Rufus was a Roman politician who compiled a history of Alexander’s reign around AD 33. His work, The History of Alexander, does not include details of Alexander’s illness, but it does mention what happened after he died:

 

Although the king’s body had lain in the coffin for six days in scorching heat, there was no sign of decay when the Egyptians and Chaldeans came to embalm it.

 

(Curtius, The History of Alexander, 9: 19)