No one knows when typhoid fever first appeared. When Hippocrates described symptoms that included a fever, he was probably offering one of the first recorded descriptions of typhoid fever. When Emperor Augustus fell ill with typhoid fever, Roman physician Antonius Musa treated him with cold baths; this was the best treatment ancient doctors could provide without a more thorough understanding of this ailment. While Alexander the Great conquered the world, he, in turn, was probably conquered by an unseen microbe. Plutarch’s description of Alexander’s symptoms leaves little doubt that Alexander probably died of typhoid fever in A.D. 323.