5. Alexander The Great Was A Short, Left-Handed, Epileptic, Albanian Bisexual With A Very High-Pitched Voice
In truth, Alexander the Great definitely
wasn't an epileptic, only
boasted about the superiority of left-handed kings, was
half-Albanian at best, and though he had a voice described only as "harsh," this could mean any number of things. Oddly enough, many of those items (the epilepsy and left-handedness in particular) are examples of "common knowledge" that QI usually serves to debunk, not reaffirm. In their defense, the linked articles about Alexander the Great's false epilepsy diagnosis and the origins of the left-handedness speculation weren't published until after this particular episode had aired. He was, however, around 5'7" (170 cm), which isn't too terribly tall, but not so short so as to be a point of ridicule. His sexuality is also not that cut and dry, as the ancient Greeks didn't necessarily conceive of sexuality the same way we do. That being said, there is enough evidence to support that he might have had something like romantic liaisons with men and women alike. Whether or not he did, such relationships would not have been a point of controversy to the Greeks. There are some Quite Interesting points about Alexander the Great's appearance, however, that Fry and the elves neglected to bring up. For example, Alexander's neck had some kind of slight twist to it so that he was always leaning or looking slightly towards the left. He also had heterochromia iridum: one eye was brown and the other was blue. Unlike most Greeks at the time, he opted to go around clean-shaven rather than bearded (probably because the beard he could grow was scant and patchy). And, apparently, he also smelled really good and was an all-around good-looking dude, but that last bit may be some ancient ass-kissing.