Alexander
- I The most renowned is Alexander, son of Philip and Olympia, surnamed Magnus, the founder of the great Macedonian monarchy extending from Macedonia to the Indus (v. his life in Plut. and Curt.).—
- II Alexander, son of Perseus, king of Macedonia, Liv. 42, 52; 45, 39.—
- III A tyrant of Pherae, in Thessaly; hence also sometimes called Pheraeus, Cic. Div. 1, 25; id. Inv. 2, 49; id. Off. 2, 7; Nep. Pelop. 5, 1.—
- IV A king of Epirus, Liv. 8, 3.—
- V Another name of Paris, son of Priam, Enn. ap. Varr. L. L. 7, 5, 96; Cic. Fat. 15; Auct. ad Her. 4, 30; hence sometimes, Alexander Paris, Plin. 34, 8, 19, § 76 al.
Davon abgeleitet: A) Alexandrīa od. -ēa, ae, f. (Ἀλεξάνδρεια; über die im klass. Latein wahrsch. gew. Form -ea s. Madvig Cic. de fin. 5, 54. Drak. Liv. 31, 43, 5; vgl. Prisc. 2, 47), Name vieler von Alexander dem Gr. auf seinen Zügen gegründeter Städte (dah. Plur. cognominibus Alexandriis, Auct. itin. Alex. 36), von denen die bekanntesten sind: 1) Alexandria in Ägypten, auch mit dem Bein. Magna, im Westen der kanopischen Nilmündung (332 v. Chr.) erbaut, unter den Ptolemäern Hauptstadt des Reichs u. Residenz prachtliebender u. kunstsinniger Könige, Hauptsitz der von diesen Fürsten ungemein begünstigten Wissenschaften, unter den Römern Mittelpunkt des Welthandels, wegen des dort herrschenden Luxus u. des damit verbundenen ausschweifenden Lebens der Bewohner berüchtigt, noch j. Alexandria u. türk. Skanderia, Plin. 5, 62. Curt. 4, 8 (33), 1 sqq. Amm. 22, 16, 7 sqq. Cic. de fin. 5, 54. Hor. carm. 4, 14, 35. – 2) Alexandria Troas, auch bl. Troas gen., Stadt südl. von Troja an der Küste, zur Zeit der Römer von diesen wegen ihrer Anhänglichkeit sehr begünstigt u. gehoben, Liv. 35, 42; 37, 35. Cic. Acad. 2, 11, aber später bl. Kolonie, Plin. 5, 124. – 3) Alexandria in Syrien, u. zwar in Pieria zwischen Issus u. Antiochien, j. Alexandrette od. Scanderone, Plin. 5, 91. – 4) Alexandria Ariôn, d.h. im Lande der Arier, am Flusse Arius (Ferah) u. an der großen Karawanenstraße nach Indien, j. Herat, Plin. 6, 61 u. 6, 93. Amm. 23, 6, 69. – 5) Alexandria in Arachosia, auch Alexandropolis gen., j. Kandahar, Amm. 23, 6, 72. – 6) Alexandria ad Caucasum, am Kreuzwege zwischen Ariana, Indien u. Baktrien, am Westabhang des Schneegebirges, das gegen NW. die indischen Länder begrenzt, in der Nähe des heutigen »Kabul«, Plin., 46. Curt. 7, 3 (14), 23. – 7) Stadt an der Vereinigung des Acesines und Indus, an der Stelle des heutigen Mittun Kot, Curt. 9, 8 (31), 8. – 8) Alexandria ultima (Ἀλ. ἐσχάτη), Alexanders des Großen äußerste Gründung am Jaxartes in Sogdiana, wahrsch. das jetzige Khodjend, Plin. 6, 49. Curt. 7, 6 (28), 25. Amm. 23, 6, 59.
B) Alexandrēus, a, um (Ἀλεξάνδρειος), alexandrinisch, von Alexandrien, qui istas Alexandreas litteras attulit, Cic. ad Att. 11, 6, 7 ed. Hofm. (mit cod. M.), wo Baiter u.C.F.W. Müller (mit Boot) qui istas Alexandreā (von Alexandrien) litteras attulit.
C) Alexandriānus, a, um, alexandrinisch, Alexanders, purpura, Lampr. Alex. Sev. 40, 6: ficus, ibid. 60, 5: sodales, ibid. 63, 4.
D) Alexandrīnus, a, um, 1) alexandrinisch = Alexanders, a) Alexanders d. Gr., historia, Treb. Poll. XXX tyr. 30, 22. – b) des Alexander Severus. opus. Lamor. Alex. Sev. 25, 7: basilica, ibid. 26, 7: sagittarii, dem Alexander ergeben, ibid. 32, 3. – 2) alexandrinisch = von Alerandrien, a) in Ägypten, rex, König von Ägypten (Ptolemäus Auletes), Cic.: vita et licentia, ausschweifendes Leben, wie es in Alexandrien herrschte, Caes.: panis, Plin.: pueri, Petr., od. deliciae, Quint., alex. (od. ägypt., also Mohren-) Sklaven, ein Luxusartikel der Römer: navis, ein Schiff der von Augustus errichteten ägypt. Handelsflotte, Suet. u. Sen.: bellum, Cäsars Kr. in Ägypten nach der pharsal. Schlacht, Cic.: marmora, Sen. – subst., der Alexandriner, Alexandrinus quidam u. idem Alexandrinus, Augustin. de civ. dei 22, 8, 3: gew. Plur., Alexandrīnī, ōrum, m., die Einw. von Alexandria, die Alexandriner, Cic. u.a. – b) von Alex. Troas (oben no. A, 2), laurus, Plin.
E) Alexandrus, a, um, alexandrisch, Ven. Fort. app. 1, 98.
- 1. = Paris, zoon v. Priamus;
- 2. tiran in Pherae in Thessalië (ca. 360 v. Chr.), door zijn echtgenote Thebe en haar broers vermoord;
- 3. koning v.d. Molossen in Epirus, oom v. Alexander de Grote (reg. 342—330 v. Chr.);
- 4. ~ Magnus Alexander de Grote (356—323), koning v. Macedonië (reg. 336—323), zoon v. koning Philippus II v. Macedonië.
[Paris.]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), the defender of men, a surname of Hera under which she was worshipped at Sicyon. A temple had been built there to Hera Alexandros by Adrastus after his flight from Argos. (Schol. ad Pind. Nem. 9.30 ; comp. Apollod. 3.12.5.) [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), a man whom Mithridates is charged by Sulla with having sent to assassinate Nicomedes. (Appian, De Bell. Mithr. 57.) He seems to be the same person as Alexander the Paphlagonian, who is afterwards (76, &c.) mentioned as one of the generals of Mithridates, and was made prisoner by Lucullus, who kept him to adorn his triumph at Rome. [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), a saint and martyr, whose memory is celebrated by the Romish church, together with the other martyrs of Lyons and Vienne, on the second of June. He was a native of Phrygia, and a physician by profession, and was put to death, A. D. 177, during the persecution that raged against the churches of Lyons and Vienne under the emperor Marcus Aurelius. (Epist. Eccles. Lugdun. et Vienn. apud Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 5.1. p. 163.) He was condemned, together with another Christian, to be devoured by wild beasts in the amphitheatre, and died (as the historian expresses it) "neither uttering a groan nor a syllable, but conversing in his heart with God." (Bzovius, Nomenclator Sanctorum Professione Medicorum ; Martyrol. Roman. ed. Baron.; Acta Sanctorum, June 2.) [W.A.G]
an Acarnanian, who had once been a friend of Philip III. of Macedonia, but forsook him, and insinuated himself so much into the favour of Antiochus the Great, that he was admitted to his most secret deliberations. He advised the king to invade Greece, holding out to him the most brilliant prospects of victory over the Romans, B. C. 192. (Liv. 35.18.) Antiochus followed his advice. In the battle of Cynoscephalae, in which Antiochus was defeated by the Romans, Alexander was covered with wounds, and in this state he carried the news of the defeat to his king, who was staying at Thronium, on the Maliac gulf. When the king, on his retreat from Greece, had reached Cenaeum in Euboea, Alexander died and was buried there, B. C. 191. (36.20.) [L.S]
of AEGAE (Ἀλέξανδρος Αἰγαῖος), a peripatetic philosopher, who flourished at Rome in the first century, and a disciple of the celebrated mathematician Sosigenes, whose calculations were used by Julius Caesar for his correction of the year. He was tutor to the emperor Nero. (Suidas, s. v. Ἀλέξανδρος Αἰγαῖος; Suet. Tib. 57.) Works
Two treatises on the writings of Aristotle are attributed to him by some, but are assigned by others to Alexander Aphrodisiensis. 1. On the Meteorology of Aristotle Editions
edited in Greek by F. Asulanus, Ven. 1527, in Latin by Alex. Piecolomini, 1540, fol. II. A commentary on the Metaphysics. Editions
The Greek has never been published, but there is a Latin version by Sepulveda, Rom. 1527. [B.J]
[Alexander IV., King of Macedonia.]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), a son of Aemetus, was one of the commanders of the Macedonian χαλκάστιδες in the army of Antigonus Doson during the battle of Sellasia against Cleomenes III. of Sparta, in B. C. 222. (Plb. 2.66.) [L.S]
[Aemilianus, No. 3.]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), son of Aerotus, a native of the Macedonian district called Lyncestis, whence he is usually called Alexander Lyncestes. Justin (11.1) makes the singular mistake of calling him a brother of Lyncestas, while in other passages (11.7, 12.14) he uses the correct expression. He was a contemporary of Philip of Macedonia and Alexander the Great. He had two brothers, Heromenes and Arrhabaeus ; all three were known to have been accomplices in the murder of Philip, in B. C. 336. Alexander the Great on his accession put to death all those who had taken part in the murder, and Alexander the Lyncestian was the only one that was pardoned, because he was the first who did homage to Alexander the Great as his king. (Arrian, Arr. Anab. 1.25; Curtius, 7.1; Justin, 11.2.) But king Alexander not only pardoned him, but even made him his friend and raised him to high honours. He was first entrusted with the command of an army in Thrace, and afterwards received the command of the Thessalian horse. In this capacity he accompanied Alexander on his eastern expedition. In B. C. 334, when Alexander was staying at Phaselis, he was informed, that the Lyncestian was carrying on a secret correspondence with king Darius, and that a large sum of money was promised, for which he was to murder his sovereign. The bearer of the letters from Darius was taken by Parmenion and brought before Alexander, and the treachery was manifest. Yet Alexander, dreading to create any hostile feeling in Antipater, the regent of Macedonia, whose daughter was married to the Lyncestian, thought it advisable not to put him to death, and had him merely deposed from his office and kept in custody. In this manner he was dragged about for three years with the army in Asia, until in B. C. 330, when, Philotas having been put to death for a similar crime, the Macedonians demanded that Alexander the Lyncestian should likewise be tried and punished according to his desert. King Alexander gave way, and as the traitor was unable to exculpate himself, he was put to death at Prophthasia, in the country of the Drangae. (Curtius, l.c., and 8.1; Just. 12.14; Diod. 17.32, 80.) The object of this traitor was probably, with the aid of Persia, to gain possession of the throne of Macedonia, which previous to the reign of Amyntas II. had for a time belonged to his family. [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), an Aetolian, who, in conjunction with Dorymachus, put himself in possession of the town of Aegeira in Achaia during the Social war, in B. C. 220. But the conduct of Alexander and his associates was so insolent and rapacious, that the inhabitants of the town rose to expel the small band of the Aetolians. In the ensuing contest Alexander was killed while fighting. (Plb. 4.57, 58.) [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Αἰτωλός), a Greek poet and grammarian, who lived in the reign of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus. He was the son of Satyrus and Stratocleia, and a native of Pleuron in Aetolia, but spent the greater part of his life at Alexandria, where he was reckoned one of the seven tragic poets who constituted the tragic pleiad. (Suid. s.v. Eudoc. p. 62; Paus. 2.22.7; Schol. ad Hom. Il. 16.233.) He had an office in the library at Alexandria, and was commissioned by the king to make a collection of all the tragedies and satyric dramas that were extant. He spent some time, together with Antagoras and Aratus, at the court of Antigonus Gonatas. (Aratus, Phaenomena et Diosem. ii. pp. 431, 443, &c. 446, ed. Buhle.) Works
Notwithstanding the distinction he enjoyed as a tragic poet, he appears to have had greater merit as a writer of epic poems, elegies, epigrams, and cynaedi. Among his epic poems, we possess the titles and some fragments of three pieces : the Fisherman (ἁλιεὺς, Athen. 7.296), Kirka or Krika (Athen. 7.283), which, however, is designated by Athenaeus as doubtful, and Helena. (Bekker, Anecd. p. 96.)
Of his elegies, some beautiful fragments are still extant. (Athen. 4.170, xi. p. 496, xv. p. 899; Strab. xii. p.556, xiv. p. 681; Parthen. Erot. 4; Tzetz. ad Lycophr. 266; Schol. and Eustath. ad Il. 3.314.)
His Cynaedi, or Ἰωνικὰ ποιήματα, are mentioned by Strabo (xiv. p.648) and Athenaeus. (xiv. p. 620.)
Some anapaestic verses in praise of Euripides are preserved in Gellius. (15.20.) Editions
All the fragments of Alexander Aetolus are collected in "Alexandri Aetoli fragment coll. et ill. A. Capellmann," Bonn, 1829, 8vo.; comp. Welcker, Die Griech. Tragödien, p. 1263, &c.; Dützer, Die Fragm. der Episch. Poesie der Griechen, von Alexand. dem Grossen,&c p. 7, &c. [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), of Alexandria, succeeded as patriarch of that city St. Achillas, (as his predecessor, St. Peter, had predicted, Martyr. S. Petri, ap. Surium, vol. vi. p. 577,) A. D. 312. He, " the noble Champion of Apostolic Doctrine," (Theodt. Hist. Eccl. 1.2,) first laid bare the irreligion of Arius, and condemned him in his dispute with Alexander Baucalis. St. Alexander was at the Oecumenical Council of Nicaea, A. D. 325, with his deacon, St. Athanasius, and, scarcely five months after, died, April 17th, A. D. 326. St. Epiphanius (ad v. Hacres. 69.4) says he wrote some seventy circular epistles against Arius, and Socrates (H. E. 1.6), and Sozomen (H. E. 1.1), that he collected them into one volume. Two epistles remain; 1. to Alexander, bishop of Constantinople, written after the Council at Alexandria which condemned Arius, and before the other circular letters to the various bishops. (See Theodt. H. E. 1.4; Galland. Bibl. Pair. vol. iv. p. 441. ) 2. The Encyclic letter announcing Arius's deposition (Socr. H. E. 1.6, and Galland. l.c. p. 451), with the subscriptions from Gelasius Cyzicen. (Hist. Con. Nicaen. 2.3, ap. Mans. Concilia. vol. ii. p. 801.) There remains, too, The Deposition of Arius and his, i. e. an Address to the Priests and Deacons, desiring their concurrence therein (ap. S. Athanas. vol. i. Ps. 1. p. 396, Paris, 1698; see Galland. l.c. p. 455). Two fragments more, apud Galland. (l.c. p. 456.) St. Athanasius also gives the second epistle. (l.c. p. 397.) [A.J.C]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), commander of the horse in the army of Antigonus Doson during the war against Cleomenes III. of Sparta. (Plb. 2.66.) He fought against Philopoemen, then a young man, whose prudence and valour forced him to a disadvantageous engagement at Sellasia. (2.68.) This Alexander is probably the same person as the one whom Antigonus, as the guardian of Philip, had appointed commander of Philip's body-guard, and who was calumniated by Apelles. (4.87.) Subsequently he was sent by Philip as ambassador to Thebes, to persecute Megaleas. (5.28.) Polybius states, that at all times he manifested a most extraordinary attachment to his king. (7.12.) [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), of Antiochia, a friend of M. Antonius, who being acquainted with the Syriac language, acted twice as interpreter between Antonius and one Mithridates, who betrayed to him the plans of the Parthians, to save the Romans. This happened in B. C. 36. (Pseudo-Appian, Parth. pp. 93, 96, ed. Schweigh.) [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), son of Antonius, the triumvir, and Cleopatra, queen of Egypt. He and his twin-sister Cleopatra were born B. C. 40. Antonius bestowed on hint the titles of "Helios," and " King of Kings," and called his sister "Selene." He also destined for him, as an independent kingdom, Armenia, and such countries as might yet be conquered between the Euphrates and Indus, and wrote to the senate to have his grants confirmed; but his letter was not suffered to be read in public. (B. C. 34.) After the conquest of Armenia Antonius betrothed Jotape, the daughter of the Median king Artavasdes, to his son Alexander. When Octavianus made himself master of Alexandria, he spared Alexander, but took him and his sister to Rome, to adorn his triumph. They were generously received by Octavia, the wife of Antonius, who educated them with her own children. (Dio Cassius, 49.32, 40, 41, 44, 1. 25, 51.21; Plut. Ant. 36, 54, 87; Liv. Epit. 131, 132.) [C.P.M]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), bishop of Apamea, sent with his namesake of Hierapolis by John of Antioch to the Council of Ephesus. A letter by him is extant in Latin in the Nova Collectio Conciliorum à Stephan. Baluzio, p. 834. c. 132. fol. Paris, 1683. [A.J.C]
(Ἀλέξανδρος Ἀφροδισιεύς), a native of Aphrodisias in Caria, who lived at the end of the second and the beginning of the third century after Christ, the most celebrated of the commentators on Aristotle. He was the disciple of Herminus and Aristocles the Messenian, and like them endeavoured to free the Peripatetic philosophy from the syncretism of Ammonius and others, and to restore the genuine interpretation of the writings of Aristotle. The title ὁ ἐξηγητὴς was the testimony to the extent or the excellence of his commentaries. About half his voluminous works were edited and translated into Latin at the revival of literature; there are a few more extant in the original Greek, which have never been printed, and an Arabie version is preserved of several others, whose titles may be seen in the Bibliotheca of Casiri. (Vol. i. p. 243.)
If we view him as a philosopher, his merit cannot be rated highly. His excellencies and defects are all on the model of his great master; there is the same perspicuity and power of analysis, united with almost more than Aristotelian plainness of style; everywhere "a flat surface," with nothing to interrupt or strike the attention. In a mind so thoroughly imbued with Aristotle, it cannot be expected there should be much place for original thought. His only endeavour is to adapt the works of his master to the spirit and language of his own age; but in doing so he is constantly recalled to the earlier philosophy, and attacks bygone opinions, as though they had the same living power as when the writings of Aristotle were directed against them. (Ritter, Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. iv. p. 255.)
The Platonists and earlier Stoics are his chief opponents, for he regarded the Epicureans as too sensual and unphilosophical to be worth a serious answer. Against the notion of the first, that the world, although created, might yet by the will of God be made imperishable, he urged that God could not alter the nature of things, and quoted the Platonist doctrine of the necessary coexistence of evil in all corruptible things. (Ritter, p. 262.) God himself, he said, was the very form of things. Yet, however difficult it may be to enter into this abstract notion of God, it would be unjust, as some have done, to charge him with atheism, as in many passages he attributes mind and intelligence to the divine Being. This is one of the points in which he has brought out the views of Aristotle more clearly, from his living in the light of a later age. God, he says (in Metaphys. ix. p. 320), is "properly and simply one, the self-existent substance, the author of motion himself unmoved, the great and good Deity, without beginning and without end:" and again (in Metaph. xii. p. 381) he asserts, that to deprive God of providence is the same thing as depriving honey of sweetness, fire of warmth, snow of whiteness and coolness, or the soul of motion. The providence of God, however, is not directed in the same way to the sublunary world and the rest of the universe : the latter is committed not indeed to fate, but to general laws, while the concerns of men are the immediate care of God, although he find not in the government of them the full perfection of his being. (Quaest. Nat. 1.25, 2.21.) He saw no inconsistency, as perhaps there was none, between these high notions of God and the materialism with which they were connected. As God was the form of all things, so the human soul was likewise a form of matter, which it was impossible to conceive as existing in an independent state. He seems however to have made a distinction between the powers of reflection and sensation, for he says (de Anima i. p. 138), that the soul needed not the body as an instrument to take in objects of thought, but was sufficient of itself; unless the latter is to be looked upon as an inconsistency into which he has been led by the desire to harmonize the early Peripateticism with the purer principle of a later philosophy. (Brücker, vol. ii. p. 481.) Works De Fato
The most important treatise of his which has come down to us, is the De Fato, an inquiry into the opinions of Aristotle on the subject of Fate and Freewill. It is probably one of his latest works, and must have been written between the years 199-211, because dedicated to the joint emperors Severus and Caracalla. Here the earlier Stoics are his opponents, who asserted that all things arose from an eternal and indissoluble chain of causes and effects. The subject is treated practically rather than speculatively. Universal opinion, the common use of language, and internal consciousness, are his main arguments. That fate has a real existence, is proved by the distinction we draw between fate, chance, and possibility, and between free and necessary actions. It is another word for nature, and its workings are seen in the tendencies of men and things (c. 6), for it is an all-pervading cause of real, but not absolute, power. The fatalism of the Stoics does away with freewill, and so destroys responsibility: it is at variance with every thought, word, and deed, of our lives. The Stoics, indeed, attempt to reconcile necessity and freewill; but, properly speaking, they use freewill in a new sense for the necessary co-operation of our will in the decrees of nature : moreover, they cannot expect men to carry into practice the subtle distinction of a will necessarily yet freely acting; and hence, by destroying the accountableness of man, they destroy the foundation of morality, religion, and civil government. (c. 12-20.) Supposing their doctrine true in theory, it is impossible in action. And even speculatively their argument from the universal chain is a confusion of an order of sequence with a series of causes and effects. If it be said again, that the gods have certain foreknowledge of future events, and what is certainly known must necessarily be, it is answered by denying that in the nature of things there can be any such foreknowledge, as foreknowledge is proportioned to divine power, and is a knowledge of what divine power can perform. The Stoical view inevitably leads to the conclusion, that all the existing ordinances of religion are blasphemous and absurd.
This treatise, which has been edited by Orelli, gives a good idea of his style and method. Upon the whole, it must be allowed that, although with Ritter we cannot place him high as an independent thinker, he did much to encourage the accurate study of Aristotle, and exerted an influence which, according to Julius Scaliger, was still felt in his day. (Brucker, vol. ii. p. 480.) Overview of Alexander's Works
The following list of his works is abridged from Harles's Fabricius. (Vol. v. p. 650.) I. Περὶ εἰμαρμένης καὶ τοῦ ἐφʼ ἡμῖν (De Fato, deque eo quod in nostra potestate est)
Περὶ εἰμαρμένης καὶ τοῦ ἐφʼ ἡμῖν, De Fato, deque eo quod in nostra potestate est : the short treatise mentioned above, dedicated to the emperors Severus and Caracalla. Editions
First printed by the successors of Aldus Manutius, 1534, folio, at the end of the works of Themistius: translated into Latin by Grotius in the collection entitled "Veterum Philos. Sententiae de Fato," Paris, 1648, 4to., Lond. 1688, 12mo., and edited by Orelli, Zurich, 1824, 8vo., with a fragment of Alexander Aphrodis. De Fortuna, and treatises of Ammonius, Plotinus, &c. on the same subject. II. Commentarius ((Ὑπόμνημα) in primum librum Analyticorum Priorum Aristotelis, Editions
Venet. Aldi, 1520, fol.; Floren. 1521, 4to., with a Latin translation by J. Bap. Felicianus. III. Commentarius in VIII libros Topicorum Editions
Ven. Aldi, 1513; with a Latin version by G. Dorotheus, Ven. 1526 and 1541, and Paris, 1542, folio; and another by Rasarius, Ven. 1563, 1573, folio. IV. Comment. in Elenchos Sophisticos
Graecè, Ven. Aldi, 1520, fol.; Flor. 1520, fol.: translated into Latin by J. B. Rasarius. V. Comment. in Metaphysicorum XII libros Editions
Ex versione J. G. Sepulvedae, Rom. 1527, Paris, 1536, Ven. 1544 and 1561. The Greek text has never been printed, although it exists in the Paris library and several others. VI. In librum de Sensu et iis quae sub sensum cadunt Editions
The Greek text is printed at the end of the commentary of Simplicius on the De Animâ, Ven. Aldi, 1527, folio; there is also a Latin version by Lucilius Philothaeus, Ven. 1544, 1549, 1554, 1559, 1573. VII. In Aristotelis Meterologica
Supposed by some not to be the work of Alexander Aphrod. Editions
Ven. Aldi, 1527 VIII. De Mistione Editions
Bound up in the same edition as the In Aristotelis Meterologica. IX. De Animâ libri duo (two distinct works) Editions
Printed in Greek at the end of Themistius: there is a Latin version by Hieronymus Donatus, Ven. 1502, 1514, folio. X. Physica Scholia, dubitationes et solutiones Editions
In Greek, Ven. Trincavelli, 1536, folio; in Latin, by Hieronymus Bagolinus, Ven. 1541, 1549, 1555, 1559, 1563. XI. Ἰατρικὰ Ἀπορήματα καὶ Φυσικὰ Προβλήματα, Quaestiones Medicae et Problemata Physica.
XII. Περὶ Πυρετῶν, Libellus de Febribus.The last two treatises (XI. and XII.) are attributed by Theodore Gaza and many other writers to Alexander Trallianus. They are spoken of below. Works still extant in Arabic or in fragmentary form
His commentaries on the Categories, on the latter Analytics (of the last there was a translation by St. Jerome), on the De Animâ and Rhetorical works, and also on those περὶ γενέσεως καὶ φθορᾶς, together with a work entitled Liber I de Theologiâ, probably distinct from the Commentaries on the Metaphysics, are still extant in Arabic. A Commentary on the prior Analytics, on the De Interpretatione, a treatise on the Virtues, a work entitled περὶ δαιμόνων λόγος, a treatise against Zenobius the Epicurean, and another on the nature and qualities of Stones, also a book of Allegories from mythological fables, are all either quoted by others or referred to by himself. [B.J] Other works attributed to Alexander Aphrodisiensis
Besides the works universally attributed to Alexander Aphrodisiensis, there are extant two others, of which the author is not certainly known, but which are by some persons supposed to belong to him, and which commonly go under his name. Ἰατρικὰ Ἀπορήματα καὶ Φυσικὰ Προβλήματα (Quaestiones Medicae et Problemata Physica)
The first work attributed to Alexander is entitled Ἰατρικὰ Ἀπορήματα καὶ Φυσικὰ Προβλήματα, Quaestiones Medicae et Problemata Physica, which there are strong reasons for believing to be the work of some other writer. In the first place, it is not mentioned in the list of his works given by the Arabic author quoted by Casiri (Biblioth. Arabico-Hisp. Escurial. vol. i. p. 243); secondly, it appears to have been written by a person who belonged to the medical profession (ii. praef. et § 11), which was not the case with Alexander Aphrodisiensis; thirdly, the writer refers (1.87) to a work by himself, entitled Ἀλληγοριαὶ τῶν εἰς Θεοὺς ʼἈναπλαττομένων Πιθανῶν Ἱστοριῶν, Allegoriae Historiarum Credibilium de Diis Fabricatarum, which we do not find mention ed among Alexander's works; fourthly, he more than once speaks of the soul as immortal (ii. praef. et § 63, 67), which doctrine Alexander Aphrodisiensis denied; and fifthly, the style and language of the work seem to belong to a later age. Several eminent critics suppose it to belong to Alexander Trallianus, but it does not seem likely that a Christian writer would have composed the mythological work mentioned above. It consists of two books, and contains several interesting medical observations along with much that is frivolous and trifling. Editions
It was first published in a Latin translation by George Valla, Venet. 1488, fol. The Greek text is to be found in the Aldine edition of Aristotle's works, Venet. fol. 1495, and in that by Sylburgius, Francof. 1585, 8vo.; it was published with a Latin translation by J. Davion, Paris. 1540, 1541, 16mo.; and it is inserted in the first volume of Ideler's Physici et Medici Graeci Minores, Berol. 1841, 8vo. Περὶ Πυρετῶν (De Febribus)
The other work is a short treatise, Περὶ Πυρετῶν, De Febribus, which is addressed to a medical pupil whom the author offers to instruct in any other branch of medicine; it is also omitted in the Arabic list of Alexander's works mentioned above. For these reasons it does not seem likely to be the work of Alexander Aphrodisiensis, while the whole of the twelfth book of the great medical work of Alexander Trallianus (to whom it has also been attributed) is taken up with the subject of Fever, and he would hardly have written two treatises on the same disease without making in either the slightest allusion to the other. It may possibly belong to one of the other numerous physicians of the name of Alexander. Editions
It was first published in a Latin translation by George Valla, Venet. 1498, fol., which was several times reprinted. The Greek text first appeared in the Cambridge Museum Criticum, vol. ii. pp. 359-389, transcribed by Demetrius Schinas from a manuscript at Florence; it was published, together with Valla's translation, by Franz Passow, Vratislav. 1822, 4to., and also in Passow's Opuscula Academica, Lips. 1835, 8vo., p. 521. The Greek text alone is contained in the first volume of Ideler's Physici et Medici Graeci Minores, Berol. 1841, 8vo. [W.A.G]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), the eldest son of Aristobulus II., king of Judaea, was taken prisoner, with his father and brother, by Pompey, on the capture of Jerusalem (B. C. 63), but made his escape as they were being conveyed to Rome. In B. C. 57, he appeared in Judaea, raised an army of 10,000 foot and 1500 horse, and fortified Alexandreion and other strong posts. Hyrcanus applied for aid to Gabinius, who brought a large army against Alexander, and sent M. Antonius with a body of troops in advance. In a battle fought near Jerusalem, Alexander was defeated with great loss, and took refuge in the fortress of Alexandreion, which was forthwith invested. Through the mediation of his mother he was permitted to depart, on condition of surrendering all the fortresses still in his power. In the following year, during the expedition of Gabinius into Egypt, Alexander again excited the Jews to revolt, and collected an army. He massacred all the Romans who fell in his way, and besieged the rest, who had taken refuge on Mount Gerizim. After rejecting the terms of peace which were offered to him by Gabinius, he was defeated near Mount Tabor with the loss of 10,000 men. The spirit of his adherents, however, was not entirely crushed, for in B. C. 53, on the death of Crassus, he again collected some forces, but was compelled to come to terms by Cassius. (B. C. 52.) In B. C. 49, on the breaking out of the civil war, Caesar set Aristobulus at liberty, and sent him to Judaea, to further his interests in that quarter. He was poisoned on the journey, and Alexander, who was preparing to support him, was seized at the command of Pompey, and beheaded at Antioch. (J. AJ 14.5_7; Bell. Jud. 1.8, 9.) [C.P.M]
of Athens, a comic poet, the son of Aristion, whose name occurs in an inscription given in Böckh (Corp. Inscr. i. p. 765), who refers it to the 145th Olympiad. (B. C. 200.) There seems also to have been a poet of the same name who was a writer of the middle comedy, quoted by the Schol. on Homer (Hom. Il. 9.216), and Aristoph. (R(an. 864), and Athen. (iv. p. 170e. x. p. 496c.; Meineke, Fragm. Com. vol. i. p. 487.) [C.P.M]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), an ambassador of king Attalus, sent to Rome in B. C. 198, to negotiate peace with the Roman senate. (Plb. 17.10.) [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος Βάλας), a person of low origin, usurped the throne of the Greek kingdom of Syria, in the year 150, B. C., pretending that he was the son of Antiochus Epiphanes. His claim was set up by Heracleides, who had been the treasurer of the late king Antiochus Epiphanes, but had been banished to Rhodes by the reigning king, Demetrius Soter; and he was supported by Ptolemy Philometor, king o Egypt, Ariarthes Philopator, king of Cappadocia, and Attalus Philadelphus, king of Pergamus. Heracleides also, having taken Alexander to Rome. succeeded in obtaining a decree of the senate in his favour. Furnished with forces by these allies, Alexander entered Syria in 152, B. C., took possession of Ptolemais, and fought a battle with Demetrius Soter, in which, however, he was defeated. In the year 150 B. C. Alexander again met Demetrius in battle with better success. The army of Demetrius was completely routed, and he himself perished in the flight. No sooner had Alexander thus obtained the kingdom than he gave up the administration of affairs to his minister Ammonius, and himself to a life of pleasure. Ammonius put to death all the members of the late royal family who were in his power; but two sons of Demetrius were safe in Crete. The elder of them. who was named Demetrius, took the field in Cilicia against the usurper. Alexander applied for help to his father-in-law, Ptolemy Philometor, who marched into Syria, and then declared himself in favour of Demetrius. Alexander now returned from Cilicia, whither he had gone to meet Demetrius, and engaged in battle with Ptolemy at the river Oenoparas. In this battle, though Ptolemy fell, Alexander was completely defeated, and he was afterwards murdered by an Arabian emir with whom he had taken refuge. (B. C. 146.) The meaning of his surname (Balas) is doubtful. It is most probably a title signifying "lord" or "king." On some of his coins he is called "Epiphanes" and "Nicephorus" after his pretended father. On others "Euergetes" and "Theopator." (Poiyb. 33.14, 16; Liv. Epit. 1. liii.; Justin, xxv.; Appian, Syriaca, c. 67; 1 Maccab. 10.11; J. AJ 13.2.4; Euseb. Chronicon; Clinton, Fasti, iii. p. 324.) [P.S]
of Beroea; he and Thyrsis suffocated Demetrius, the son of Philip III. of Macedonia, at Heracleia, in B. C. 179. (Liv. 40.24; comp. Demetrius, son of Philippus.) [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), at first bishop in Cappadocia, flourished A. D. 212. On the death of Severus, A. D. 211, he visited Jerusalem, and was made coadjutor of the aged Narcissus, bishop of that city, whom he afterwards succeeded. He founded an ecclesiastical library at Jerusalem, of which Eusebius made great use in writing his History. After suffering under Severus and Caracalla, he was at last thrown into prison at Caesarea, and, after witnessing a good confession, died A. D. 250. Eusebius has preserved fragments of a letter written by him to the Antinoites; of another to the Antiochenes (Hist. Eccl. 6.11); of a third to Origen (6.14); and of another, written in conjunction with Theoctistus of Caesarea, to Demetrius of Alexandria. (6.19.) [A.J.C]
(Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Ἀνθρακεὺς), flourished in the third century. To avoid the dangers of a handsome person, he disguised himself and lived as a coal-heaver at Cumae, in Asia Minor. The see of this city being vacant, the people asked St. Gregory Thaumaturgus to come and ordain them a bishop. He rejected many who were offered for consecration, and when he bade the people prefer virtue to rank, one in mockery cried out, " Well, then ! make Alexander, the coal-heaver, bishop!" St. Gregory had him summoned, discovered his disguise, and having arrayed him in sacerdotal vestments, presented him to the people, who, with surprise and joy, accepted the appointment. He addressed them in homely but dignified phrase, and ruled the church till the Decian persecution, when he was burnt, A. D. 251. (S. Greg. Nyssen. Vit . S. Greg. Thaumaturg. §§ 19, 20, ap. Galland. Biblioth. Patr. vol. iii. pp. 457-460.) [A.J.C]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), third son of Cassander, king of Macedonia, by Thessalonica, sister of Alexander the Great. In his quarrel with his elder brother Antipater for the government [Antipater], he called in the aid of Pyrrhus of Epirus and Demetrius Poliorcetes. To the former he was compelled to surrender, as the price of his alliance, the land on the sea-coast of Macedonia, together with the provinces of Ambracia, Acarnania, and Amphilochia. (Plut. Pyrrh. p. 386b.) Demetrius, according to Plutarch (Plut. Pyrrh. 386, d., Demetr. 906, a.), arrived after Pyrrhus had retired, and when matters, through his mediation, had been arranged between the brothers. Demetrius, therefore, was now an unwelcome visitor, and Alexander, while he received ceived him with all outward civility, is said by Plutarch to have laid a plan for murdering him at a banquet, which was baffled, however, by the precaution of Demetrius. (Demetr. 906, a. b.) The next day Demetrius took his departure, and Alexander attended him as far as Thessaly. Here, at Larissa, he went to dine with Demetrius, and (taking no guards with him by a fancied refinement of policy) was assassinated, together with his friends who attended him, one of whom is said to have exclaimed, that Demetrius was only one day beforehand with them. (Plut. Demetr. p. 906c. d.; Just. 16.1; Diod. xxi. Exc. 7.) [E.E]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), emperor of Constantinople, was the third son of the emperor Basilius and Eudocia. He was born about A. D. 870, and, after his father's death, he and his brother Leo, the philosopher, bore the title of imperator in common. Leo died on the 11th of May, 911, and Alexander received the imperial crown, together with the guardianship of his brother's son, Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, whom he would have mutilated so as to render him unfit to govern, had he not been prevented. The reign of Alexander, which lasted only for one year and some days, was one uninterrupted series of acts of cruelty, debauchery, and licentiousness; for the restraints which he had been obliged to put on himself during the lifetime of his brother, were thrown off immediately after his accession, and the worthiest persons were removed from the court while the ministers to his lusts and passions were raised to the highest honours. He involved his empire in a war with Simeon, king of the Bulgarians, but he did not live to see its outbreak. He died on the 7th of June, 912, in consequence of a debauch, after which he took violent exercise on horseback. (Constant. in Basil. 26; Scylitz. pp. 569, 608; Zonaras, 16.15, §c.) [L.S]
patriarch of Constantinople. [Arius.]
(Ἀλέξανδρος Κορνήλιος), surnamed Polyhistor (Πολυΐστωρ), a Greek writer and contemporary of Sulla. According to Suidas he was a native of Ephesus and a pupil of Crates, and during the war of Sulla in Greece was made prisoner and sold as a slave to Cornelius Lentulus, who took him to Rome and made him the paedagogus of his children. Afterwards Lentulus restored him to freedom. From Suidas it would seem as if he had received the gentile name Cornelius from Lentulus, while Servius (Serv. ad Aen. 10.388) says, that he received the Roman franchise from L. Cornelius Sulla. He died at Laurentumin a fire which consumed his house, and as soon as his wife heard of the calamity, she hung herself. The statement of Suidas that he was a native of Ephesus is contradicted by Stephanus Byzantius (s. v. Κοτιάεον), who says that he was a native of Cotiaeum in Lesser Phrygia, and a son of Asclepiades, and who is borne out by the Etymologicum Magnum (s. vv. δέδοικα and τεριρρηδής), where Alexander is called Κοτιαεύς. Works Παντοδαπῆς Ὕλης Λόγοι
The surname of Polyhistor was given to him on account of his prodigious learning. He is said to have written innumerable works, but the greatest and most important among them was one consisting of 42 books, which Stephanus Byzantius calls Παντοδαπῆς Ὕλης Λόγοι. This work appears to have contained historical and geographical accounts of nearly all countries of the ancient world. Each of the forty books treated of a separate country, and bore a corresponding title, such as Phrygiaca, Carica, Lyciaca, &c. But such titles are not always sure indications of a book forming only a part of the great work; and in some cases it is manifest that particular countries were treated of in separate works. Thus we find mention of the first book of a separate work on Crete (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 4.1492), and of another on the " Tractus Illyricus." (V. Max. 8.13, ext. 7.) These geographico-historical works are referred to in innumerable passages of Stephanus Byzantius and Pliny. On Phrygian Musicians
A separate work on the Phrygian musicians is mentioned by Plutarch (De Mus. 5). Διαδοχαί Φιλοσόφων
There is every probability that Alexander Polyhistor is also the author of the work Διαδοχαί Φιλοσόφων which seems to be the groundwork of Diogenes Laertius. [Alexander Lychnus.] On the symbols of the Pythagoreans
A work on the symbols of the Pythagoreans is mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom. i. p. 131) and Cyrillus (ad v. Julian. ix. p. 133). A history of Judaea
He also wrote a history of Judaea, of which a considerable fragment is preserved in Eusebius. (Praep. Evang. 9.17; comp. Clem. Alexand. Strom. i. p 143 ; Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἰουδαία.) A history of Rome
A history of Rome in five books is mentioned by Suidas, and a few fragments of it are preserved in Servius. (Ad Aen. 8.330, 10.388.) Other Works
A complete list of all the known titles of the works of Alexander Polyhistor is given in Vossius, De Hist. Graec. p. 187, &c., ed. Westermann. [L.S]
king of Egypt. [Ptolemaeus IX.]
(Ἀλέξανδρος) , king of Epirus, was the son of Neoptolemus and brother of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great. He came at an early age to the court of Philip of Macedonia, and after the Grecian fashion became the object of his attachment. Philip in requital made him king of Epirus, after dethroning his cousin Aeacides. When Olympias was repudiated by her husband, she went to her brother, and endeavoured to induce him to make war on Philip. Philip, however, declined the contest, and formed a second alliance with him by giving him his daughter Cleopatra in marriage. (B. C. 336.) At the wedding Philip was assassinated by Pausanias. In B. C. 332, Alexander, at the request of the Tarentines, crossed over into Italy, to aid them against the Lucanians and Bruttii. After a victory over the Samnites and Lucanians near Paestum he made a treaty with the Romans. Success still followed his arms. He took Heraclea and Consentia from the Lucanians, and Terina and Sipontum from the Bruttii. But in B. C. 326, through the treachery of some Lucanian exiles, he was compelled to engage under unfavourable circumstances near Pandosia, on the banks of the Acheron, and fell by the hand of one of the exiles, as he was crossing the river; thus accomplishing the prophecy of the oracle of Dodona, which had bidden him beware of Pandosia and the Acheron. He left a son, Neoptolemus, and a daughter, Cadmea. (Justin, 8.6, 9.6, 7, 12.2, 17.3, 18.1, 23.1 ; Liv. 8.3, 17, 24; Diod. 16.72.) The head on the annexed coin of Alexander I. represents that of Jupiter.
[C.P.M]
king of Epirus, was the son of Pyrrhus and Lanassa, the daughter of the Sicilian tyrant Agathocles. He succeeded his father in B. C. 272, and continued the war which his father had begun with Antigonus Gonatas, whom he succeeded in driving from the kingdom of Macedon. He was, however, dispossessed of both Macedon and Epirus by Demetrius, the son of Antigonus; upon which he took refuge amongst the Acarnanians. By their assistance and that of his own subjects, who entertained a great attachment for him, he recovered Epirus. It appears that he was in alliance with the Aetolians. He married his sister Olympias, by whom he had two sons, Pyrrhus and Ptolemaeus, and a daughter, Phthia. On the death of Alexander, Olympias assumed the regency on behalf of her sons, and married Phthia to Demetrius. There are extant silver and copper coins of this king. The former bear a youthful head covered with the skin of an elephant's head, as appears in the one figured below. The reverse represents Pallas holding a spear in one hand and a shield in the other, and before her stands an eagle on a thunderbolt. (Justin, 17.1, 26.2, 3, 28.1; Plb. 2.45, 9.34; Plut. Pyrrh. 9.)
[C.P.M]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), a Greek Grammarian, who is mentioned among the instructors of the emperor M. Antoninus. (Capitol. M. Ant. 2; M. Antonin. 1.10.) Works
We still possess a λόγος ἐπιτάφιος pronounced upon him by the rhetorician Aristeides. Editions
Vol. i. Orat. xii. p. 142, &c. [L.S]
son of Herod. [Herodes.]
(Ἀλέξανδρος).
1. Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, flourished A. D. 253. He was the author of a book entitled, On the new things introduced by Christ into the world τί καινὸν εἰσήνεγκε Χριστός εἰς τὸν κόσμον. κεφ. θ; not extant. (Suid.)
2. Bishop of Hierapolis, A. D. 431. He was sent by John, bishop of Antioch, to advocate the cause of Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus. His hostility to St. Cyril was such, that he openly charged him with Apollinaranism, and rejected the communion of John, Theodoret, and the other Eastern bishops, on their reconciliation with him. He appealed to the pope, but was rejected, and was at last banished by the emperor to Famothis in Egypt. Twenty-three letters of his are extant in Latin in the Synodicon adversus Tragoediam Irenaei ap. Novam Collectionem Conciliorum à Baluzio, p. 670, &c. Paris, 1683. [A.J.C]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), ST., HIEROSOLYMITANUS, a disciple, first, of Pantaenus, then of St. Clement, at Alexandria, where he became acquainted with Origen, (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 6.14,) was bishop of Flaviopolis, (Tillemont, Hist. Eccl. 3.415,) in Cappadocia. (S. Hier. Vir. Ill. § 62.) In the persecution under Severus he was thrown into prison, (circ. A. D. 204, Euseb. 6.11,) where he remained till Asclepiades succeeded Serapion at Antioch, A. D. 211, the beginning of Caracalla's reign. (See [α] the Epistle St. Alexander sent to the Antiochenes by St. Clement of Alexandria, Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 6.11.) Eusebius relates (l.c.), that by Divine revelation he became coadjutor bishop to Narcissus, bishop of Aelia, i. e. Jerusalem, A. D. 212. (See Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 6.8; Chronic. ad A. D. 228, and Alexander's [β] Epistle to the Antinoites ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 6.11.) During his episcopate of nearly forty years (for he continued bishop on the death of St. Narcissus), he collected a valuable library of Ecclesiastical Epistles, which existed in the time of Eusebius. (H. E. 6.20.) He received Origen when the troubles at Alexandria drove him thence, A. D. 216, and made him, though a layman, explain the Scriptures publicly, a proceeding which he justified in [γ] an epistle to Bishop Demetrius, of Alexandria, (ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 6.19,) who, however, sent some deacons to bring Origen home. As Origen was passing through Palestine, on some necessary business, St. Alexander ordained him priest, (S. Hier. l.c. §§ 54, 62,) which caused great disturbance in the church. [Origenes.] A fragment of a [δ] letter from St. Alexander to Origen on the subject exists, ap. Euseb. H. E. 6.14. St. Alexander died in the Decian persecution, A. D. 251, in prison (S. Dion. Alex. apud Euseb. H. E. 6.46) after great sufferings (Euseb. 6.39), and is commemorated in the Eastern church on 12th December, in the Western on 16th March. Mazabanes succeeded him. St. Clement of Alexandria dedicated to him his De Canone Ecclesiastico about the observance of Easter. (H. E. 6.13.) His fragments have been mentioned in chronological order, and are collected in Gallandi, Bibl. Pair. ii. p. 201, and in Routh's Reliquiae Sacrae, ii. p. 39. [A.J.C]
(Ἀλέξανδρος Ἰανναῖος), was the son of Johannes Hyrcanus, and brother of Aristobulus I., whom he succeeded, as King of the Jews, in B. C. 104, after putting to death one of his brothers, who laid claim to the crown. He took advantage of the unquiet state of Syria to attack the cities of Ptolemais (Acre), Dora, and Gaza, which, with several others, had made themselves independent. The people of Ptolemais applied for aid to Ptolemy Lathyrus, then king of Cyprus, who came with an army of thirty thousand men. Alexander was defeated on the banks of the Jordan, and Ptolemy ravaged the country in the most barbarous manner. In B. C. 102, Cleopatra came to the assistance of Alexander with a fleet and army, and Ptolemy was compelled to return to Cyprus. (B. C. 101.) Soon afterwards Alexander invaded Coele Syria, and renewed his attacks upon the independent cities. In B. C. 96 he took Gaza, destroyed the city, and massacred all the inhabitants. The result of these undertakings, and his having attached himself to the party of the Sadducees, drew upon him the hatred of the Pharisees, who were by far the more numerous party. He was attacked by the people in B. C. 94, while officiating as high-priest at the feast of Tabernacles; but the insurrection was put down, and six thousand of the insurgents slain. In the next year (B. C. 93) he made an expedition against Arabia, and made the Arabs of Gilead and the Moabites tributary. But in B. C. 92, in a campaign against Obedas, the emir of the Arabs of Gaulonitis, he fell into an ambush in the mountains of Gadara; his army was entirely destroyed, and he himself escaped with difficulty. The Pharisees seized the opportunity thus afforded, and broke out into open revolt. At first they were successful, and Alexander was compelled to fly to the mountains (B. C. 88); but two years afterwards he gained two decisive victories. After the second of these, he caused eight hundred of the chief men amongst the rebels to be crucified, and their wives and-children to be butchered before their eyes, while he and his concubines banqueted in sight of the victims. This act of atrocity procured for him the name of " the Thracian." It produced its effect, however, and the rebellion was shortly afterwards suppressed, after the war had lasted six years. During the next three years Alexander made some successful campaigns, recovered several cities and fortresses, and pushed his conquests beyond the Jordan. On his return to Jerusalem, in B. C. 81, his excessive drinking brought on a quartan ague, of which he died three years afterwards, while engaged in the siege of Ragaba in Gerasena, after a reign of twenty-seven years. He left his kingdom to his wife Alexandra. Coins of this king are extant, from which it appears that his proper name was Jonathan, and that Alexander was a name which he assumed according to the prevalent custom. (Josephus, J. AJ 13.12-15.) [C.P.M]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), surnamed Isius, the chief commander of the Aetolians, was a man of considerable ability and eloquence for an Aetolian. (Liv. 32.33; Plb. 17.3, &c.) In B. C. 198 he was present at a colloquy held at Nicaea on the Maliac gulf, and spoke against Philip III. of Macedonia, saying that the king ought to be compelled to quit Greece, and to restore to the Aetolians the towns which had formerly been subject to them. Philip, indignant at such a demand being made by an Aetolian, answered him in a speech from his ship. (Liv. 32.34.) Soon after this meeting, he was sent as ambassador of the Aetolians to Rome, where, together with other envoys, he was to treat with the senate about peace, but at the same time to bring accusations against Philip. (Plb. 17.10.) In B. C. 197, Alexander again took part in a meeting, at which T. Quinctius Flamininus with his allies and king Philip were present, and at which peace with Philip was discussed. Alexander dissuaded his friends from any peaceful arrangement with Philip. (Plb. 18.19, &c.; Appian, Maced. 7.1.) In B. C. 195, when a congress of all the Greek states that were allied with Rome was convoked by T. Quinctius Flamininus at Corinth, for the purpose of considering the war that was to be undertaken against Nabis, Alexander spoke against the Athenians, and also insinuated that the Romans were acting fraudulently towards Greece. (Liv. 34.23.) When in B. C. 189 M. Fulvius Nobilior, after his victory over Antiochus, was expected to march into Aetolia, the Aetolians sent envoys to Athens and Rhodes; and Alexander Isius, together with Phaneas and Lycopus, were sent to Rome to sue for peace. Alexander, now an old man, was at the head of the embassy; but he and his colleagues were made prisoners in Cephalenia by the Epeirots, for the purpose of extorting a heavy ransom. Alexander, however, although he was very wealthy, refused to pay it, and was accordingly kept in captivity for some days, after which he was liberated, at the command of the Romans, without any ransom. (Plb. 22.9.) [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), surnamed Lychnus (Λύχνος), a Greek rhetorician and poet. He was a native of Ephesus, whence he is sometimes called Alexander Ephesius, and must have lived shortly before the time of Strabo (xiv. p.642), who mentions him among the more recent Ephesian authors, and also states, that he took a part in the political affairs of his native city. Strabo ascribes to him a history, and poems of a didactic kind, viz. one on astronomy and another on geography, in which he describes the great continents of the world, treating of each in a separate work or book, which, as we learn from other sources, bore the name of the continent of which it contained an account. What kind of history it was that Strabo alludes to, is uncertain. The so-called Aurelius Victor (de Orig. Gent. Rom. 9) quotes, it is true, the first book of a history of the Marsic war by Alexander the Ephesian; but this authority is more than doubtful. Some writers have supposed that this Alexander is the author of the history of the succession of Greek philosophers (αἱ τῶν φιλοσόφων διαδοχαί), which is so often referred to by Diogenes Laertius (1.116, 2.19, 106, 3.4, 5, 4.62, 7.179, 8.24, 9.61); but this work belonged probably to Alexander Polyhistor. His geographical poem, of which several fragments are still extant, is frequently referred to by Stephanus Byzantius and others. (Steph. Byz. s. vv. Ἀάπηθος, Ταπροβάνη, Δῶρος, Ψ̔ρκανοὶ, Μελιταία, &c.; comp. Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 388, 591.) Of his astronomical poem a fragment is still extant, which has been erroneously attributed by Gale (Addend. ad Parthen. p. 49) and Schneider (ad Vitruv. ii. p. 23, &c.) to Alexander Aetolus. (See Naeke, Schedae Criticae, p. 7, &c.) It is highly probable that Cicero (Cic. Att. 2.20, 22) is speaking of Alexander Lychnus when he says, that Alexander is not a good poet, a careless writer, but yet possesses some information. [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος Λυκοπολίτης), was so called from Lycopolis, in Egypt, whether as born there, or because he was bishop there, is uncertain. At first a pagan, he was next instructed in Manicheeism by persons acquainted with Manes himself.
He was bishop of Lycopolis, (Phot. Epitome de Manich. ap. Montfaucon. Bibl. Coislin. p. 354.) and probably immediately preceded Meletius. (Le Quien, Oriens Xnus. vol. ii. p. 597.) Works Tractatus de Placitis Manichaeorum
Converted to the faith, he wrote a confutation of the heresy (Tractatus de Placitis Manichaeorum) in Greek. Edition
This was first published by Combefis, with a Latin version, in the Auctorium Novissimam Bibl. ss. Patr. Ps. ii. pag. 3, &c. It is published also by Gallandi, Bibl. Patr. vol. iv. p. 73. [A.J.C]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), the son of Lysimachus by an Odrysian woman, whom Polyaenus (6.12) calls Macris. On the murder of his brother Agathocles [see p. 65a] by command of his father in B. C. 284, he fled into Asia with the widow of his brother, and solicited aid of Seleucus. A war ensued in consequence between Seleucus and Lysimachus, which terminated in the defeat and death of the latter, who was slain in battle in B. C. 281, in the plain of Coros in Phrygia. His body was conveyed by his son Alexander to the Chersonesus, and there buried between Cardia and Pactya, where his tomb was remaining in the time of Pausanias. (1.10.4, 5; Appian, App. Syr. 64.)
(Ἀλέξανδρος), the tenth king of Macedonia, was the son of Amyntas I. When Megabazus sent to Macedonia, about B. C. 507, to demand earth and water, as a token of submission to Darius, Amyntas was still reigning. At a banquet given to the Persian envoys, the latter demanded the presence of the ladies of the court, and Amyntas, through fear of his guests, ordered them to attend. But when the Persians proceeded to offer indignities to them, Alexander caused them to retire, under pretence of arraying them more beautifully, and introduced in their stead some Macedonian youths, dressed in female attire, who slew the Persians. As the Persians did not return, Megabazus sent Bubares with some troops into Macedonia; but Alexander escaped the danger by giving his sister Gygaea in marriage to the Persian general. According to Justin, Alexander succeeded his father in the kingdom soon after these events. (Hdt. 5.17_21, 8.136 ; Justin, 7.2_4.) In B. C. 492, Macedonia was obliged to submit to the Persian general Mardonius (Hdt. 6.44); and in Xerxes' invasion of Greece (B. C. 480), Alexander accompanied the Persian army. He gained the confidence of Mardonius, and was sent by him to Athens after the battle of Salamis, to propose peace to the Athenians, which he strongly recommended, under the conviction that it was impossible to contend with the Persians. He was unsuccessful in his mission ; but though he continued in the Persian army, he was always secretly inclined to the cause of the Greeks, and informed them the night before the battle of Plataeae of the intention of Mardonius to fight on the following day. (8.136, 140-143, 9.44, 45.) He was alive in B. C. 463, when Cimon recovered Thasos. (Plut. Cim. 14.) He was succeeded by Perdiccas II.
Alexander was the first member of the royal family of Macedonia, who presented himself as a competitor at the Olympic games, and was admitted to them after proving his Greek descent. (Hdt. 5.22; Justin, 7.2.) In his reign Macedonia received a considerable accession of territory. (Thuc. 2.99.)
(Ἀλέξανδρος), the sixteenth kilng of Macedonia, the eldest son of Amyntas II., succeeded his father in B. C. 369, and appears to have reigned nearly two years, though Diodorus assigns only one to his reign. While engaged in Thessaly in a war with Alexander of Pherae, a usurper rose up in Macedonia of the name of Ptolemy Alorites, whom Diodorus, apparently without good authority, calls a brother of the king. Pelopidas, being called in to mediate between them, left Alexander in possession of the kingdom, but took with him to Thebes several hostages; among whom, according to some accounts, was Philip, the youngest brother of Alexander, afterwards king of Macedonia, and father of Alexander the Great. But he had scarcely left Macedonia, before Alexander was murdered by Ptolemy Alorites, or according to Justin (7.5), through the intrigues of his mother, Eurydice, Demosthenes (de fails. Leg. p. 402) names Apollo-phanes as one of the murderers. (Diod. 15.60, 61, 67, 71, 77; Plut. Pel. 26, 27; Athen. 14.629d.; Aeschin. de fals. Leg. p. 31, 1. 33.)
(Ἀλέξανδρος), king of Macedonia, surnamed the Great, was born at Pella, in the autumn of B. C. 356. He was the son of Philip II. and Olympias, and he inherited much of the natural disposition of both of his parents--the cool forethought and practical wisdom of his father, and the ardent enthusiasm and ungovernable passions of his mother. His mother belonged to the royal house of Epeirus, and through her he traced his descent from the great hero Achilles. His early education was committed to Leonidas and Lysimachus, the former of whom was a relation of his mother's, and the latter an Acarnanian. Leonidas early accustomed him to endure toil and hardship, but Lysimachus recommended himself to his royal pupil by obsequious flattery. But Alexander was also placed under the care of Aristotle, who acquired an influence over his mind and character, which is manifest to the latest period of his life. Aristotle wrote for his use a treatise on the art of government; and the clear and comprehensive views of the political relations of nations and of the nature of government, which Alexander shews in the midst of all his conquests, may fairly be ascribed to the lessons he had received in his youth from the greatest of philosophers. It is not impossible too that his love of discovery, which distinguishes him from the herd of vulgar conquerors, may also have been implanted in him by the researches of Aristotle. Nor was his physical education neglected. He was early trained in all manly and athletic sports; in horsemanship he excelled all of his age; and in the art of war he had the advantage of his father's instruction.
At the early age of sixteen, Alexander was entrusted with the government of Macedonia by his father, while he was obliged to leave his kingdom to march against Byzantium. He first distinguished himself, however, at the battle of Chaeroneia (B. C. 338), where the victory was mainly owing to his impetuosity and courage.
On the murder of Philip (B. C. 336), just after he had made arrangements to march into Asia at the head of the confederate Greeks, Alexander ascended the throne of Macedon, and found himself surrounded by enemies on every side. Attalus, the uncle of Cleopatra, who had been sent into Asia by Parmenion with a considerable force, aspired to the throne; the Greeks, roused by Demosthenes, threw off the Macedonian supremacy ; and the barbarians in the north threatened his dominions. Nothing but the promptest energy could save him; but in this Alexander was never deficient. Attalus was seized and put to death. His rapid march into the south of Greece overawed all opposition; Thebes, which had been most active against him, submitted when he appeered at its gates; and the assembled Greeks at the Isthmus of Corinth, with the sole exception of the Lacedaemonians, elected him to the command against Persia, which had previously been bestowed upon his father. Being now at liberty to reduce the barbarians of the north to obedience, he marched (early in B. C. 335) across mount defeated the Triballi, and advanced as far as the Danube, which he crossed, and received embassies from the Scythians and other nations. On his return, he marched westward, and subdued the Illylrians and Taulantii, who were obliged to submit to the Macedonian supremacy. While engaged in these distant countries, a report of his death reached Greece, and the Thebans once more took up arms. But a terrible punishment awaited them. He advanced into Boeotia by rapid marches, and appeared before the gates of the city almost before the inhabitants had received intelligence of his approach. The city was taken by assault; all the buildings, with the exception of the house of Pindar, were levelled with the ground; most of the inhabitants butchered, and the rest sold as slaves. Athens feared a similar fate, and sent an embassy deprecating his wrath; but Alexander did not advance further; the punishment of Thebes was a sufficient warning to Greece.
Alexander now directed all his energy to prepare for the expedition against Persia. In the spring of B. C. 334, he crossed over the Hellespont into Asia with an army of about 35,000 men. Of these 30,000 were foot and 5000 horse; and of the former only 12,000 were Macedonians. But experience had shewn that this was a force which no Persian king could resist. Darius, the reigning king of Persia, had no military skill, and could only hope to oppose Alexander by engaging the services of mercenary Greeks, of whom he obtained large supplies.
Alexander's first engagement with the Persians was on the banks of the Granicus, where they attempted to prevent his passage over it. Memnon, a Rhodian Greek, was in the army of the Persians, and had recommended them to withdraw as Alexander's army advanced, and lay waste the country ; but this advice was not followed, and the Persians were defeated. Memnon was the ablest general that Darius had, and his death in the following year (B. C. 333) relieved Alexander from a formidable opponent. After the capture of Halicarnassus, Memnon had collected a powerful fleet, in which Alexander was greatly deficient; he had taken many of the islands in the Aegaean, and threatened Macedonia.
Before marching against Darius, Alexander thought it expedient to subdue the chief towns on the western coast of Asia Minor. The last event of importance in the campaign was the capture of Halicarnassus, which was not taken till late in the autumn, after a vigorous defence by Memnon. Alexander marched along the coast of Lycia and Pamphylia, and then northward into Phrygia and to Gordium, where he cut or untied the celebrated Gordian knot, which, it was said, was to be loosened only by the conqueror of Asia.
In B. C. 333, he was joined at Gordium by reinforcements from Macedonia, and commenced his second campaign. From Gordium he marched through the centre of Asia Minor into Cilicia to the city of Tarsus, where he nearly lost his life by a fever, brought on by his great exertions, or through throwing himself, when heated, into the cold waters of the Cydnus. Darius meantime had collected an immense army of 500,000, or 600,000 men, with 30,000 Greek mercenaries; but instead of waiting for Alexander's approach in the wide plain of Sochi, where he had been stationed for some time, and which was favourable to his numbers and the evolution of his cavalry, he advanced into the narrow plain of Issus, where defeat was almost certain. Alexander had passed through this plain into Syria before Darius reached it; but as soon as he received intelligence of the movements of Darius, he retraced his steps, and in the battle which followed the Persian army was defeated with dreadful slaughter. Darius took to flight, as soon as he saw his left wing routed, and escaped across the Euphrates by the ford of Thapsacus ; but his mother, wife, and children fell into the hands of Alexander, who treated them with the utmost delicacy and respect. The battle of Issus, which was fought towards the close of B. C. 333, decided the fate of the Persian empire; but Alexander judged it most prudent not to pursue Darius, but to subdue Phoenicia, which was especially formidable by its navy, and constantly threatened thereby to attack the coasts of Greece and Macedonia. Most of the cities of Phoenicia submitted as he approached; Tyre alone refused to surrender. This city was not taken till the middle of B. C. 332, after an obstinate defence of seven months, and was fearfully punished by the slaughter of 8000 Tyrians and the sale of 30,000 into slavery. Next followed the siege of Gaza, which again delayed Alexander two months, and afterwards, according to Josephus, he marched to Jerusalem, intending to punish the people for refusing to assist him, but he was diverted from his purpose by the appearance of the high priest, and pardoned the people. This story is not mentioned by Arrian, and rests on questionable evidence.
Alexander next marched into Egypt, which gladly submitted to the conqueror, for the Egyptiaus had ever hated the Persians, who insulted their religion and violated their temples. In the beginning of the following year (B. C. 331), Alexander founded at the mouth of the western branch of the Nile, the city of Alexandria, which he intended should form the centre of commerce between the eastern and western worlds, and which soon more than realized the expectations of its founder. He now determined to visit the temple of Jupiter Ammon, and after proceeding from Alexandria along the coast to Paraetonium, he turned southward through the desert and thus reached the temple. He was sahtted by the priests as the son of Jupiter Ammon.
In the spring of the same year (B. C. 331), Alexander set out to meet Darius, who had collected another army. He marched through Phoeniciaand Syria to the Euphrates, which he crossed at the ford of Thapsacus; from thence he proceeded through Mesopotamia, crossed the Tigris, and at length met with the immense hosts of Darius, said to have amounted to more than a million of men, in the plains of Gaugamela. The battle was fought in the month of October, B. C. 331, and ended in the complete defeat of the Persians, who suffered immense slaughter. Alexander pursued the fagitives to Arbela (Erbil), which place has given its name to the battle, and which was distant about fifty miles from the spot where it was fought. Darins, who had left the field of battle early in the day, fled to Ecbatana (Hamadan), in Media. Alexander was now the conqueror of Asia; and he began to assume all the pomp and splendour of an Asiatic despot. His adoption of Persian habits and customs tended doubtless to conciliate the affections of his new subjects; but these outward signs of eastern royalty were also accompanied by many acts worthy only of an eastern tyrant; he exercised no controul over his passions, and frequently gave way to the most violent and ungovernable excesses.
From Arbela, Alexander marched to Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, which all surrendered without striking a blow. He is said to have set fire to the palace of Persepolis, and, according to some accounts, in the revelry of a banquet, at the instigation of Thais, an Athenian courtezan.
At the beginning of B. C. 330, Alexander marched from Persepolis into Media, where Darius had collected a new force. On his approach, Darius fled through Rhagae and the passes of the Elburz mountains, called by the ancients the Caspian Gates, into the Bactrian provinces. After stopping a short time at Ecbatana, Alexander pursued him through the deserts of Parthia, and had nearly reached him, when the unfortunate king was murdered by Bessus, satrap of Bactria, and his associates. Alexander sent his body to Persepolis, to be buried in the tombs of the Persian kings. Bessus escaped to Bactria, and assumed the title of king of Persia. Alexander advanced into Hyrcania, in order to gain over the remnant of the Greeks of Darius's army, who were assembled there. After some negotiation he succeeded; they were all pardoned, and a great many of them taken into his pay. After spending fifteen days at Zadracarta, the capital of Parthia, he marched to the frontiers of Areia, which he entrusted to Satibarzanes, the former satrap of the country, and set out on his march towards Bactria to attack Bessus, but had not proceeded far, when he was recalled by the revolt of Satibarzanes. By incredible exertions he returned to Artacoana, the capital of the province, in two days' march : the satrap took to flight, and a new governor was appointed. Instead of resuming his march into Bactria, Alexander seems to have thought it more prudent to subdue the south-eastern parts of Areia, and accordingly marched into the country of the Drangae and Sarangae.
During the army's stay at Prophthasia, the capital of the Drangae, an event occurred, which shews the altered character of Alexander, and represents him in the light of a suspicious oriental despot. Philotas, the son of his faithful general, Parmenion, and who had been himself a personal friend of Alexander, was accused of a plot against the king's life. life was accused by Alexander before the army, condemned, and put to death. Parmenion, who was at the head of an army at Ecbatana, was also put to death by command of Alexander, who feared lest he should attempt to revenge his son. Several other trials for treason followed, and many Macedonians were executed.
Alexander now advanced through the country of the Ariaspi to the Arachoti, a people west of the Indus, whom he conquered. Their conquest and the complete subjugation of Areia occupied the winter of this year. (B. C. 330.) In the beginning of the following year (B. C. 329), he crossed the mountains of the Paropamisus (the Hindoo Coosh), and marched into Bactria against Bessus. On the approach of Alexander, Bessus fled across the Oxus into Sogdiana. Alexander followed him, and transported his army across the river on the skins of the tents stuffed with straw. Shortly after the passage Bessus was betrayed into his hands, and, after being cruelly mutilated by order of Alexander, was put to death. From the Oxus Alexander advanced as far as the Jaxartes (the Sir), which he crossed, and defeated several Scythian tribes north of that river. After founding a city Alexandria on the Jaxartes, he retraced his steps, recrossed the Oxus, and returned to Zariaspa or Bactra, where he spent the winter of 329. It was here that Alexander killed his friend Cleitus in a drunken revel. [Cleitus.]
In the spring of B. C. 328, Alexander again crossed the Oxus to complete the subjugation of Sogdiana, but was not able to effect it in the year, and accordingly went into winter quarters at Nautaca, a place in the middle of the province. At the beginning of the following year, B. C. 327, he took a mountain fortress, in which Oxyartes, a Bactrian prince, had deposited his wife and daughters. The beauty of Roxana, one of the latter, captivated the conqueror, and he accordingly made her his wife. This marriage with one of his eastern subjets was in accordance with the whole of his policy. Having completed the conquest of Sogdiana, Alexander marched southward into Bactria, and made preparations for the invasion of India. While in Bactria, another conspiracy was discovered for the murder of the king. The plot was formed by Hermolaus with a number of the royal pages, and Callisthenes, a pupil of Aristotle, was involved in it. All the conspirators were put to death.
Alexander did not leave Bactria till late in the spring of B. C. 327, and crossed the Indus, probably near the modern Attock. He now entered the country of the Penjab, or the Five Rivers. Taxilas, the king of the people immediately east of the Indus, submitted to him, and thus he met with no resistance till he reached the Hydaspes, upon the opposite bank of which Porus, an Indian king, was posted with a large army and a considerable number of elephants. Alexander managed to cross the river unperceived by the Indian king, and then an obstinate battle followed, in which Porus was defeated after a gallant resistance, and taken prisoner. Alexander restored to him his kingdom, and treated him with distinguished honour.
Alexander remained thirty days on the Hydaspes, during which time he founded two towns, one on each bank of the river: one was called Bucephala, in honour of his horse Bucephalus, who died here, after carrying him through so many victories; and the other Nicaea, to commemorate his victory. From thence he marched to the Acesines (the Chinab), which he crossed, and subsequently to the Hydraotes (the Ravee), which he also crossed, to attack another Porus, who had prepared to resist him. But as he approached nearer, this Porus fled, and his dominions were given to the one whom he had conquered on the Hydaspes. The Cathaei, however, who also dwelt east of the Hydraotes, offered a vigorous resistance, but were defeated. Alexander still pressed forward till he reached the Ilyphasis (Garra), which he was preparing to cross, when the Macedonians, worn out by long service, and tired of the war, refused to proceed; and Alexander, notwithstanding his entreaties and prayers, was obliged to lead them back. He returned to the Hydaspcs, where he had previously given orders for the building of a fleet, and then sailed down the river with about 8000 men, while the remainder marched along the banks in two divisions. This was late in the autumn of 327. The people on each side of the river submitted without resistance, except the Malli, in the conquest of one of whose places Alexander was severely wounded. At the confluence of the Acesines and the Indus, Alexander founded a city, and left Philip as satrap, with a considerable body of Greeks. Here he built some fresh ships, and shortly afterwards sent about a third of the army, under Craterus, through the country of the Arachoti and Drangae into Carmania. He himself continued his voyage down the Indus, founded a city at Pattala, the apex of the delta of the Indus, and sailed into the Indian ocean. He seems to have reached the mouth of the Indus about the middle of 326. Nearchus was sent with the fleet to sail along the coast to the Persian gulf [Nearchus], and Alexander set out from Pattala, about September, to return to Persia. In his march through Gedrosia, his army suffered greatly from want of water and provisions, till they arrived at Pura, where they obtained supplies. From Pura he advanced to Carman (Kirman), the capital of Carmania, where he was joined by Craterus, with his detachment of the army, and also by Nearchus, who had accomplished the voyage in safety. Alexander sent the great body of the army, under Hephaetion, along the Persian gulf, while he himself, with a small force, marched to Pasargadae, and from thence to Persepolis, where he appointed Peucestas, a Macedonian, governor, in place of the former one, a Persian, whom he put to death, for oppressing the province.
From Persepolis Alexander advanced to Susa, which he reached in the beginning of 325. Here he allowed himself and his troops some rest from their labours; and faithful to his plan of forming his European and Asiatic subjects into one people, he assigned to about eighty of his generals Asiatic wives, and gave with them rich dowries. He himself took a second wife, Barsine, the eldest daughter of Darius, and according to some accounts, a third, Parysatis, the daughter of Ochus. About 10,000 Macedonians also followed the example of their king and generals, and married Asiatic women; all these received presents from the king. Alexander also enrolled large numbers of Asiatics among his troops, and taught them the Macedonian tactics. He moreover directed his attention to the increase of commerce, and for this purpose had the Euphrates and Tigris made navigable, by removing the artificial obstructions which had been made in the river for the purpose of irrigation.
The Macedonians, who were discontented with several of the new arrangements of the king, and especially at his placing the Persians on an equality with themselves in many respects, rose in mutinyagainst him, which he quelled with some little difficulty, and he afterwards dismissed about 10,000 Macedonian veterans, who returned to Europe under the command of Craterus. Towards the close of the same year (B. C. 325) he went to Ecbatana, where he lost his great favourite Hephaestion; and his grief for his loss knew no bounds. From Ecbatana he marched to Babylon, subduing in his way the Cossaei, a mountain tribe; and before he reached Babylon, he was met by ambassadors from almost every part of the known world, who had come to do homage to the new conqueror of Asia.
Alexander reached Babylon in the spring of B. C. 324, about a year before his death, notwithstanding the warnings of the Chaldeans, who predicted evil to him if he entered the city at that time. He intended to make Babylon the capital of his empire, as the best point of communication between his eastern and western dominions. His schemes were numerous and gigantic. His first object was the conquest of Arabia, which was to be followed, it was said, by the subjugation of Italy, Carthage, and the west. But his views were not confined merely to conquest. He sent Heracleides to build a fleet on the Caspian, and to explore that sea, which was said to be connected with the northern ocean. He also intended to improve the distribution of waters in the Babylonian plain, and for that purpose sailed down the Euphrates to inspect the canal called Pallacopas. On his return to Babylon, he found the preparations for the Arabian expedition nearly complete; but almost immediately afterwards he was attacked by a fever, probably brought on by his recent exertions in the marshy districts around Babylon, and aggravated by the quantity of wine he had drunk at a banquet given to his principal officers. He died after an illness of eleven days, in the month of May or June, B. C. 323. He died at the age of thirty-two, after a reign of twelve years and eight months. He appointed no one as his successor, but just before his death he gave his ring to Perdiccas. Roxana was with child at the time of his death, and afterwards bore a son, who is known by the name of Alexander Aegus.
The history of Alexander forms an important epoch in the history of mankind. Unlike other Asiatic conquerors, his progress was marked by something more than devastation and ruin; at every step of his course the Greek language and civilization took root and flourished; and after his death Greek kingdoms were formed in all parts of Asia, which continued to exist for centuries. By his conquests the knowledge of mankind was increased ; the sciences of geography, natural history and others, received vast additions; and it was through him that a road was opened to India, and that Europeans became acquainted with the products of the remote East.
No contemporary author of the campaigns of Alexander survives. Our best account comes from Arrian, who lived in the second century of the Christian aera, but who drew up his history from the accounts of Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, and Aristobulus of Cassandria. The history of Quintus Curtius, Plutarch's life of Alexander, and the epitomes of Justin and Diodorus Siculus, were also compiled from earlier writers. The best modern writers on the subject are : St. Croix, Examcn critique des ancicns Historiens d' Alexandre le Grand, Droysen, Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen ; Williams, Life of Alexander ; Thirlwall, History of Greece, vols. vi. and vii.
(Ἀλέξανδρος), king of Macedonia, the son of Alexander the Great and Roxana, was born shortly after the death of his father, in B. C. 323. He was acknowledged as the partner of Philip Arrhidaeus in the empire, and was under the guardianship of Perdiccas, the regent, till the death of the latter in B. C. 321. He was then for a short time placed under the guardianship of Pithon and the general Arrhidaeus, and subsequently under that of Antipater, who conveyed him with his mother Roxana, and the king Philip Arrhidaeus and his wife to Macedonia in 320. (Diod. 18.36, 39.) On the death of Antipater in 319, the government fell into the hands of Polysperchon; but Eurydice, the wife of Philip Arrhidaeus, began to form a powerful party in Macedonia in opposition to Polysperchon; and Roxana, dreading her influence, fled with her son Alexander into Epeirus, where Olympias had lived for a long time. At the instigation of Olympias, Aeacides, king of Epeirus, made common cause with Polysperchon, and restored the young Alexander to Macedonia in 317. [Aeacides.] Eurydice and her husband were put to death, and the supreme power fell into the hands of Olympias. (19.11; Justin, 14.5.) But in the following year Cassander obtained possession of Macedonia, put Olympias to death, and imprisoned Alexander and his mother. They remained in prison till the general peace made in 311, when Alexander's title to the crown was recognized. Many of his partizans demanded that he should be immediately released from prison and placed upon the throne. Cassander therefore resolved to get rid of so dangerous a rival, and caused him and his mother Roxana to be murdered secretly in prison. (B. C. 311. Diod. 19.51, 52, 61, 105; Justin, 15.2 ; Paus. 9.7.2.)
(Ἀλέξανδρος), a Megalopolitan. He was originally a Macedonian, but had received the franchise and was settled at Megalopolis about B. C. 190. He pretended to be a descendant of Alexander the Great, and accordingly called his two sons Philip and Alexander. His daughter Apama was married to Amynander, king of the Athamanians. Her eldest brother, Philip, followed her to her court, and being of a vain character, he allowed himself to be tempted with the prospect of gaining possession of the throne of Macedonia. (Liv. 35.47; Appian, App. Syr. 13; comp. Philippus, son of Alexander.) [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), brother of Molo. On the accession of Antiochus III., afterwards called the Great, in B. C. 224, he entrusted Alexander with the government of the satrapy of Persis, and Molo received Media. Antiochus was then only fifteen years of age, and this circumstance, together with the fact that Hermeias, a base flatterer and crafty intriguer, whom every one had to fear, was all-powerful at his court, induced the two brothers to form the plan of causing the upper satrapies of the kingdom to revolt. It was the secret wish of Hermeias to see the king involved in as many difficulties as possible, and it was on his advice that the war against the rebels was entrusted to men without courage and ability. In B. C. 220, however, Antiochus himself undertook the command. Molo was deserted by his troops, and to avoid falling into the hands of the king, put an end to his own life. All the leaders of the rebellion followed his example, and one of them, who escaped to Persis, killed Molo's mother and children, persuaded Alexander to put an end to his life, and at last killed himself upon the bodies of his friends. (Plb. 5.40, 41, 43, 54.) [L.S]
the Monk (Ἀλέξανδρος μοναχός), perhaps a native of Cyprus. All we know of his age is, that he lived before Michael Glycas, A. D. 1120, who quotes him. Two orations by him are extant. 1. A Panegyric on St. Barnabas, apud Bollandi Acta Sanctorum, vol. xxi. p. 436. 2. Concerning the Invention of the Cross, apud Gretser. de Cruce Christi, 4to. Ingolst. 1600. [A.J.C]
(Ἀλέξανδρος) of Myndus in Caria, a Greek writer on zoology of uncertain date. His works, which are now lost, must have been considered very valuable by the ancients, since they refer to them very frequently. The titles of his works are : Κτηνῶν Ἱστορία, a long fragment of which, belonging to the second book, is quoted by Athenaeus. (v. p. 221, comp. ii. p. 65; Aelian, Ael. NA 3.23, 4.33, 5.27, 10.34.) This work is probably the same as that which in other passages is simply called Περὶ Ζώων, and of which Athenaeus (ix. p. 392) likewise quotes the second book. The work on birds (Περὶ Πτηνῶν, Plut. Mar. 17; Athen. ix. pp. 387, 388, 390, &c.) was a separate work, and the second book of it is quoted by Athenaeus. Diogenes Laertius (1.29) mentions one Alexon of Myndus as the author of a work on myths, of which he quotes the ninth book. This author being otherwise unknown, Menage proposed to read Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μύνδιος instead of Ἀλέξων. But everything is uncertain, and the cojecture at least is not very probable. [L.S]
Ἀλέξανδρος Νουμήνιος, (or ὁ Νουμηνίου, as Suidas calls him), a Greek rhetorician, who lived in the reign of Hadrian or that of the Antonines. About his life nothing is known. Works
We possess two works which are ascribed to him. De Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis
The one which certainly is his work bears the title Περὶ τῶν τῆς Διανοίας καὶ Λέξεως Σχημάτων, i. e. De Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis. J. Rufinianus in his work on the same subject (p. 159, ed. Ruhnken) expressly states that Aquila Romanus, in his treatise " De Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis," took his materials from Alexander Numenius' work mentioned above. On Show-speeches
The second work bearing the name of Alexander Numenius, entitled Περὶ Ἐπιδεικτικῶν, i. e. On Show-speeches, is admitted on all hands not to be his work, but of a later grammarian of the name of Alexander; it is, to speak more correctly, made up very clumsily from two distinct ones, one of which was written by one Alexander, and the other by Menander. (Vales. ad Euseb. Hist. Eccles. p. 28.) Editions
The first edition of these two works is that of Aldus, in his collection of the Rhetores Graeci, Venice, 1508, fol., vol. i. p. 574, &c. They are also contained in Walz's Rhetores Graeci, vol. viii.
The genuine work of Alexander Numenius has also been edited, together with Minucianus and Phoebammon, by L. Normann, with a Latin translation and useful notes, Upsala, 1690, 8vo. Further Information
See Ruhnken, ad Aquil. Rom. p. 139, &c.; Westermann, Gesch. der Griech. Beredtsamkeit, § 953, n. 13.104, n. 7. [L.S]
an Athenian Painter, one of whose productions is extant, painted on a marble tablet which bears his name. (Winckelmann, vol. ii. p. 47, v. p. 120, ed. Eiselein.) There was a son of king Perseus of this name, who was a skilful toreutes. (Plut. Aem. 37.) There was also a M. Lollius Alexander, an engraver, whose name occurs in an inscription in Doni, p. 319, No. 14. [C.P.M]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), the Paphlagonian, a celebrated impostor, who flourished about the beginning of the second century (Lucian. Alex. 6), a native of Abonoteichos on the Euxine, and the pupil of a friend of Apollonius Tyanaeus. His history, which is told by Lucian with great naiveté, is chiefly an account of the various contrivances by which he established and maintained the credit of an oracle. Being, according to Lucian's account, at his wit's end for the means of life, with many natural advantages of manner and person, he determined on the following imposture. After raising the expectations of the Paphlagonians with a reported visit of the god Aesculapius, and giving himself out, under the sanction of an oracle, as a descendant of Perseus, he gratified the expectation which he had himself raised, by finding a serpent, which he juggled out of an egg, in the foundations of the new temple of Aesculapius. A larger serpent, which he brought with him from Pella, was disguised with a human head, until the dull Paphlagonians really believed that a new god Glycon had appeared among them, and gave oracles in the likeness of a serpent. Dark and crowded rooms, juggling tricks, and the other arts of more vulgar magicians, were the chief means used to impose on a credulous populace, which Lucian detects with as much zest as any modern sceptic in the marvels of animal magnetism. Every one who attempted to expose the impostor, was accused of being a Christian or Epicurean; and even Lucian, who amused himself with his contradictory oracles, hardly escaped the effects of his malignity. He had his spies at Rome, and busied himself with the affairs of the whole world : at the time when a pestilence was raging, many were executed at his instigation, as the authors of this calamity. He said, that the soul of Pythagoras had migrated into his body, and prophesied that he should live a hundred and fifty years, and then die from the fall of a thunderbolt : unfortunately, an ulcer in the leg put an end to his imposture in the seventieth year of his age, just as he was in the height of his glory, and had requested the emperor to have a medal struck in honour of himself and the new god. The influence he attained over the populace seems incredible; indeed, the narrative of Lucian would appear to be a mere romance, were it not confirmed by some medals of Antoninus and M. Aurelius. [B.J]
(Ἀλέξανδρος) of Paphius, a Greek writer on mythology of uncertain date. Eustathius (ad Hom. Od. x. pp. 1658, 1713) refers to him as his authority. [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος Πηλοπλάτων), a Greek rhetorician of the age of the Antonines, was a son of Alexander of Seleucia, in Cilicia, and of Seleucis. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. 2.5.1, compared with Epist. Apollon. Tyan. 13, where the father, of Alexander Peloplaton is called Straton, which, however, may be a mere surname.) His father was distinguished as a pleader in the courts of justice, by which he acquired considerable property, but he died at an age when his son yet wanted the care of a father. His place, however, was supplied by his friends, especially by Apollonius of Tyana, who is said to have been in love with Seleucis on account of her extraordinary beauty, in which she was equalled by her son. His education was entrusted at first to Phavorinus, and afterwards to Dionysius. He spent the property which his father had left him upon pleasures, but, says Philostratus, not contemptible pleasures. When he had attained the age of manhood, the town of Seleucia, for some reason now unknown, sent Alexander as ambassador to the emperor Antoninus Pius, who is said to have ridiculed the young man for the extravagant care he bestowed on his outward appearance. He spent the greater part of his life away from his native place, at Antiochia, Rome, Tarsus, and travelled through all Egypt, as far as the country of the Γύμνοι. (Ethiopians.) It seems to have been during his stay at Antiochia that he was appointed Greek secretary to the emperor M. Antoninus, who was carrying on a war in Pannonia, about A. D. 174. On his journey to the emperor he made a short stay at Athens, where he met the celebrated rhetorician Herodes Atticus. He had a rhetorical contest with him in which he not only conquered his famous adversary, but gained his esteem and admiration to such a degree, that Herodes honoured him with a munificent present. One Corinthian, however, of the name of Sceptes, when asked what he thought of Alexander, expressed his disappointment by saying that he had found " the clay (Πῆλος), but not Plato." This saying gave rise to the surname of Peloplaton. The place and time of his death are not known. Philostratus gives the various statements which he found about these points. Alexander was one of the greatest rhetoricians of his age, and he is especially praised for the sublimity of his style and the boldness of his thoughts; but he is not known to have written anything. An account of his life is given by Philostratus (Vit. Soph. 2.5), who has also preserved several of his sayings, and some of the subjects on which he made speeches. (Comp. Suidas, s. v. Ἀλέξανδρος αἰγαῖος in fin.; Eudoc. p. 52.) [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), son of Perseus, king of Macedonia, was a child at the conquest of his father by the Romans, and after the triumph of Aemilius Paullus in B. C. 167, was kept in enstody at Alba, together with his father. He became skilful in the toreutic art, learned the Latin language, and became a public notary. (Liv. 45.42; Plut. Aem. 37.)
(Ἀλέξανδρος), tyrant of Pherae. The accounts of his usurpation vary somewhat in minor points; Diodorus (15.61 ) tells us that, on the assassination of Jason, B. C. 370, Polydorus his brother ruled for a year, and was then poisoned by Alexander, another brother. According to Xenophon (Xenoph. Hell. 6.4.34), Polydorus was murdered by his brother Polyphron, and Polyphron, in his turn, B. C. 369, * This date is at variance with Pausanias (6.5); but, see Wesseling on Diod. (15.75.) by Alexander--his nephew, according to Plutarch, who relates also that Alexander worshipped as a god the spear with which he slew his uncle. (Plut. Pelop. p. 293, &c.; Wess. ad Diod. l.c.) Alexander governed tyrannically, and according to Diodorus (l.c.), differently from the former rulers, but Polyphron, at least, seems to have set him the example. (Xen. l.c.) The Thessalian states, however, which had acknowledged the authority of Jason the Tagus (Xen. Hell. 6.1.4, 5, &c.; Diod. 15.60), were not so willing to subinit to the oppression of Alexander the tyrant, and they applied therefore (and especially the old family of the Aleuadae of Larissa, who had most reason to fear him) to Alexander, king of Macedon, son of Amyntas II. The tyrant, with his characteristic energy, prepared to meet his enemy in Macedonia, but the king anticipated him, and, reaching Larissa, was admitted into the city, obliged the Thessalian Alexander to flee to Pherae, and left a garrison in Larissa, as well as in Cranon, which had also come over to him. (Diod. 15.61.) But the Macedonian having retired, his friends in Thessaly, dreading the vengeance of Alexander, sent for aid to Thebes, the policy of which state, of course, was to check a neighbour who might otherwise become so formidable, and Pelopidas was accordingly despatched to succour them. On the arrival of the latter at Larissa, whence according to Diodorus (15.67) he dislodged the Macedonian garrison, Alexander presented himself and offered submission; but soon after escaped by flight, alarmed by the indignation which Pelopidas expressed at the tales he heard of his cruelty and tyrannical profligacy. (Diod. l.c. ; Plut. Pelop. p. 291d.) These events appear to be referable to the early part of the year 368. In the summer of that year Pelopidas was again sent into Thessaly, in consequence of fresh complaints against Alexander. Accompanied by Ismenias, he went merely as a negotiator, and without any military force, and venturing incautiously within the power of the tyrant, was seized by him and thrown into prison. (Diod. 15.71; Plut. pel. p. 292d; Plb. 8.1.) The language of Demosthenes (c. Aristocr. p. 660) will hardly support Mitford's inference, that Pelopidas was taken prisoner in battle. (See Mitford, Gr. Hist. ch. 27. sec. 5.) The Thebans sent a large army into Thessaly to rescue Pelopidas, but they could not keep the field against the superior cavalry of Alexander, who, aided by auxiliaries from Athens, pursued them with great slaughter; and the destruction of the whole Theban army is said to have been averted only by the ability of Epaminondas, who was serving in the campaign, but not as general.
The next year, 367, was signalized by a specimen of Alexander's treacherous cruelty in the massacre of the citizens of Scotussa (Plut. Pel. p. 293; Diod. 15.75; Paus. 6.5); and also by another expedition of the Thebans under Epaminondas into Thessaly, to effect the release of Pelopidas. According to Plutarch, the tyrant did not dare to offer resistance, and was glad to purchase even a thirty days' truce by the delivery of the prisoners. (Plut. Pel. pp. 293, 294; Diod. 15.75.) During the next three years Alexander would seem to have renewed his attempts against the states of Thessaly, especially those of Magnesia and Phthiotis (Plut. Pel. p. 295a), for at the end of that time, B. C. 364, we find them again applying to Thebes for protection against him. The army appointed to march under Pelopidas is said to have been dismayed by an eclipse (June 13, 364), and Pelopidas, leaving it behind, entered Thessaly at the head of three hundred volunteer horsemen and some mercenaries. A battle ensued at Cynoscephalae, wherein Pelopidas was himself slain, but defeated Alexander (Plut. Pel. pp. 295, 296 ; Diod. 15.80); and this victory was closely followed by another of the Thebans under Malcites and Diogiton, who obliged Alexander to restore to the Thessalians the conquered towns, to confine himself to Pherae, and to be a dependent ally of Thebes. (Plut. Pel. p. 297, &c.; Diod. 15.80; comp. Xen. Hell. 7.5.4.)
The death of Epaminondas in 362, if it freed Athens from fear of Thebes, appears at the same time to have exposed her to annoyance from Alexander, who, as though he felt that he had no further occasion for keeping up his Athenian alliance, made a piratical descent on Tenos and others of the Cyclades, plundering them, and making slaves of the inhabitants. Peparethus too he besieged, and " even landed troops in Attica itself, and seized the port of Panormus, a little eastward of Sunium." Leosthenes, the Athenian admiral, defeated him, and relieved Peparethus, but Alexander delivered his men from blockade in Panormus, took several Attic triremes, and plundered the Peiraeeus. (Diod. 15.95; Polyaen. 6.2; Demosth. c. Polycl. pp. 1207, 1208; περὶ Στεφ. τῆς τριηρ. p. 1330; Thirlwall, Gr. Hist. vol. v. p. 209 : but for another account of the position of Panormus, see Wess. ad Diod. l.c.)
The murder of Alexander is assigned by Diodorus to B. C. 367. Plutarch gives a detailed account of it, containing a lively picture of a semibarbarian palace. Guards watched throughout it all the night, except at the tyrant's bedchamber, which was situated at the top of a ladder, and at the door of which a ferocious dog was chained. Thebe, the wife and cousin of Alexander, and daughter of Jason (Plut. Pel. p. 293a), concealed her three brothers in the house during the day. caused the dog to be removed when Alexander had retired to rest, and having covered the steps of the ladder with wool, brought up the young men to her husband's chamber. Though she had taken away Alexander's sword, they feared to set about the deed till she threatened to awake him and discover all : they then entered and despatched him. His body was cast forth into the streets, and exposed to every indignity. Of Thebe's motive for the murder different accounts are given. Plutarch states it to have been fear of her husband, together with hatred of his cruel and brutal character, and ascribes these feelings principally to the representations of Pelopidas, when she visited him in his prison. In Cicero the deed is ascribed to jealousy. (Plut. Pel. pp. 293, b, 297, d; Diod. 16.14; Xen. Hell. 6.4.37; Cic. de Off. 2.7. See also Cic. de Inv. 2.49, where Alexander's murder illustrates a knotty point for special pleading; also Aristot. apud Cic. de Div. 1.25 ; the dream of Eudemus.) [E.E]
(Ἀλέξανδρος Φιλαλήθης), an ancient Greek physician, who is called by Octavius Horatianus (iv. p. 102d. ed. Argent. 1532), Alexander Amator Veri, and who is probably the same person who is quoted by Caelius Aurelianus (De Morb. Acut. 2.1, p. 74) under the name of Alexander Laodicensis. He lived probably towards the end of the first century before Christ, as Strabo speaks of him (xii. p. 580) as a contemporary; he was a pupil of Asclepiades (Octav. Horat. l.c.), succeeded Zeuxis as head of a celebrated Herophilean school of medicine, established in Phrygia between Laodicea and Carura (Strab. l.c.), and was tutor to Aristoxenus and Demosthenes Philalethes. (Galen. De Differ. Puls. 4.4, 10, vol. viii. pp. 727, 746.) He is several times mentioned by Galen and also by Soranus (De Arte Obstetr. c. 93, p. 210), and appears to have written some medical works, which are no longer extant. [W.A.G]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), was appointed governor of Phocis by Philip III. of Macedonia. The Phocian town of Phanoteus was commanded by Jason, to whom he had entrusted this post. In concert with him he invited the Aetolians to come and take possession of the town, promising that it should be opened and surrendered to them. The Aetolians, under the command of Aegetas, accordingly entered the town at night; and when their best men were within the walls, they were made prisoners by Alexander and his associate. This happened in B. C. 217. (Plb. 5.96.) [L.S]
[Alexander Cornelius.]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), son of Polysperchon, the Macedonian. The regent Antipater, on his death (B. C. 320), left the regency to Polysperchon, to the exclusion and consequent discontent of his own son, Cassander. (Diod. 18.48; Plut. Phoc. p. 755,f.) The chief men, who had been placed in authority by Antipater in the garrisoned towns of Greece, were favourable to Cassander, as their patron's son, and Polysperchon's policy, therefore, was to reverse the measures of Antipater, and restore democracy where it had been abolished by the latter. It was then, in the prosecution of this design, that his son Alexander was sent to Athens, B. C. 318, with the alleged object of delivering the city from Nicanor, who by Cassander's appointment commanded the garrison placed by Antipater in Munychia. (Plut. Phoc. 755, f. 756, e.; Diod. 18.65.) Before his arrival, Nicanor, besides strengthening himself with fresh troops in Munychia, had also treacherously seized the Peiraeeus. To occupy these two ports himself soon appeared to be no less the intention of Alexander,--an intention which he had probably formed before any communication with Phocion, though Diodorus (l.c.) seems to imply the contrary. The Athenians, however, looked on Phocion as the author of the design, and their suspicions and anger being excited by the private conferences of Alexander with Nicanor, Phocion was accused of treason, and, fleeing with several of his friends to Alexander, was by him despatched to Polysperchon. (Diod. 18.66; Plut. Phoc. 756, f. 757, a.) Cassander, arriving at Athens soon after and occupying the Peiraeeus, was there besieged by Polysperchon with a large force; but the supplies of the latter being inadequate, he was obliged to withdraw a portion of his army, with which he went to attempt the reduction of Megalopolis, while Alexander was left in command of the remainder at Athens. (Diod. 18.68.) Here he appears to have continued without effecting anything, till the treaty and capitulation of Athens with Cassander (Paus. 1.25; Diod. 18.74) gave the city to the power of the latter.
When Polysperchon, baffled at Megalopolis (Diod. 18.72), withdrew into Macedonia, his son seems to have been left with an army in Peloponnesus, where, as we read in Diodorus (19.35), the field was left open to him, and the friends of oligarchy were greatly alarmed by the departure of Cassander into Macedon on the intelligence of the murder of Arrhidaeus and Eurydice by Olympias, B. C. 317. (Paus. 1.11; Diod. 19.11.) During his absence, Alexander succeeded in bringing over to himself several cities and important places in the Peloponnesus (Diod. 19.53); but, on Cassander's return to the south, after crushing Olympias in Macedon, he in vain attempted to check him by his fortification of the Isthmus, for Cassander, passing to Epidaurus by sea, regained Argos and Hermione, and afterwards also the Messenian towns, with the exception of Ithome. (Diod. 19.54.)
In the next year, 315, Antigonus (whose ambition and successes in the east had united against him Cassander, Lysimachus, Asander, and Ptolemy Soter), among other measures, sent Aristodemus into the Peloponnesus to form a league of amity with Polysperchon and Alexander; and the latter was persuaded by Aristodemus to pass over to Asia for a personal conference with Antigonus. Finding him at Tyre, a treaty was made between them, and Alexander returned to Greece with a present of 500 talents from Antigonus, and a multitude of magnificent promises. (Diod. 19.60, 61.) Yet, in the very same year, we find him renouncing his alliance with Antigonus, and bribed by the title of governor of the Peloponnesus to reconcile himself to Cassander. (Diod. 19.64.)
In the ensuing year, 314, we read of him as engaged for Cassander in the siege of Cyllene, which however was raised by Aristodemus and his Aetolian auxiliaries. After the return of Aristodemus to Aetolia, the citizens of Dyme, in Achaia, having besieged the citadel, which was occupied by one of Cassander's garrisons, Alexander forced his way into the city, and made himself master of it, punishing the adverse party with death, imprisonment, or exile. (Diod. 19.66.) Very son after this he was murdered at Sicyon by Alexion, a Sicyonian, leaving the command of his forces to one who proved herself fully adequate to the task, --his wife Cratesipolis. (B. C. 314, Diod. 19.67.) [E.E]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), a Rhodian. In the war against Cassius he was at the head of the popular party, and was raised to the office of prytanis, B. C. 43. (Appian, de Bell. Civ. 4.66.) But soon after, he and the Rhodian admiral, Mnaseas, were defeated by Cassius in a sea-fight off Cnidus. (Appian, de Bell. Civ. 4.71.) [L.S]
(ST.), bishop of Rome, A. D. 109-119. (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 4.4.) There are three Epistles falsely ascribed to him by Isidore Mercator, as well as a decree, according to Gratian. (Mansi, Concilia. vol. i. pp. 643-647.) Heracleon is said (in the book Pracdestinatus, ap. Sirmond. Opp. vol. i. p. 470) to have broached his heresy in Sicily in the time of St. Alexander, and to have been confuted by him. But Heracleon was not, perhaps, yet born. [A.J.C]
who assumed the title of EMPEROR OF Rome in A. D. 311, was, according to some accounts, a Phrygian, and according to others a Pannonian. He was appointed by Maxentius governor of Africa, but discovering that Maxentius was plotting against his life, he assumed the purple, though he was of an advanced age and a timid nature. Maxentius sent some troops against him under Rufius Volusianus, who put down the insurrection without difficulty. Alexander was taken and strangled. (Zosimus, 2.12, 14; Aur. Vict. de Caes. 40, Epit. 40.) There are a few medals of Alexander. In the one annexed we find the words Imp. Alexander. Aug., P. F.; the reverse represents Victory, with this inscription, Victoria Alexandri Aug. N., and at the bottom, P. K.
king of Syria. [Alexander Balas and Zebina.]
king of Syria. [Alexander Balas and Zebina.]
(Τιβέριος Ἀλέξανδρος), was born at Alexandria, of Jewish parents. His father held the office of Alabarch in Alexandria, and his uncle was Philo, the well-known writer. Alexander, however, did not continue in the faith of his ancestors, and was rewarded for his apostacy by various public appointments. In the reign of Claudius he succeeded Fadius as procurator of Judaea, about A. D. 46, and was promoted to the equestrian order. He was subsequently appointed by Nero procurator of Egypt; and by his orders 50,000 Jews were slain on one occasion at Alexandria in a tumult in the city. It was apparently during his government in Egypt that he accompaied Corbulo in his expedition into Armenia, A. D. 64; and he was in this campaign given as one of the hostages to secure the safety of Tiridates, when the latter visited the Roman camp. Alexander was the first Roman governor who declared in favour of Vespasian; and the day on which he administered the oath to the legions in the name of Vespasian, the Kalends of July, A. D. 69, is regarded as the beginning of that emperor's reign. Alexander afterwards accompanied Titus in the war against Judaea, and was present at the taking of Jerusalem. (J. AJ 20.4.2; Bell. Jud. 2.11.6, 15.1, 18.7, 8, 4.10.6, 6.4.3; Tac. Ann. 15.28, Hist. 1.11, 2.74, 79; Suet. Vesp. 6.)
(Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Τραλλιανός), one of the most eminent of the ancient physicians, was born at Tralles, a city of Lydia, from whence he derives his name. His date may safely be put in the sixth century after Christ, for he mentions Aetius (12.8, p. 346), who probably did not write till the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century, and he is himself quoted by Paulus Aegineta (3.28, 78, 7.5, 11, 19, pp. 447, 495, 650, 660, 687), who is supposed to have lived in the seventh; besides which, he is mentioned as a contemporaryby Agathias (Hist. v. p. 149), who set about writing his History in the beginning of the reign of Justin the younger, about A. D. 565. He had the advantage of being brought up under his father, Stephanus, who was himself a physician (4.1, p. 198), and also under another person, whose name he does not mention, but to whose son Cosmas he dedicates his chief work (xii. i. p. 313), which he wrote out of gratitude at his request. He was a man of an extensive practice, of a very long experience, and of great reputation, not only at Rome, but wherever he travelled in Spain, Gaul, and Italy (1.15, pp. 156, 157), whence he was called by way of eminence " Alexander the Physician." Agathias speaks also with great praise of his four brothers, Anthemius, Dioscorus, Metrodorus, and Olympius, who were all eminent in their several professions. Alexander is not a mere compiler, like Aetius, Oribasius, and others, but is an author of quite a different stamp, and has more the air of an original writer. He wrote his great work (as he tells us himself, 12.1, p. 313)in an extreme old age, from the results of his own experience, when he could no longer bear the fatigue of practice. His style in the main, says Freind, is very good, short, clear, and (to use his own term, 12.1, p. 313) consisting of common expressions; and though (through a mixture of some foreign words occasioned perhaps by his travels) not always perfectly elegant, yet very expressive and intelligible. Fabricius considers Alexander to have belonged to the sect of the Methodici, but in the opinion of Freind this is not proved sufficiently by the passages adduced. The weakest and most curious part of his practice appears to be his belief in charms and amulets, some of which may be quoted as specimens. For a quotidian ague, " Gather an olive leaf before sun-rise, write on it with common ink κα, ροι, α, and hang it round the neck" (12.7, p. 339); for the gout, " Write on a thin plate of gold, during the waning of the moon, μεί, Δρεύ, μόρ, φόρ, τεύξ, ζά, ζών, Δέ, λού, χρί, γέ, ζέ, ων, and wear it round the ankles; pronouncing also ἰάζ, ἀζύφ, ζύων, Δρεύξ, βαίν, χωώκ" (11.1, p. 313), or else this verse of Homer (Il. β. 95), Τετρήχει δʼ ἀγορὴ, ὑπὸ δʼ ἐστοναχίζετο γαῖα, "while the moon is in Libra; but it is much better if she should be in Leo." (Ibid.)In exorcising the gout (ibid. p. 314) he says, " I adjure thee by the great name Ἰαὼ Σαβαώθ," that is, , and a little further on, " I adjure thee by the holy names Ἰαὼ, Σαβαὼθ, Ἀδωναἰ̈, Ἐλω̈ἱ," that is, ; from which he would appear to have been either a Jew or a Christian, and, from his frequently prescribing swine's flesh, it is most probable that he was a Christian. Works Βιβλία Ἰατρικὰ Δυοκαίδεκα (Libri Duodecim de Re Medica)
Alexander's chief work, entitled Βιβλία Ἰατρικὰ Δυοκαίδεκα, Libri Duodecim de Re Medica. Editions
This work first appeared in an old, barbarous, and imperfect Latin translation, with the title Alexandri Yatros Practica, &c., Lugd. 1504, 4to., which was several times reprinted, and corrected and amended by Albanus Torinus, Basil. 1533, fol. It was first edited in Greek by Jac. Goupylus, Par. 1548, fol., a beautiful and scarce edition, containing also Rhazae de Pestilentia Libellus ex Syrorum Lingua in Graecam translatus. It was published in Greek with a new Latin translation by Jo. Guinterus Andernacus, Basil. 1556, 8vo., which is a rare and valuable edition. Quinter's translation has been several times reprinted, and is inserted by H. Stephens in his Medicae Artis Principes, Paris, 1567, fol.; it also forms part of Haller's Collection of Medical Writers, Lausann. 1772, 8vo. 2 vols. Περὶ Ἑλμίνθων (De Lumbricis)
The other work of Alexander's that is still extant is a short treatise, Περὶ Ἑλμίνθων, De Lumbricis,. Editions
This work was first published in Greek and Latin by Hieron. Mercurialis, Venet. 1570, 4to. It is also inserted in his work De Morbis Puerorum, Francof. 1584, 8vo., and in the twelfth volume of the old edition of Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca ; the Latin translation alone is included in Haller's Collection mentioned above. An Arabic translation is mentioned by Dr. Sprenger in his dissertation De Originibus Medicinae Arabicae sub Khalifatu, Lugd. Bat. 1840, 8vo.; and also by J. G. Wenrich, De Auctorum Graecorum Versionibus et Commentariis Syriacis, Arabicis, Armeniacis, Persicisque, Lips. 1842, 8vo. Other Works
Alexander seems also to have written several other medical works which are now lost. He expresses his intention of writing a book on Fractures, and also on Wounds of the Head. A treatise on Urine written by him is alluded to by Joannes Actuarius (De Urin. Differ. c. 2. p. 43), and he himself mentions a work of his on Diseases of the Eyes, which was translated into Arabic. (Sprenger, Wenrich, l.c.) The other medical treatise on Pleurisy, which is said to have been also translated into Arabic, was probably only the sixth book of his great work, which is entirely devoted to the consideration of this disease. A very full account of the life and works of Alexander Trallianus was published at London, 1734, 8vo., by Edward Milward, M.D., entitled "Trallianus Reviviscens; or, an Account of Alexander Trallian, one of the Greek Writers that flourished after Galen: shewing that these Authors are far from deserving the imputation of mere compilers," &c. Two other medical works which are sometimes attributed to Alexander Trallianus (viz. a Collection of Medical and Physical Problems, and a treatise on Fevers) are noticed under Alexander Aphrodisiensis. Further Information
Freind's Hist. of Physic, whose words have been sometimes borrowed; Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. vol. xii. p. 593, sq. ed. vet.; Haller, Bibliotheca Medicinae Practicae, tom. i.; Sprengel, Hist. de la Méd. tom. ii.; Isensee, Geschichte der Medicin ; Choulant, Handbuch der Bücherkunde für die Aeltere Medicin. [W.A.G]
(Ἀλέξανδρος), of Trichonium in Aetolia, was commander of the Aetolians in B. C. 218 and 219. He attacked the rear of the army of Philip on his return from Thermus, but the attempt was unsuccessful, and many Aetolians fell. (Plb. 5.13.) [L.S]
(Ἀλέξανδρος Ζαβίνας), or Zabinas, the son of a merchant named Protarchus, was set up by Ptolemy Physcon, king of Egypt, as a pretender to the crown of the Greek kingdom of Syria shortly after the death of Antiochus Sidetes and the return of Demetrius Nicator from his captivity among the Parthians. (B. C. 128.) Antioch, Apamea, and several other cities, disgusted with the tyranny of Demetrius, acknowledged the authority of Alexander, who pretended to have been adopted by Antiochus Sidetes; but he never succeeded in obtaining power over the whole of Syria. In the earlier part of the year 125 he defeated Demetrius, who fled to Tyre and was there killed; but in the middle of the same year Alexander's patron, the king of Egypt, set up against him Antiochus Grypus, a son of Demetrius, by whom he was defeated in battle. Alexander fled to Antioch, where he attempted to plunder the temple of Jupiter in order to pay his troops; but the people rose against him and drove him out of the city. He soon fell into the hands of robbers, who delivered him up to Antiochus, by whom he was put to death,B. C. 122. He was weak and effeminate, but sometimes generous. His surname, Zebina, which means " a purchased slave," was applied to him as a term of reproach, from a report that he had been bought by Ptolemy as a slave. Several of his coins are extant. In the one figured below Jupiter is represented on the reverse, holding in the right hand a small image of victory.
(Just. 39.1, 2; J. AJ 13.9, 10; Clinton, Fasti, iii. p. 334.)
[P.S]
6. reigned B. C. 105-78. [Alexander Jannaeus, Vol. I. p. 117.] He was succeeded by his widow,
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…et Ἀριστοτέλους et Θεοπόμπου libros πρὸς Ἀλέξανδρον. sed quid simile illi et quae ipsis honesta essent scribebant et grata Alexandro. ecquid tu eius modi reperis mihi quidem nihil in mentem venit. quod scribis te vereri ne et gratia…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
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…gloriae per eum commendari velim, qui non ipse quoque in me commendando propriam ingeni gloriam consequatur. neque enim Alexander ille causa ab Apelle potissimum pingi et a Lysippo fingi volebat, sed quod illorum artem cum ipsis tum etiam…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares
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…omnes medici diffiderent ; ei visum in quiete egregia facie iuvenem dicere fore ut perbrevi convalesceret, paucisque diebus interiturum Alexandrum tyrannum, ipsum autem Eudemum quinquennio post domum esse rediturum. atque ita quidem prima statim scribit Aristoteles consecuta ,…
M. Tullius Cicero, De Divinatione
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…illud videmus si luna paulo ante solis ortum defecisset in signo Leonis, fore ut armis Dareus et Persae ab Alexandro et Macedonibus vincerentur Dareusque moreretur ; et si puella nata biceps esset, seditionem in populo fore, corruptelam et…
M. Tullius Cicero, De Divinatione
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…cum fratribus illius necessitudo est, invito eum per litteras ut apud me deversetur. ad eam rem cum mitterem Alexandrum, has ei dedi litteras. Scr. in Tusculano iv K. Iun. a. . CICERO ATTICO…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
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…familiarem suum, iter in Macedoniam facientem Pheras venisse, quae erat urbs in Thessalia tum admodum nobilis, ab Alexandro autem tyranno crudeli dominatu tenebatur ; in eo igitur oppido ita graviter aegrum Eudemum fuisse, ut omnes medici diffiderent…
M. Tullius Cicero, De Divinatione
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…cui se ille commiserat, in maximis periculis insidiisque esse versatum accepimus ; Callisthenem, doctum hominem, comitem Magni Alexandri, ab Alexandro necatum ; Demetrium, qui Phalereus vocitatus est, et ex re publica Atheniensi, quam optime…
Cicero, pro Rabirio Postumo
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…somniis, ad quae mox revertar. qua nocte templum Ephesiae Dianae deflagravit, eadem constat ex Olympiade natum esse Alexandrum, atque, ubi lucere coepisset, clamitasse magos pestem ac perniciem Asiae proxima nocte natam. haec de Indis…
M. Tullius Cicero, De Divinatione
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…commiserat, in maximis periculis insidiisque esse versatum accepimus ; Callisthenem, doctum hominem, comitem Magni Alexandri, ab Alexandro necatum ; Demetrium, qui Phalereus vocitatus est, et ex re publica Atheniensi, quam optime gesserat, et…
Cicero, pro Rabirio Postumo
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…te consulem videre omniaque quae spero cum absens tum etiam praesens te consule adsequi Scr. in castris ad Aras Alexandri Cf. med. ut Oct. a. . M. CICERO IMP. S. D. C…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares
(Ἀλέξανδρος). (1) Another name for Paris (q. v.).
The name of several kings of Macedonia. See Macedonia.
known as the Great, son of Philip II., king of Macedon, was born at Pella, B.C. 356. He was educated by Aristotle, who acquired a great influence over his mind and character. He first distinguished himself at the battle of Chaeronea (338), where the victory was mainly owing to his impetuosity and courage. On the murder of Philip (336), he ascended the throne, at the age of twenty, to find himself surrounded by enemies on every side. He first put down rebellion in his own kingdom, and then rapidly marched into Greece. His unexpected activity overawed all opposition; Thebes, which had been most active against him, submitted when he appeared at its gates; and the assembled Greeks at the Isthmus of Corinth elected him to the command against Persia. He now directed his arms against the barbarians of the North, and crossed the Danube (335). A report of his death having reached Greece, the Thebans once more took up arms; but a terrible punishment awaited them. Alexander took Thebes by assault, destroyed all the buildings, with the exception of the house of Pindar, killed most of the inhabitants, and sold the rest as slaves. He now prepared for his great expedition against Persia. In the spring of 334 he crossed the Hellespont with some 35,000 men. Of these 30,000 were foot and 5000 horse, and of the former only 12,000 were Macedonians. Alexander's first engagement with the Persians was on the river Granicus in Mysia (May, 334), where they were entirely defeated by him. In the following year (333) he collected his army at Gordium (q.v.) in Phrygia, where he cut or untied the celebrated Gordian knot, which, it was said, was to be loosened only by the conqueror of Asia. From thence he marched to Issus, on the confines of Syria, where he gained a great victory over Darius, the Persian king. Darius himself escaped, but his mother, wife, and children fell into the hands of Alexander, who treated them with the utmost delicacy and respect. Alexander now directed his arms against the cities of Phoenicia, most of which submitted; but Tyre was not taken till the middle of 332, after an obstinate defence of seven months. He next marched into Egypt, which unresistingly yielded to him. At the beginning of 331 he founded near the mouth of the Nile the city of Alexandria, and about the same time visited the temple of Zeus Ammon, in the desert of Libya, where he was saluted by the priests as the son of Zeus. In the spring of the same year (331) he set out against Darius, who had collected another army. He crossed the Euphrates and the Tigris, and at length met with the immense hosts of Darius, said to have amounted to more than a million of men, in the plains of Gaugamela. The battle was fought in the month of October, 331, and ended in the complete defeat of the Persians. Alexander was now the conqueror of Asia, and began to adopt Persian habits and customs, by which he conciliated the affections of his new subjects. From Arbela he marched to Babylon, Susa, and Persepolis, all of which surrendered to him. He is said to have set fire to the palace of Persepolis, and, according to some accounts, in the revelry of a banquet, at the instigation of Thaïs, an Athenian courtesan. At the beginning of 330, Alexander marched from Persepolis into Media, in pursuit of Darius, whom he followed into Parthia, where the unfortunate king was murdered by Bessus (q.v.), satrap of Bactria. In 329 Alexander crossed the mountains of the Paropamisus (the Hindu Kush), and marched into Bactria against Bessus, who was betrayed to him and put to death. During the next two years he was chiefly engaged in the conquest of Sogdiana. He also crossed the Iaxartes (the Sir), and defeated several Scythian tribes north of that river. By the conquest of a mountain fortress he obtained possession of Roxana, the daughter of the Bactrian chief Oxyartes, whom he made his wife. It was about this time that he killed his friend Clitus in a drunken brawl. He had previously put to death his faithful servant Parmenion, on the charge of treason. In 327 he invaded India, and crossed the Indus, probably near the modern Attock. He met with no resistance till he reached the Hydaspes, where he was opposed by Porus, an Indian king, whom he defeated after a gallant resistance, and took prisoner, subsequently restoring to him his kingdom, and treating him with distinguished honour. He founded a town on the Hydaspes, called Bucephala, in honour of his horse Bucephalus, who died here, after carrying him through many victories. From thence he penetrated as far as the Hyphasis (Garra). This was the farthest point which he reached, for the Macedonians, worn out by long service, and tired of the war, refused to advance farther; and Alexander, notwithstanding his entreaties and prayers, was obliged to lead them back. He returned to the Hydaspes, and then sailed down the river with a portion of his troops, while the remainder marched along the banks in two divisions. He finally reached the Indian Ocean about the middle of 326. Nearchus was sent with the fleet to sail along the coast to the Persian Gulf (see Nearchus); and Alexander marched with the rest of his forces through Gedrosia, in which country his army suffered greatly from want of water and provisions. He reached Susa at the beginning of 325. Here he allowed himself and his troops some rest from their labours; and anxious to form his European and Asiatic subjects into one people, he assigned Asiatic wives to about eighty of his generals. He himself took a second wife, Barsiné, the eldest daughter of Darius. Towards the close of the year 325 he went to Ecbatana, where he lost his great favourite, Hephaestion. From Ecbatana he marched to Babylon, which he intended to make the capital of his empire, as the best point of communication between his eastern and western dominions. His schemes were numerous and gigantic, but he was cut off in the midst of them, being attacked by a fever, which was probably aggravated by the quantity of wine he had drunk at a banquet given to his principal officers, so that he died, after an illness of eleven days, in the month of May or June, B.C. 323, at the age of thirty-two, after a reign of twelve years and eight months. He appointed no one as his successor, but just before his death gave his ring to Perdiccas. Roxana was with child at the time of his death, and afterwards bore a son who is known by the name of Alexander Aegus (q.v.).
The body of Alexander was interred by Ptolemy in Alexandria, in a golden coffin, and divine honours were paid to him, not only in Egypt, but also in other countries. The sarcophagus in which the coffin was enclosed has been in the British Museum since 1802.
No character in history has afforded matter for more discussion than that of Alexander; and the exact quality of his ambition is to this day a subject of dispute. By some he is regarded as little more than an heroic madman, actuated by the mere desire of personal glory; others give him the honour of vast and enlightened views of policy, embracing the consolidation and establishment of an empire, in which commerce, learning, and the arts should flourish in common with energy and enterprise of every description. Each class of reasoners find facts to countenance their opinion of the mixed character and actions of Alexander. The former quote the wildness of his personal daring, the barren nature of much of his transient mastery, and his remorseless and unnecessary cruelty to the vanquished on some occasions, and capricious magnanimity and lenity on others. The latter advert to facts like the foundation of Alexandria, and other acts indicative of large and prospective views of true policy; and regard his expeditions rather as schemes of discovery and exploration than mere enterprises for fruitless conquest. The truth appears to embrace a portion of both these opinions. Alexander was too much smitten with military glory, and the common selfengrossment of the mere conqueror, to be a great and consistent statesman; while such was the strength of his intellect, and the light opened to him by success, that a glimpse of the genuine sources of lasting greatness could not but break in upon him. The history of Napoleon shows the nature of this mixture of lofty intellect and personal ambition, which has seldom effected much permanent good for mankind in any age.
In person this extraordinary individual was of the middle size, with a neck somewhat awry, but possessed of a fierce and majestic countenance. See Plut. Alexander; Arrian, Exped. Alex.; Droysen, Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen (1877); Freeman's Historical Essays, 2d series (1873); and Mabaffy, Alexander's Empire (1887).
After many dissensions and bloody wars among themselves, the generals of Alexander laid the foundations of several great empires in the three quarters of the globe. Ptolemy seized Egypt, where he firmly established himself, and where his successors were called Ptolemies, in honour of the founder of their kingdom, which subsisted till the time of Augustus. Seleucus and his posterity reigned in Babylon and Syria. Antigonus at first established himself in Asia Minor, and Antipater in Macedonia. The descendants of Antipater were conquered by the successors of Antigonus, who reigned in Macedonia till it was reduced by the Romans in the time of King Perseus. Lysimachus made himself master of Thrace; and Leonatus, who had taken possession of Phrygia, meditated for a while to drive Antipater from Macedonia. Eumenes established himself in Cappadocia, but was soon overpowered by his rival Antigonus, and starved to death. During his lifetime, Eumenes appeared so formidable to the successors of Alexander that none of them dared to assume the title of king.
The element of the wonderful in the campaigns of Alexander, and his tragic death at the height of his power, threw an intensely romantic interest around his figure, so that Alexander soon became the hero of romantic story, scarcely more wonderful than the actual, but growing from age to age with the myth-making spirit which can work as freely in fact as in fiction. The earliest form of the story which we know is the great romance connected with the name of Callisthenes (q.v.), which, under the influence of the popular tradition, arose in Egypt about A.D. 200, and was carried through Latin translations to the West, and through Armenian and Syriac versions to the East. It became widely popular during the Middle Ages, and was worked into poetic form by many writers in French and German. Alberich of Besançon wrote in Middle High German an epic on the subject in the first half of the twelfth century, which was the basis of the German Lamprecht's Alexanderbuch (ed. by Hinzel, Halle, 1884), also of the twelfth century. The French poets Lambert li Court and Alexandre de Bernay composed, between 1180 and 1190, a romance of Alexander, the twelve-syllable metre of which gave rise to the name Alexandrines. The German poem of Rudolf of Ems was based on the Latin epic of Walter of Châtillon, about 1200, which became henceforward the prevailing form of the story. In contrast with it is the thirteenth-century Old English epic of Alexander (in vol. i. of Weber's Metrical Romances, 1810), based on the version of Callisthenes. The story appears also in the East, worked up in conjunction with myths of other nationalities, especially the Persian. It appears in Firdusi, and, among later writers, in Nizami. From the Persians both the substance of the story and its form in poetical treatment have extended to Turks and other Mohammedans, who have interpreted Alexander as the Dsulkarnein (“two-horned”) of the Korân, and to the Hindus, which last had preserved no independent traditions of Alexander. See Spiegel, Die Alexandersage bei den Orientalen (Leip. 1851), and Paul Meyer, Alexandre le Grand dans la Littérature Française au Moyen-âge (2 vols. 1886).
The name of several kings of Egypt. See Ptolemaeus.
The name of several kings of Epirus. (1) Surnamed Molossus, the brother of Olympias, and successor to Arybas. He came into Italy to aid the Tarentines against the Romans, and used to say that while his nephew, Alexander the Great, was warring against women (meaning the effeminate nations of the East), he was fighting against men (Just.xvii. 3; Liv.viii. 17 and 27). He was slain by a Lucanian while crossing the river Acheron in Bruttium (Just.xii. 2).
The son of the celebrated Pyrrhus. To avenge the death of his father, who had been slain at Argos, fighting against Antigonus, he seized upon Macedonia, of which the latter was king. He was soon, however, driven out, not only from Macedonia, but also from his own dominions, by Demetrius, son of Antigonus. Taking refuge, on this, among the Acarnanians, he succeeded, by their aid, in regaining the throne of Epirus (Iust. xxvi. 3; id. xxviii. 1; Pyrr. 34).
The name of several princes of Indaea. (1) Iannaeus, monarch of Iudaea, son of Hyrcanus, and brother of Aristobulus, to whom he succeeded, B.C. 106. He was a warlike prince, and displayed great ability in the different wars in which he was engaged during his reign. Driven from his kingdom by his subjects, who detested him, he took up arms against them, and waged a cruel warfare for the space of six years, slaying upwards of fifty thousand of his foes. Having at last re-entered Jerusalem, he crucified, for the amusement of his concubines, eight hundred of his revolted subjects, and at the same time caused their wives and children to be massacred before their eyes. Being re-established on the throne, he made various conquests in Syria, Arabia, and Idumea, and finally died of intemperance at Jerusalem, B.C. 76, after a reign of twenty-seven years (Josephus, Ant. Iud. xvii. 22, etc.).
The son of Aristobulus II., was made prisoner, together with his father, by Pompey, but managed to escape while being conducted to Rome, raised an army, and made some conquests. Hyrcanus, son of Alexander Iannaeus, being then on the throne, solicited the aid of the Romans, and Mark Autony, being sent by Gabinius, defeated Alexander near Jerusalem. After standing a siege for some time in the fortress Alexandreion, he obtained terms of peace; but not long after, having taken up arms for Caesar, who had released his father, he fell into the hands of Metellus Scipio, and was beheaded at Antioch (Josephus, Ant. Iud. xiv. 13).
The son of Herod the Great, put to death by his father, along with Aristobulus his brother, on false charges brought against them by Pheroras their uncle, and Salomé their aunt (Josephus, Ant. Iud. xvi. 17).
The name of several kings of Syria. (1) Surnamed Balas, a person of low origin, who pretended to be the son of Antiochus IV. Epiphanes, and reigned in Syria B.C. 150-146. He was defeated and dethroned by Demetrius II. Nicator.
Surnamed Zebīna or Zabīnas, son of a merchant, was set up by Ptolemy Physcon as a pretender to the throne of Syria, B.C. 128. He was defeated by Antiochus Grypus, by whom he was put to death, 122.
- Hdt. 1.3
- in Egypt: Hdt. 2.113-120
- surname of Paris: Apollod. 3.12.5
- marries Oenone: Apollod. 3.12.5
- warned by her not to fetch Helen: Apollod. 3.12.5
- judges the three goddesses: Paus. 3.18.12, Paus. 5.19.5
- judges the three goddesses and gives the prize to Aphrodite: Apollod. E.3.2
- sails to Sparta: Apollod. E.3.2
- entertained by Menelaus: Apollod. E.3.2
- carries off Helen: Paus. 3.12.6, Apollod. 3.12.5, Apollod. E.2.15, Apollod. E.3.2, Apollod. E.3.3
- first embraces Helen in Cranae: Paus. 3.22.1
- driven by a storm to Sidon: Apollod. E.3.3
- comes to Troy with Helen: Apollod. E.3.3
- fights Menelaus: Paus. 2.13.3, Paus. 5.22.2, Apollod. E.4.1
- shoots Achilles: Apollod. E.5.3
- slays Achilles: Paus. 1.13.9
- shot by Philoctetes: Apollod. 3.12.5, Apollod. E.5.8
- carried to Oenone and dies: Apollod. 3.12.5
- founds sanctuary of Aphrodite: Paus. 3.22.1ff.
- ruins Ilium: Paus. 10.33.2
- Paris
- a poet: Paus. 2.22.7
- Paus. 4.35.3
- son of Amyntas; his treatment of Persian envoys: Hdt. 5.19-21
- claim to be a Greek: Hdt. 5.22
- advice to Greeks: Hdt. 7.173
- his ancestors: Hdt. 8.137-139
- an intermediary between Persia and Athens: Hdt. 8.140-144
- information given by him to the Greeks before Plataea: Hdt. 9.44-46
- receives some Mycenaeans: Paus. 7.25.6
- Paus. 1.6.3
- poisoned by Cassander: Paus. 9.7.2
- deposes and punishes his brother Antipater: Paus. 9.7.3
- assassinated by Demetrius, son of Antigonus: Paus. 1.10.1, Paus. 1.36.6, Paus. 9.7.3
- brother of PtolemyPhilometor: Paus. 1.9.1
- made king of Egypt: Paus. 1.9.2
- flies from Egypt: Paus. 1.9.3
- slain by the Athenians: Apollod. 2.7.8
- flees to Seleucus: Paus. 1.10.4
- buries his father: Paus. 1.10.5
- slain in Lucania: Paus. 1.11.3, 7
- an Epirot and Aeacid by mother's side: Paus. 1.9.8
- reputed son of Ammon: Paus. 4.14.8
- wives and sons: Paus. 9.7.2
- passionate nature: Paus. 6.18.2
- his good fortune: Paus. 4.35.4, Paus. 7.10.3
- Aristotle's influence with him: Paus. 6.4.8
- house at Megalopolis: Paus. 8.32.1
- makes Chaeron tyrant of Pellene: Paus. 7.27.7
- destroys Thebes: Paus. 4.27.10, Paus. 7.6.9, Paus. 7.17.2, Paus. 9.6.5ff., Paus. 9.7.1, Paus. 9.23.5, Paus. 9.25.10
- Greeks suffer at his hands: Paus. 1.4.1
- makes war on Darius: Paus. 6.17.5
- overreached by Anaximenes: Paus. 6.18.2-4
- joins Clazomenae to mainland: Paus. 7.3.9
- wishes to dig through promontory of Mimas: Paus. 2.1.5
- founds later city of Smyrna: Paus. 7.5.1ff.
- founds Alexandria: Paus. 5.21.9, Paus. 8.33.3
- his danger among Oxydracians: Paus. 1.6.2
- sets up no trophies: Paus. 9.40.9
- dedicates cuirass and spear to Aesculapius: Paus. 8.28.1
- death: Paus. 1.25.3
- said to have been poisoned by water of Styx: Paus. 8.18.6
- buried at Memphis: Paus. 1.6.3, Paus. 1.7.1
- ranked as general below Pyrrhus by Procles: Paus. 4.35.4
- epic poem on him: Paus. 6.18.6
- his family extirpated by Cassander: Paus. 9.7.2
- statues: Paus. 1.9.4, Paus. 5.20.10, Paus. 5.25.1, Paus. 6.11.1
- seizes Scotusa: Paus. 6.5.2ff.
- imprisons Pelopidas: Paus. 9.15.1ff.