The revolutionary agitation was of a very peculiar kind.

It was confined to a section of the educated classes,

and emanated from the universities and higher technical

schools. At the beginning of the reform period there had been

enthusiasm for scientific as opposed to classical education.

Russia required, it was said, not classical scholars, but

practical, scientific men, capable of developing her natural

resources. The government, in accordance with this view,

had encouraged scientific studies until it discovered to

its astonishment that there was some mysterious connexion

between natural science and revolutionary tendencies. Many

of the young men and women, who were supposed to be qualifying

as specialists in the various spheres of industrial and

commercial enterprise, were in reality devoting their time

to considering how human society in general, and Russian

society in particular, could be reconstructed in accordance

with the latest physiological, biological and sociological

principles. Some of these young people wished to put their

crude notions immediately into practice, and as their desire

to make gigantic socialist experiments naturally alarmed the

government, their activity was opposed by the police. Many

of them were arrested and imprisoned or exiled to distant

provinces, but the revolutionary work was continued with

unabated zeal. Thus arose a struggle between the youthful,

hot-headed partisans of revolutionary physical science and

the zealous official guardians of political order--a struggle

which has made the strange term Nihilism (q.v.) a familiar

word not only in Russia but also in western Europe. The

movement gradually assumed the form of terrorism, and aimed

at the assassination of prominent officials, and even of

the emperor himself, and the natural result was that the

reactionary tendencies of the government were strengthened.

Foreign policy.

In foreign policy Alexander II. showed the same qualities of

character as in internal affairs, ever trying prudently to

steer a middle course. When he came to the throne a peace

policy was imposed on him by circumstances. The Crimean War

was still going on, but as there was no doubt as to the final

issue, and the country was showing symptoms of exhaustion,

he concluded peace with the allies as soon as he thought the

national honour had been satisfied. Prince Gorchakov could

then declare to Europe, ``La Russie ne boude pas elle

se recueille''; and for fifteen years he avoided foreign

complications, so that the internal strength of the country

might be developed, while the national pride and ambition

received a certain satisfaction by the expansion of Russian

influence and domination in Asia. Twice, indeed, during that

period the chancellor ran the risk of provoking war. The

first occasion was in 1863, when the Western powers seemed

inclined to interfere in the Polish question, and the Russian

chancery declared categorically that no interference would be

tolerated. The second occasion was during the Franco-German

War of 1870-71, when the cabinet of St Petersburg boldly

declared that it considered itself no longer bound by the Black

Sea clause of the treaty of Paris. On both these occasions

hostilities were averted. Not so on the next occasion, when

Russia abandoned her attitude of recueillement. When the

Eastern question was raised in 1875 by the insurrection of

Herzegovina, Alexander II. had no intention or wish to

provoke a great European war. No doubt he was waiting for

an opportunity of recovering the portion of Bessarabia which

had been ceded by the treaty of Paris, and he perceived

in the disturbed state of Eastern Europe a possibility of

obtaining the desired rectification of frontier, but he hoped

to effect his purpose by diplomatic means in conjunction with

Austria. At the same time he was anxious to obtain for the

Christians of Turkey some amelioration of their condition,

and to give thereby some satisfaction to his own subjects.

As autocratic ruler of the nation which had long considered

itself the defender of the Eastern Orthodox faith and the

protector of the Slav nationalities, he could not remain

inactive at such a crisis, and he gradually allowed himself

to drift into a position from which he could not retreat

without obtaining some tangible result. Supposing that the

Porte would yield to diplomatic pressure and menace so far as

to make some reasonable concessions, he delivered his famous

Moscow speech, in which he declared that if Europe would not

secure a better position for the oppressed Slavs he would act

alone. The diplomatic pressure failed and war became

inevitable. During the campaign he displayed the same

perseverance and the same moderation that he had shown in the

emancipation of the serfs. To those who began to despair of

success, and advised him to conclude peace on almost any

terms so as to avoid greater disasters, he turned a deaf

ear, and brought the campaign to a successful conclusion;

but when his more headstrong advisers urged him to insist

on terms which would probably have produced a conflict with

Great Britain and Austria, he resolved, after some hesitation,

to make the requisite concessions. In this resolution he

was influenced by the discovery that he could not rely on

the expected support of Germany, and the discovery made

him waver in his devotion to the German alliance, which had

been the main pivot of his foreign policy; but his personal

attachment to the emperor William prevented him from adopting

a hostile attitude towards the empire he had helped to create.

The patriotic excitement produced by the war did not weaken

the revolutionary agitation. The struggle between the

Terrorists and the police authorities became more and more

intense, and attempts at assassination became more and more

frequent. Alexander II. succumbed by degrees to the mental

depression produced originally by the disappointments

which he experienced in his home and foreign policy; and in

1880, when he had reigned twenty-five years, he entrusted

to Count Loris-Melikov a large share of the executive

power. In that year the empress died, and a few weeks

afterwards he married secretly a Princess Dolgoruki, with

whom he had already entertained intimate relations for some

years. Early in 1881, on the advice of Count Loris-Melikov,

he determined to try the effect of some moderate liberal

reforms on the revolutionary agitation, and for this purpose

he caused a ukaz to be prepared creating special commissions,

composed of high officials and private personages who should

prepare reforms in various branches of the administration.

On the very day on which this ukaz was signed--13th of March

1881--he fell a victim to a Nihilist plot. When driving in

one of the central streets of St Petersburg, near the Winter

Palace, he was mortally wounded by the explosion of some

small bombs and died a few hours afterwards. (D. M. W.)

ALEXANDER III. (1845-1894), emperor of Russia, second

son of Alexander II., was born on the 10th of March 1845.

In natural disposition he bore little resemblance to his

soft-hearted, liberal minded father, and still less to his

refined, philosophic, sentimental, chivalrous, yet cunning

grand-uncle Alexander I., who coveted the title of ``the

first gentleman of Europe.'' With high culture, exquisite

refinement and studied elegance he had no sympathy and never

affected to have any. Indeed, he rather gloried in the idea

of being of the same rough texture as the great majority of

his subjects. His straightforward, abrupt manner savoured

sometimes of gruffness, while his direct, unadorned method

of expressing himself harmonized well with his rough-hewn,

immobile features and somewhat sluggish movements. His

education was not fitted to soften these peculiarities.

During the first twenty years of his life he had no prospect

of succeeding to the throne, because he had an elder brother,

Nicholas, who seemed of a fairly robust constitution. Even

when this elder brother showed symptoms of delicate health

it was believed that his life might be indefinitely prolonged

by proper care and attention, and precautions had been taken

for the succession by his betrothal with Princess Dagmar of

Denmark. Under these circumstances the greatest solicitude

was devoted to the education of Nicholas as cesarevich,

whereas Alexander received only the perfunctory and inadequate

training of an ordinary grand- duke of that period, which

did not go much beyond primary and secondary instruction,

practical acquaintance with French, English and German, and

a certain amount of drill. When he became heir-apparent by

the death of his elder brother in 1865, he began to study

the principles of law and administration under Professor

Pobedonostsef, who did not succeed in awakening in his pupil

a love of abstract studies or prolonged intellectual exertion,

but who influenced the character of his reign by instilling

into his mind the belief that zeal for Eastern Orthodoxy ought,

as an essential factor of Russian patriotism, to be specially

cultivated by every right-minded tsar. His elder brother

when on his deathbed had expressed a wish that his affianced

bride, Princess Dagmar of Denmark, should marry his successor,

and this wish was realized on the 9th of November 1866. The

union proved a most happy one and remained unclouded to the

end. During those years when he was heir-apparent--1865 to

1881--he did not play a prominent part in public affairs, but

he allowed it to become known that he had certain ideas of his

own which did not coincide with the principles of the existing

government. He deprecated what he considered undue foreign

influence in general, and German influence in particular, and

he longed to see the adoption of genuine national principles

in all spheres of official activity, with a view to realizing

his ideal of a homogeneous Russia--homogeneous in language,

administration and religion. With such ideas and aspirations

he could hardly remain permanently in cordial agreement

with his father, who, though a good patriot according to his

lights, had strong German sympathies, often used the German

language in his private relations, occasionally ridiculed

the exaggerations and eccentricities of the Slavophils and

based his foreign policy on the Prussian alliance. The

antagonism first appeared publicly during the Franco-German

War, when the tsar supported the cabinet of Berlin and the

cesarevich did not conceal his sympathies with the French.

It reappeared in an intermittent fashion during the years

1875-1879, when the Eastern question produced so much excitement

in all ranks of Russian society. At first the cesarevich was

more Slavophil than the government, but his phlegmatic nature

preserved him from many of the exaggerations indulged in by

others, and any of the prevalent popular illusions he may

have imbibed were soon dispelled by personal observation in

Bulgaria, where he commanded the left wing of the invading

army. The Bulgarians had been represented in St Petersburg

and Moscow not only as martyrs but also as saints, and a

very little personal experience sufficed to correct the

error. Like most of his brother officers he could not feel

any very great affection for the ``little brothers,'' as the

Bulgarians were then commonly called, and he was constrained to

admit that the Turks were by no means so black as they had been

painted. He did not, however, scandalize the believers by any

public expression of his opinions, and did not indeed make himself

conspicuous in any way during the campaign. Never consulted

on political questions, he confined himself to his military

duties and fulfilled them in a conscientious and unobtrusive

manner. After many mistakes and disappointments, the army

reached Constantinople and the treaty of San Stefano was

signed, but much that had been obtained by that important

document had to be sacrificed at the congress of Berlin.

Prince Bismarck failed to do what was confidently expected of

him. In return for the Russian support, which had enabled

him to create the German empire, it was thought that he would

help Russia to solve the Eastern question in accordance with

her own interests, but to the surprise and indignation of

the cabinet of St Petersburg he confined himself to acting

the part of ``honest broker'' at the congress, and shortly

afterwards he ostentatiously contracted an alliance with

Austria for the express purpose of counteracting Russian

designs in Eastern Europe. The cesarevich could point to

these results as confirming the views he had expressed during

the Franco-German War, and he drew from them the practical

conclusion that for Russia the best thing to do was to recover

as quickly as possible from her temporary exhaustion and

to prepare for future contingencies by a radical scheme of

military and naval reorganization. In accordance with this

conviction, he suggested that certain reforms should be

introduced. During the campaign in Bulgaria he had found by

painful experience that grave disorders and gross corruption

existed in the military administration, and after his return

to St Petersburg he had discovered that similar abuses existed

in the naval department. For these abuses, several high-placed

personages--among others two of the grand-dukes-- were believed

to be responsible, and he called his father's attention

to the subject. His representations were not favourably

received. Alexander II. had lost much of the reforming zeal

which distinguished the first decade of his reign, and had no

longer the energy required to undertake the task suggested to

him. The consequence was that the relations between father

and son became more strained. The latter must have felt that

there would be no important reforms until he himself succeeded

to the direction of affairs. That change was much nearer

at hand than was commonly supposed. On the 13th of March

1881 Alexander II. was assassinated by a band of Nihilists,

and the autocratic power passed to the hands of his son.

In the last years of his reign, Alexander II. had been

much exercised by the spread of Nihilist doctrines and the

increasing number of anarchist conspiracies, and for some

time he had hesitated between strengthening the hands of the

executive and making concessions to the widespread political

aspirations of the educated classes. Finally he decided in

favour of the latter course, and on the very day of his death

he signed a ukaz, creating a number of consultative commissions

which might have been easily transformed into an assembly of

notables. Alexander III. determined to adopt the opposite

policy. He at once cancelled the ukaz before it was published,

and in the manifesto announcing his accession to the throne

he let it be very clearly understood that he had no intention

of limiting or weakening the autocratic power which he had

inherited from his ancestors. Nor did he afterwards show any

inclination to change his mind. All the internal reforms which

he initiated were intended to correct what he considered as

the too liberal tendencies of the previous reign, so that he

left behind him the reputation of a sovereign of the retrograde

type. In his opinion Russia was to be saved from anarchical

disorders and revolutionary agitation, not by the parliamentary

institutions and so-called liberalism of western Europe, but by

the three principles which the elder generation of the Slavophils

systematically recommended--nationality, Eastern Orthodoxy and

autocracy. His political ideal was a nation containing only

one nationality, one language, one religion and one form

of administration; and he did his utmost to prepare for the

realization of this ideal by imposing the Russian language and

Russian schools on his German, Polish and Finnish subjects, by

fostering Eastern Orthodoxy at the expense of other confessions,

by persecuting the Jews and by destroying the remnants of

German, Polish and Swedish institutions in the outlying

provinces. In the other provinces he sought to counteract

what he considered the excessive liberalism of his father's

reign. For this purpose he clipped the feeble wings of the

zemstvo, an elective local administration resembling the county

and parish councils in England, and placed the autonomous

administration of the peasant communes under the supervision

of landed proprietors appointed by the government. At the

same time he sought to strengthen and centralize the imperial

administration, and to bring it more under his personal

control. In foreign affairs he was emphatically a man of

peace, but not at all a partisan of the docrrine of peace at any

price, and he followed the principle that the best means of

averting war is to be well prepared for it. Though indignant

at the conduct of Prince Bismarck towards Russia, he avoided

an open rupture with Germany, and even revived for a time the

Three Emperors' Alliance. It was only in the last years of

his reign, when M. Katkov had acquired a certain influence

over him, that he adopted towards the cabinet of Berlin a

more hostile attitude, and even then he confined himself to

keeping a large quantity of troops near the German frontier,

and establishing cordial relations with France. With regard

to Bulgaria he exercised similar self-control. The efforts of

Prince Alexander and afterwards of Stamboloff to destroy Russian

influence in the principality excited his indignation, but

he persistently vetoed all proposals to intervene by force of

arms. In Central Asian affairs he followed the traditional

policy of gradually extending Russian domination without

provoking a conflict with Great Britain, and he never allowed

the bellicose partisans of a forward policy to get out of

hand. As a whole his reign cannot be regarded as one of the

eventful periods of Russian history; but it must be admitted that

under his hard unsympathetic rule the country made considerable

progress. He died at Livadia on the 1st of November 1894,

and was succeeded by his eldest son, Nicholas II. (D. M. W.)

ALEXANDER I. (c. 1078-1124), king of Scotland, was the fourth

son of Malcolm Canmore by his wife (St) Margaret, grand-niece

of Edward the Confessor. On the death of his brother Edgar

in 1107 he succeeded to the Scottish crown; but, in accordance

with Edgar's instructions, he inherited only a part of its

possessions. By a partition, the motive of which is not

quite certain, the districts south of the Forth and Clyde

were erected into an earldom for Alexander's younger brother,

David. Alexander, dissatisfied, sought to obtain the whole,

but without success. A curious combination of the fierce

warrior and the pious churchman, he manifested the one

aspect of his character in his ruthless suppression of an

insurrection in his northern dominion (thus gaining for himself

the title of ``the Fierce''), the other in his munificent

foundation of bishoprics and abbeys. Among the latter were

those of Scone and Inchcolm. His strong championship of the

independence of the Scottish church involved him in struggles

with both the English metropolitan sees. He died on the 27th

of April 1124, and was succeeded by his brother, David I.

ALEXANDER II. (1198-1249), king of Scotland, son of William

the Lion and Ermengarde of Beaumont, was born at Haddington

in 1198, and succeeded to the kingdom on the death of his

father in 1214. The year after his accession the clans

MacWilliam and MacHeth, inveterate enemies of the Scottish

crown, broke into revolt; but the insurrection was speedily

quelled. In the same year Alexander joined the English

barons in their struggle against John, and led an army into

England in support of their cause; but on the conclusion of

peace after John's death between his youthful son Henry III.

and the French prince Louis, the Scottish king was included

in the pacification. The reconciliation thus effected

was further strengthened by the marriage of Alexander to

Henry's sister Joanna in 1221. The next year was marked by

the subjection of the hitherto semi-independent district of

Argyll. A revolt in Galloway in 1235 was crushed without

difficulty; nor did an invasion attempted soon afterwards

by its exiled leaders meet with any better fortune. Soon

afterwards a claim for homage from Henry of England drew

forth from Alexander a counter-claim to the northern English

counties. The dispute, however, was settled by a compromise in

1237. A threat of invasion by Henry in 1243 for a time

interrupted the friendly relations between the two countries;

but the prompt action of Alexander in anticipating his

attack, and the disinclination of the English barons for

war, compelled him to make peace next year at Newcastle.

Alexander now turned his attention to securing the Western

Isles, which still owned a nominal dependence on Norway.

Negotiations and purchase were successively tried but without

success. Alexander next attempted to seduce Ewen, the son of

Duncan, lord of Argyll, from his allegiance to the Norwegian

king. Ewen refused his overtures, and Alexander sailed

forth to compel him. But on the way he was seized with

fever at Kerrera, and died there on the 8th of July 1249.

ALEXANDER III. (1241-1285), king of Scotland, son of

Alexander II. by his second wife Mary de Coucy, was born in

1241. At the age of eight years the death of his father

called him to the throne. The years of his minority were

marked by an embittered struggle for the control of affairs

between two rival parties, the one led by Walter Comyn, earl

of Menteith, the other by Alan Durward, the justiciar. The

former was in the ascendant during the early years of the

reign. At the marriage of Alexander to Margaret of England in

1251, Henry III. seized the opportunity to demand from his

son-in-law homage for the Scottish kingdom, but the claim was

refused. In 1255 an interview between the English and Scottish

kings at Kelso resulted in the deposition of Menteith and his

party in favour of their opponents. But though disgraced,

they still retained great influence; and two years later,

seizing the person of the king, they compelled their rivals

to consent to the erection of a regency representative of both

parties. On attaining his majority in 1262, Alexander declared

his intention of resuming the projects on the Western Isles which

had been cut short by the death of his father thirteen years

before. A formal claim was laid before the Norwegian king

Haakon. Not only was this unsuccessful, but next year Haakon

replied by a formidable invasion. Sailing round the west

coast of Scotland he halted off Arran, where negotiations were

opened. These were artfully prolonged by Alexander until

the autumn storms should begin. At length Haakon, weary of

delay, attacked, only to encounter a terrific storm which

greatly damaged his ships. The battle of Largs, fought next

day, was indecisive. But even so Haakon's position was

hopeless. Baffled he turned homewards, but died on the

way. The Isles now lay at Alexander's feet, and in 1266

Haakon's successor concluded a treaty by which the Isle of

Man and the Western Isles were ceded to Scotland in return for

a money payment, Orkney and Shetland alone being retained.

Towards the end of Alexander's reign, the death of all his

three children within a few years made the question of the

succession one of pressing importance. In 1284 he induced the

Estates to recognize as his heir-presumptive his grand-daughter

Margaret, the ``Maid of Norway''; and next year the desire for

a male heir led him to contract a second marriage. But all

such hopes were defeated by the sudden death of the king, who

was killed by a fall from his horse in the dark while riding

to visit the queen at Kinghorn on the 16th of March 1285.

ALEXANDER (ALEXANDER OBRENOVICH) (1876-1903), king of

Servia, was born on the 14th of August 1876. On the 6th of

March 1889 his father, King Milan, abdicated and proclaimed

him king of Servia under a regency until he should attain his

majority at eighteen years of age. King Alexander, on the

13th of April 1893, being then in his seventeenth year, made

his notable first coup d'etat, proclaimed himself of full

age, dismissed the regents and their government, and took the

royal authority into his own hands. His action was popular,

and was rendered still more so by his appointment of a radical

ministry. In May 1894 King Alexander, by another coup

d'etat, abolished the liberal constitution of 1889 and

restored the conservative one of 1869. His attitude during

the Turco-Greek war of 1897 was one of strict neutrality. In

1898 he appointed his father commander-in-chief of the Servian

army, and from that time, or rather from his return to Servia

in 1894 until 1900, ex-king Milan was regarded as the de

facto ruler of the country. But while, during the summer of

1900, Milan was away from Servia taking waters in Carlsbad,

and making arrangements to secure the hand of a German princess

for his son, and while the premier, Dr Vladan Dyorevich,

was visiting the Paris Universal Exhibition, King Alexander

suddenly announced to the people of Servia his engagement to

Mme Draga Mashin, a widow, formerly a lady-in-waiting to Queen

Natalie. The projected union aroused great opposition at

first. Ex-King Milan resigned his post; so did the government;

and King Alexander had great difficulty in forming a new

cabinet. But the opposition subsided somewhat on the

publication of Tsar Nicholas's congratulations to the king on

his engagement and of his acceptance to act as the principal

witness at the wedding. The marriage was then duly celebrated

on the 5th of August 1900. Still this union was unpopular and

weakened the position of King Alexander in the army and the

country. He tried to reconcile political parties by granting

from his own initiative a liberal constitution (April 6,

1901), introducing for the first time in the constitutional

history of Servia the system of two chambers (skupshtina and

senate). This did in a certain measure reconcile the political

parties, but did not reconcile the army, which, already

dissatisfied with the king's marriage, became still more

so at the rumours that one of the two unpopular brothers of

Queen Draga, Lieutenant Nicodiye, was to be proclaimed heir-

apparent to the throne. Meanwhile the independence of the

senate and of the council of state caused growing irritation

to King Alexander, which led him to another coup d'etat.

He suspended (March 1903) the constitution for half an hour,

time enough to publish the decrees by which the old senators

and councillors of state were dismissed and replaced by new

ones. This arbitrary act naturally increased the dissatisfaction

in the country. The general impression was that inasmuch as

the senate was packed with men devoted to the royal couple,

and inasmuch as the government obtained a large majority at

the general elections, King Alexander would not hesitate any

longer to proclaim Queen Draga's brother as the heir to the

throne. Apparently to prevent this, but in reality to replace

Alexander Obrenovich by Peter Karageorgevich, a military

conspiracy was organized. The conspirators penetrated into

the palace and savagely murdered King Alexander and Queen

Draga in the early morning of the 11th of June 1903. (C. MI.)

ALEXANDER, son of Numenius, Greek rhetorician, flourished

in the first half of the second century A.D. In addition to

general treatises on rhetoric, he wrote a special work Peri

ton tes dianoias kai tes lexeos schematon, of which

only an abridgment is extant; later epitomes were made in Latin

by Aquila Romanus and Julius Rufinianus under the title De

Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis. Another epitome was

made in the fourth century by a Christian for use in Christian

schools, containing additional examples from Gregory of Nazianzus.

Text in Spengel, Rhetores Graeci (1856).

ALEXANDER, ARCHIBALD (1772-1851), American Presbyterian

divine, was born, of Scottish-Irish descent, in that part

of Augusta county which is now Rockbridge county, Virginia,

on the 17th of April 1772. After completing his preliminary

education in the little school at Lexington, Virginia, which

later developed into Washington and Lee University, he came

under the influence of the religious movement known as the

``great revival'' (1789-1790) and devoted himself to the study of

theology. Licensed to preach in 1791, he was engaged for

several years as an itinerant Presbyterian preacher in his

native state, and acquired during this period the facility in

extemporaneous speaking for which he was remarkable. He was

president of Hampden-Sidney College from 1796 to 1807, with a

short intermission (in 1801-1802), and in 1807 became pastor

of Pine Street Church, Philadelphia. In 1812 he became first

professor in the newly established Presbyterian Theological

Seminary at Princeton, New Jersey, where he remained until

his death at Princeton on the 22nd of October 1851, filling

successively the chairs of didactic and polemic theology

(1812-1840), and pastoral and polemic theology (1840-1851). He

married, in 1802, Janetta Waddel, the daughter of the celebrated

blind preacher, James Waddel (1739-1805), whose eloquence

was described in William Wirt's Letters of a British Spy

(1803). Dr Alexander wrote a considerable number of theological

works, which had a large circulation. Among these may be

mentioned his Brief Outline of the Evidences of the Christian

Religion (1825), which passed through several editions, and

was translated into various languages; The Canon of the Old

and New Testament Ascertained; or the Bible Complete without

the Apocrypha and Unwritten Traditions (1826); A History

of the Israelitish Nation (1852), and Outlines of Moral

Science (1852), the last two being published posthumously.

See the biography (New York, 1854) by his son James W. Alexander.

ALEXANDER, FRANCIS (1800-1881), American portrait- painter,

was born in Windham county, Connecticut, in February 1800.

Brought up on a farm, he taught himself the use of colours,

and in 1820 went to New York City and studied painting with

Alexander Robertson. He spent the winters of 1831 and 1832

in Rome, and then for nearly a decade he lived in Boston,

Massachusetts, where he had considerable vogue, and where

in 1842 he painted a portrait of Charles Dickens. One of

his best portraits is that of Mrs Fletcher Webster in the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He died in 1881 in Florence.

ALEXANDER, GEORGE (1858- ), English actor, whose family

name was Samson, was born in Reading on the 19th of June 1858,

the son of a Scottish manufacturer. He went into business in

London after leaving school, but having acted as an amateur

he determined to make the stage his profession. His first

appearance was at Nottingham in 1879, and after some seasons

of provincial experience he made his first London appearance

as Caleb Deecie in Two Roses in 1881 with Irving at the

Lyceum. He was selected by W. S. Gilbert to support Mary

Anderson in Comedy and Tragedy, returned for a time to the

Lyceum, where he was Irving's principal associate, especially

as Faust (1886) and Macduff (1888); and, after starting

successfully under his own management at the Avenue Theatre in

1890 with Dr Bill, in 1891 became manager of the St James's

Theatre. There he produced a number of successful plays, notably

Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan and The Importance of

being Earnest, Pinero's Second Mrs Tanqueray, The Princess

and the Butterfiy, His House in Order and The Thunderbolt;

C. Haddon Chambers's The Idler; H. A. Jones's Masqueraders;

Alfred Sutro's John Glayde's Honour and The Builder of

Bridges; Carton's Liberty Hall and The Tree of Knowledge;

Anthony Hope's Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau;

and Stephen Phillips's Paolo and Francesca, himself playing

the leading parts with great distinction. In 1907 he was

elected a member of the London County Council as a municipal

reformer, but continued to act regularly at the St James's.

ALEXANDER, SIR JAMES EDWARD (1803-1885), British soldier and

traveller, was born on the 16th of October 1803. He joined

the East India Company's army in 1820, transferring into the

British army in 1825. As aide-de-camp to the British envoy

to Persia, he was an eye-witness of the fighting in the war

between Persia and Russia (1826), and in 1829 was present in

the Balkans during the Russo-Turkish war. In 1832-1834 he was

in Portugal during the Miguelete war, and in 1835 served in

the Kaffir war in South Africa as aide-de-camp to Sir Benjamin

D'Urban. Subsequently he conducted an exploring expedition into

Namaqualand and Damaraland, and was knighted for his services

(1838). From 1841 to 1855 he served in Canada, proceeding

thence to the Crimea, and in 1862 held an important command

in New Zealand during the Maori war. He retired from the

service in 1877, and in 1881 was given the honorary rank of

general. He was largely responsible for the preservation

and transfer to England of Cleopatra's Needle in 1877. His

varied experiences provided material for a large number of

books, among which were Travels from India to England

(1827); Transatlantic Sketches (1833); An Expedition of

Discovery into the Interior of Africa (1838); Passages in

the Life of a Soldier (1857); Incidents of the Maori War

(1863). He was also the author of a Life of Field-Marshal the

Duke of Wellington (1840). He died on the 2nd of April 1885.

ALEXANDER, JOHN WHITE (1856- ), American painter, was

born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on the 7th of October

1836. He was left an orphan when very young, became an

illustrator for Harper's Magazine, studied in Europe, became

a pupil of the Royal Academy at Munich, and also worked in

Venice, in Holland and in Paris, where he attracted much

attention by his exhibition at the Salon of two female

portraits entitled ``Gris'' and ``Noir.'' He became a member

of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts (Paris), of the

National Academy of Design (New York), of the International

Society (London), and of the Vienna and Munich Societies of

Painters. In 1901 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of

Honour. He executed decorative panels for the Congressional

Library, Washington, D.C., and a large decoration for

the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; and his

works include numerous portraits and subject pictures.

ALEXANDER, JOSEPH ADDISON (1809-1860), American biblical

scholar, the third son of Archibald Alexander, was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 24th of April 1809. He

graduated at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University)

in 1826, having devoted himself especially to the study of

Hebrew and other oriental languages, and from 1830 to 1833

was adjunct professor of ancient languages and literature

there. In 1834 he became an assistant to Dr Charles Hodge,

professor of oriental and biblical literature in the Princeton

Theological Seminary, and in 1838 became associate professor

of oriental and biblical literature there, succeeding Dr Hodge

in that chair in 1840 and being transferred in 1851 to the

chair of biblical and ecclesiastical history, and in 1859 to

that of Hellenistic and New Testament literature, which he

occupied until his death at Princeton on the 28th of January

1860. Alexander was a remarkable linquist and exegete. He

had been ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1839, and

was well known for his pulpit eloquence. He was the author

of The Earlier Prophecies of Isaiah (1846), The Later

Prophecies of Isaiah (1847), and an abbreviation of these

two volumes, Isaiah Illustrated and Explained (2 vols.,

1851), The Psalms Translated and Explained (3 vols.,

1850), commentaries on Acts (2 vols., 1857), Mark (1858)

and Matthew (1860), and two volumes of Sermons (1860).

See The Life of Joseph A. Alexander (2 vols., 2nd

ed., New York, 1875) by his nephew, Henry C. Alexander.

His brother, JAMES WADDEL ALEXANDER (1804-1859), born in

Louisa county, Virginia, on the 13th of March 1804, was a famous

Presbyterian preacher. He graduated at the College of New Jersey

in 1820, studied theology in the Princeton Seminary, and was

pastor of a Presbyterian church in Charlotte county, Virginia,

from 1826 to 1828, and of the First Presbyterian church in

Trenton, New Jersey, in 1829-1832. From 1833 to 1844 he was

professor of belles-lettres and Latin language and literature

in the College of New Jersey, from 1844 to 1849 was pastor of

the Duane Street Presbyterian church in New York City, from

1849 to 1851 was professor of ecclesiastical history, church

government and sacred rhetoric in the Princeton Theological

Seminary, and from 1851 until his death, at Red Sweet Springs,

Virginia, on the 31st of July 1859, was pastor of the Fifth

Avenue Presbyterian church in New York City. He wrote numerous

magazine articles and published a number of books, including

The American Mechanic and Workingman (2 vols., 1847, a

coltection of papers to mechanics first printed under the

pseudonym of ``Charles Quill''), Thoughts on Family Worship

(1847), Sacramental Addresses (1854), The Revival and

its Lessons (1859), Thoughts on Preaching (1861), Faith

(1862), and many juvenile books for Sunday-school libraries.

See Forty Years' Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander (2 vols.,

New York, 1860), edited by Dr John Hall (1806-1894) of Trenton, N. J.

ALEXANDER, WILLIAM (1824- ), Protestant archbishop of

Armagh and primate of all Ireland, was born at Londonderry

on the 13th of April 1824 and educated at Tonbridge Grammar

School and Brasenose College, Oxford. After holding several

livings in the north of Ireland he was made bishop of Derry

and Raphoe in 1867, and was elevated to the primacy in

1896. He was Bampton lecturer in 1816. An eloquent preacher

and the author of numerous theological works, he is best

known to literature as a master of dignified and animated

verse. His poems were collected in 1887 under the title of

St Augustine's Holiday, and other Poems. His wife, Cecil

Francis Humphreys (1818-1895), wrote some tracts in connexion

with the Oxford movement, but is famous as the author of

``Jesus calls us o'er the tumult,'' ``There is a green hill

far away'' and other well-known hymns (nearly four hundred in

all). A collection of her verse was published in 1896.

ALEXANDER, WILLIAM LINDSAY (1808-1884), Scottish divine,

was born at Leith on the 24th of August 1808. He was educated

at the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh, where he

gained a lasting reputation for classical scholarship. He

entered Glasgow Theological Academy under Ralph Wardlaw in

September 1827, but in December of the same year he left

to become classical tutor at the Blackburn Theological

Academy (afterwards the Lancashire Independent College).

At Blackburn he stayed till 1831, lecturing on biblical

literature, metaphysics, Greek and Latin. After short visits

to Germany and London he was invited in November 1834 to

become minister of North College Street church (afterwards

Argyle Square), Edinburgh, an independent church which had

arisen out of the evangelical movement associated with the

Haldanes. He deliberately put aside the ambition to become a

pulpit orator in favour of the practice of biblical exposition,

which he invested with a singular charm and impressiveness.

In 1836 he became one of the editors of the Congregational

Magazine, to which he contributed articles on biblical

literature and theology and on the ``voluntary'' controversy.

In 1840 he delivered the Congregational Lecture in London on

the ``Connexion and Harmony of the Old and New Testaments.''

Alexander took an active part in the ``voluntary'' controversy

which ended in the Disruption, but he also maintained

broad and catholic views of the spiritual relations between

different sections of the Christian church. In 1845 he

visited Switzerland with the special object of inquiring into

the religious life of the churches there. He published an

account of his journey in a book, Switzerland and the Swiss

Churches, which led to an interchange of correspondence

between the Swiss and Scottish churches. In 1845 he received

the degree of D.D. from the university of St Andrews. In 1861

he undertook the editorship of the third edition of Kitto's

Biblical Encyclopaedia with the understanding that the whole

work should be thoroughly revised and brought up to date. In

January 1870 he became one of the committee of Old Testament

revisers, and by his thorough biblical scholarship rendered

exceptional service to the board; he enjoyed the work and

devoted much time to it for the next fourteen years. In 1877 he

became principal of the Edinburgh Theological Hall, a position

which he held, in spite of many tempting offers of preferment

elsewhere, until his death on the 20th of December 1884.

See his Life and Work by James Ross (1887). (D. Mn.)

ALEXANDER AETOLUS, of Pleuron in Aetolia, Greek poet and

man of letters, the only representative of Aetolian poetry,

flourished about 280 B.C. When living in Alexandria he was

commissioned by Ptolemy Philadelphus to arrange the tragedies

and satyric dramas in the library; some ten years later he

took up his residence at the court of Antigonus Gonatas,

king of Macedonia. His reputation as a tragic poet was so

high that he was allotted a place in the Alexandrian tragic

Pleiad; we only know the title of one play (Astragalistae.)

He also wrote short epics, epigrams and elegies, the

considerable fragments of which show learning and eloquence.

Meineke, Analecta Alexandrina (1853); Bergk, Poetae

Lyrioi Graeci; Couat, La Poesie alexandrine (1882).

ALEXANDER BALAS (i.e. ``lord''), ruler of the Greek kingdom

of Syria 150-146 B.C., was a native of Smyrna of humble

origin, but gave himself out to be the son of Antiochus IV.

Epiphanes and heir to the Syrian throne. His claims were

recognized by the Roman senate, Ptolemy Philometor of Egypt

and others. At first unsuccessful, he finally defeated

the reigning king Demetrius Soter in 150 B.C. Being now

undisputed master of Syria, he abandoned himself to a life of

debauchery. Demetrius Soter's son profited by the opportunity

to regain the throne. Ptolemy Philometor, who was Alexander's

father-in-law, went over to his side, and Alexander was defeated

in a pitched battle near Antioch in Syria. He fled for refuge

to a Nabataean prince, who murdered him and sent his head to

Ptolemy, who had been mortally wounded in the engagement.

See 1 Maccab. 10 ff.; Justin xxxv. 1 and 2; Josephus,

Antiq. xiii. 2; Appian, Sir. 67; Polybius xxxiii. 14.

ALEXANDER CORNELIUS, Greek grammarian, surnamed POLYHISTOR

from his great learning, born at Miletus or Myndus in

Caria, flourished about 70 B.C. He was taken prisoner in

the Mithridatic war by Sulla, from whom (or from Cornelius

Lentulus) he received his freedom and assumed the name

Cornelius. He accompanied Crassus on his Parthian

campaigns, and perished at the destruction by fire of his

house at Laurentum. He is said to have written ``books

without number,'' chiefly on historical and geographical

subjects. Of the extant fragments (Muller, Fragmenta

Historicorum Graecorum, iii:) those relating to the Jews are

important as containing quotations from lost Jewish authors.

ALEXANDER JANNAEUS, king of the Jews, succeeded his brother

Aristobulus in 103 B.C. and died in 76 B.C. His first act

was the murder of one of his brothers who claimed the throne,

and his reign was disgraced by the cruelties that he perpetrated

in order to retain his position. (See JEWS and PHARISEES.)

ALEXANDER NEVSKY, SAINT (1220-1263), grand-duke of Vladimir,

was the second son of the grand-duke Yaroslav. His childhood

and youth were spent at Great Novgorod, whither his father

sent him to rule (1228) with some guardian boyars. In 1239

he married Alexandra, daughter of Prince Bryachislav of

Polotsk. At an early age he distinguished himself in

constant warfare with the Germans, Swedes and Lithuanians,

who tried to wrest Novgorod and Pskov from Russia while she

was still suffering from the effects of the terrible Tatar

invasion. The most notable of these battles, whereby he

won his honorific epithet of Nevsky (i.e. of the Neva),

was fought on the banks of the Neva (July 15 1240) against

the famous Swedish statesman, Birger Jarl, whom he utterly

defeated, besides wounding him with his lance. In the following

year the Teutonic Order, in conjunction with the Order of the

Sword, succeeded in capturing Pskov; but Alexander recovered

it in 1242, advanced into Livonia, and on the 5th of April

defeated the knights on the ice of Lake Peipus and compelled

them in the ensuing peace to renounce all their conquests.

He also prevented the Swedes (in 1256) from settling in South

Finland. On the death of his father (1246) Alexander and

his younger brother Andrew went on a two years' journey

into Mongolia to obtain their yarluiki, or letters of

investiture, from the Grand Khan, who then disposed of the

fate of all the Russian princes. He returned (1250) as

grand-duke of Kiev and Novgorod, while to Andrew was given

the far more important grand- duchy of Vladimir. In 1252,

however, the Tatars themselves expelled Andrew and placed

Alexander on the throne of Vladimir. Alexander henceforth

did his best for his country by humbling himself before the

Tatars so as to give them no pretext for ravaging the land

again. Most of his spare money he devoted to the ransoming

of the numerous Russian captives detained at the Golden

Horde. But the men of Novgorod, in their semi-independent

republic, continued (1255-1257) to give the grand-duke

trouble, their chief grievance being the imposition of a Tatar

tribute, which they only submitted to in 1259 on the rumour

of an impending Tatar invasion. In 1262 the Tatar tribute

was felt so grievously all over Russia that preparations

were made for a general insurrection, and Alexander, who knew

that an abortive rebellion would make the yoke heavier, was

obliged to go to the Horde in person to prevent the Tatars

from again attacking Russia. He stayed at Sarai, their Volgan

capital, all the Winter, and not only succeeded in obtaining

a mitigation of the tribute, but also the abolition of the

military service previously rendered by the Russians to the

Tatars. This was his last service to his country. He died

on his way home from the Horde, and in the words of his

contemporary, the metropolitan Cyril, ``with him the sun

of Russia set.'' The Orthodox Church has canonized the

ruler who gave his whole life for Russia and the Orthodox

faith. His relics, discovered in 1380, were in 1724

translated by Peter the Great from Vladimir to St Petersburg.

See Sergyei Mikhailovich Solovev, History of Russia

(Rus., 2nd ed., St Petersburg, 1897, vol. 3). (R. N. B.)

ALEXANDER OF APHRODISIAS, pupil of Aristocles of Messene, the

most celebrated of the Greek commentators on the writings of

Aristotle, and styled, by way of pre-eminence, o exegetes (``the

expositor''), was a native of Aphrodisias in Caria. He came

to Athens towards the end of the 2nd century A.D., became

head of the Lyceum and lectured on peripatetic philosophy. The

object of his work was to free the doctrine from the syncretism

of Ammonius and to reproduce the pure doctrine of Aristotle.

Commentaries by Alexander on the following works of Aristotle

are still extant:--the Analytica Priora, i.; the Topica;

the Meteorologica; the De Sensu; and the Metaphysica,

i.-v., together with an abridgment of what he wrote on the

remaining books of the Metaphysica. His commentaries were

greatly esteemed among the Arabians, who translated many of

them. There are also several original writings by Alexander still

extant. The most important of these are a work On Fate, in

which he argues against the Stoic doctrine of necessity; and

one On the Soul, in which he contends that the undeveloped

reason in man is material (nous ulikos) and inseparable

from the body. He argued strongly against the doctrine of

immortality. He identified the active intellect (nous

poietikos), through whose agency the potential intellect

in man becomes actual, with God. Several of Alexander's works

were published in the Aldine edition of Aristotle, Venice,

1495-1498; his De Fato and De Anima were printed along

with the works of Themistius at Venice (1534); the former

work, which has been translated into Latin by Grotius and also

by Schulthess, was edited by J. C. Orelli, Zurich, 1824; and

his commentaries on the Metaphysica by H. Bonitz, Berlin,

1847. J. Nourisson has treated of his doctrine of fate (De

la liberte et du hazard, Paris, 1870). In the early

Renaissance his doctrine of the soul's mortality was adopted

by F. Pomponazzi against the Thomists and the Averroists.

See PERIPATETICS (ad fin.); ALEXANDRISTS; POMPONAZZI, PIETRO;

also A. Apelt, ``Die Schrift d. Alex. v. Aphr.,'' Philolegus,

xlv., 1886: C. Ruelle, ``Alex. d'Aphr. et le pretendu Alex.

d'Alexandrie,'' Rev. des etudes grecques, v., 1892; E.

Zeller's Outlines of Gk. Phil. (Eng. trans., ed. 1905, p. 296).

ALEXANDER OF HALES (ALEXANDER HALENSIS), surnamed DOCTOR

IRREFRAGABILIS, THEOLOGORUM MONARCHA and FONS VITAE, a

celebrated English theologian of the 13th century, was born in

Gloucestershire. Trained in the monastery of Hales he was

early raised to an archdeaconry. He went, like most of the

scholars of his day, to study at Paris, where he took the

degree of doctor and became celebrated as a teacher. It is

generally held that he taught Bonaventura, Duns Scotus and

Thomas Aquinas, but a comparison of dates makes it clear

that the two latter could not have been his pupils and that

the statement about Bonaventura is open to doubt. In 1222

(or 1231, see Denifle, Chartul. Univers. Paris, Paris,

1889, i. 135) Alexander entered the order of Minorite Friars

and thenceforward lived in strict seclusion. He refused,

however, to renounce his degree of doctor, and was the

first of his order who continued to bear that title after

initiation. He died in 1245 and was buried in the convent

of the Cordeliers at Paris. His most celebrated work was the

Summa Theologiae (Nuremberg, 1452; Venice, 1576; Cologne,

1611), undertaken by the orders of Pope Innocent IV. and

approved by Alexander IV., on the report of seventy learned

theologians, as a system of instruction for all the schools in

Christendom. The form is that of question and answer,

and the method is rigidly scholastic. Of small intrinsic

value, it is interesting partly as the first philosophical

contribution of the Franciscans who were afterwards to take

a prominent part in medieval thought (see SCHOLASTICISM),

and partly as the first work based on a knowledge of the

whole Aristotelian corpus and the Arabian commentators.

See Wadding, Script. ord. minor. (Rome, 1650); for his method

B. Haureau, Hist. de philos. scholast. (Paris, 1880); F.

Picavet, ``Abelard et A. de H.'' in the Bibliothieque de

l'ecole des hautes-etudes (2nd series, Paris, 1896, pp.

222-230); Schwane, Dogmengesch. (Freiburg, 1882); A. Harnack,

Dogmengesch. (1890); J. Endres, ``Des A. von H. Leben und

psvchol. Lehre'' in Philos. Jahrb. (i. Fulda, 1888, pp. 24-55,

203-296): also Vacant's Dict. de theologie catholique, vol. i.

ALEXANDER OP TRALLES (ALEXANDER TRALLIANUS), Greek

physician, born at Tralles in Lydia, lived probably about the

middle of the 6th century and practised medicine with success at

Rome. The Greek text of his Biblia iatrika was printed

at Paris in 1548 and his De Lumbricis at Venice in 1570.

See E. Milward, Trallianus Reviviscens (London, 1734).

ALEXANDER SEVERUS (MARCUS AURELIUS SEVERUS ALEXAXDER)

(208-235), Roman emperor from A.D. 222 to 235, was born

at Arca Caesarea in Palestine on the 1st of October 208. His

father, Gessius Marcianus, held office more than once as an

imperial procurator; his mother, Julia Mamaea, was the daughter

of Julia Maesa and the aunt of Heliogabalus. His original name

was Bassianus, but he changed it in 221 when his grandmother,

Maesa, persuaded the emperor Heliogabalus to adopt his cousin

as successor and create him Caesar. In the next year, on

the 11th of March, Heliogabalus was murdered, and Alexander

was proclaimed emperor by the Praetorians and accepted by the

senate. He was then a mere lad, amiable, well-meaning, but

entirely under the dominion of his mother, a woman of many

virtues, who surrounded him with wise counsellors, watched

over the development of his character and improved the tone

of the administration, but on the other hand was inordinately

jealous, and alienated the army by extreme parsimony, while

neither she nor her son had a strong enough hand to keep tight

the reins of military discipline. Mutinies became frequent

in all parts of the empire; to one of them the life of the

jurist and praetorian praefect Ulpian was sacrificed; another

compelled the retirement of Dio Cassius from his command)

On the whole, however, the reign of Alexander was prosperous

till he was summoned to the East to face the new power of the

Sassanians (see PERSIA: History.) Of the war that followed

we have very various accounts; Mommsen leans to that which

is least favourable to the Romans. According to Alexander's

own despatch to the senate he gained great victories. At all

events, though the Persians were checked for the time, the

conduct of the Roman army showed an extraordinary lack of

discipline. The emperor returned to Rome and celebrated a

triumph (233), but next year he was called to face German

invaders in Gaul, where he was slain (on the 18th or 19th of

March 235), together with his mother, in a mutiny which was

probably led by Maximinus, a Thracian legionary, and at any rate

secured him the throne. Alexander was the last of the Syrian

princes. During his reign, acting, as he did in most things,

under the influence of his mother, he did much to improve

the morals and condition of the people. His advisers were

men like the famous jurist Ulpian, the historian Dio Cassius

and a select board of sixteen senators; a municipal council

of fourteen assisted the city praefect in administering the

affairs of the fourteen districts of Rome. The luxury and

extravagance that had formerly been so prevalent at the court

were put down; the standard of the coinage was raised; taxes

were lightened; literature, art and science were encouraged;

the lot of the soldiers was improved; and, for the convenience

of the people, loan offices were instituted for lending

money at a moderate rate of interest. In religious matters

Alexander preserved an open mind. In his private chapel he

had busts of Orpheus, Abraham, Apollonius of Tyana and Jesus

Christ. It is said that he was desirous of erecting a temple

to the founder of Christianity, but was dissuaded by the pagan

priests. There is no doubt that, had Alexander's many

excellent qualities been supported by the energy and strength

of will necessary for the government of a military empire,

he would have been one of the greatest of the Roman emperors.

See Lampridius, Alexander Severus; Dio Cassius lxxviii. 30,

lxxix. 17, lxxx. 1; Herodian vi. 1-18; Porrath, Der Kaiser

Alex. Sev. (1876); Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie,

ii. 2526 foll. (Groebe); monograph by R. V. Nind

Hopkins, Cambridge Historical Essays, No. xiv. (1907).

ALEXANDER THE PAPHLAGONIAN, a celebrated impostor and worker

of false oracles, was born at Abonouteichos (see INEBOLI)

in Paphlagonia in the early part of the 2nd century A.D.

The vivid narrative of his career given by Lucian might be

taken as fictitious but for the corroboration of certain

coins of the emperors Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius (J. H.

Eckhel, Doctrina Nummorum veterum, ii. pp. 383, 384) and

of a statue of Alexander, said by Athenagoras (Apology, c.

26) to have stood in the forum of Parium. After a period of

instruction in medicine by a doctor who also, according to

Lucian, was an impostor, he succeeded in establishing an

oracle of Aesculapius at his native town. Having circulated

a prophecy that the son of Apollo was to be born again, he

contrived that there should be found in the foundations of

the temple to Aesculapius, then in course of construction at

Abonouteichos, an egg in which a small live snake had been

placed. In an age of superstition no people had so great a

reputation for credulity as the Paphlagonians, and Alexander

had little difficulty in convincing them of the second coming

of the god under the name of Glycon. A large tame snake with

a false human head, wound round Alexander's body as he sat

in a shrine in the temple, gave ``autophones'' or oracles

unasked, but the usual methods practised were those of the

numerous oracle-mongers of the time, of which Lucian gives a

detailed account, the opening of sealed inquiries by heated

needles, a neat plan of forging broken seals, and the giving

of vague or meaningless replies to difficult questions, coupled

with a lucrative blackmailing of those whose inquiries were

compromising. The reputation of the oracle, which was in origin

medical, spread, and with it grew Alexander's skilled plans

of organized deception. He set up an ``intelligence bureau''

in Rome, instituted mysteries like those of Eleusis, from

which his particular enemies the Christians and Epicureans

were alike excluded as ``profane,'' and celebrated a mystic

marriage between himself and the moon. During the plague of

A.D. 166 a verse from the oracle was used as an amulet and

was inscribed over the doors of houses as a protection, and

an oracle was sent, at Marcus Aurelius' request, by Alexander

to the Roman army on the Danube during the war with the

Marcomanni, declaring that victory would follow on the throwing

of two lions alive into the river. The result was a great

disaster, and Alexander had recourse to the old quibble of

the Delphic oracle to Croesus for an explanation. Lucian's

own close investigations into Alexander's methods of fraud

led to a serious attempt on his life. The whole account

gives a graphic description of the inner working of one among

the many new oracles that were springing up at this period.

Alexander had remarkable beauty and the striking personality

of the successful charlatan, and must have been a man of

considerable intellectual abilities and power of organization.

His income is said by Lucian to have reached an enormous

figure. He died of gangrene of the leg in his seventieth year.

See Lucian, 'Alexandros e pseudomantis; Samuel Dill, Roman

Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius (1904): and F. Gregorovius,

The Emperor Hadrian, trans. by M. E. Robinson (1898).

ALEXANDERS (botanical name, Smyrnium Olusatrum, natural

order Umbelliferae), a stout herbaceous plant with a

furrowed, much-branched stem 1-3 ft. high, and large compound

leaves with broad sheathing stalks, and broad, cut or lobed

segments. The small yellow flowers are borne in compound

umbels. The plant is a native of the Mediterranean region,

and was formerly cultivated as a pot-herb. It is now found

apparently wild in Great Britain and Ireland, growing in

waste places, especially near the sea and amongst ruins.

In England the plant is sometimes popularly termed

``alisander''; in North America Thaspium aureum is sometimes

called ``alexanders.'' ``Alexander's foot,'' botanical

name Anacyclus Pyrethrum, is the pellitory of Spain.

ALEXANDERSBAD, a watering-place of Germany, in the kingdom

of Bavaria, romantically situated in the Fichtelgebirge,

near Wunsiedel, at a height of 1900 ft. above the sea. Pop.

1200. Its waters, which are ferruginous and largely charged

with carbonic acid gas, are of use in nervous and rheumatic

disorders. In the neighbourhood is the Luisenburg (or Luxburg),

so called after a visit paid by Queen Louise of Prussia in

1805, a hill covered by majestic granite rocks, commanding

a grand view of the whole range of the Fichtelgebirge.

ALEXANDRE, NOEL (NATALIS ALEXANDER) (1639-1724), French

theologian and ecclesiastical historian, was born at Rouen

on the 19th of January 1639. In his 15th year he joined the

Dominicans, and shortly after his ordination was appointed

professor of philosophy at the convent of Saint-Jacques in

Paris. The success of his subsequent lectures at the Sorbonne

led to his selection by Colbert as tutor to his son, Jacques

Nicolas Colbert, afterwards archbishop of Rouen. Alexandre

obtained the degree of doctor in divinity from the Sorbonne

in 1675 and for twelve years taught philosophy, theology

and ecclesiastical law to the members of the Saint-Jacques

community. He played a prominent part in ecclesiastical

affairs and preached several times before Louis XIV., who

granted him an annual pension of 800 livres, and in the

general assemblies of the French bishops. He became provincial

of his order in 1706, but was banished to Chatellerault

in 1709 for having subscribed to the Cas de conscience

(1703), and was deprived of his pension in 1713 on account

of his opposition to the bull Unigenitus. He died in Paris

on the 21st of August 1724, having lost his sight some time

before owing to his strenuous literary activity. His numerous

works are still much valued by ecclesiastical students.

His best-known work, the Selecta historiae ecclesiasticae

capita, et in loca ejusdem insignia dissertationes

historicae, chronologicae, dogmaticae (26 vols., Paris,

1676-1686), was placed on the Index by Innocent XI., on

account of his bold defence of the Gallican claims. In 1689

he brought out at Paris his history of the Old Testament:

Selecta historiae Veteris Testamenti capita, &c., in 6

vols. Of the numerous editions of Alexandre's ecclesiastical

history the best is that of P. J. D. Mansi, which contains

many valuable notes and additions (11 vols., Lucca, 1749)

and has been frequently reprinted. Alexandre's principal

contribution to theological literature is his Theologia

dogmatica et moralis secundum ordinem catechismi concilii

Tridentini (10 vols., Paris, 1694), in which he clearly shows

himself a disciple of the Thomist school. His Couformite

des ceremonies chinoises avec l'idolatrie grecque et

romaine and Sept lettres sur les ceremonies de la Chine

(both published at Cologne in 1700) are interesting as they

mark him out as a pioneer in the study of comparative religion.

See Catalogue complet des oeuvres du Pere Alexandre (Paris,

1716); Quetif-Echard, Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum (Paris,

1719-1721), t. ii. p. 810; and full bibliography in A. Vacant, Dict.

de theologie (scholarly article by P. Mandounet, cols. 769-772).

ALEXANDRETTA, or ISKANDERUN (med. Scanderoon), a town

of N. Syria, situated in the N.E. angle of the Levantine

Mediterranean on the S.E. of the gulf to which it gives a

title. Pop. about 10,000, two-thirds Moslem. Iskanderun

preserves the name, but probably not the exact site, of Alexandria

ad Issum, founded by Alexander in 333 B.C., about 23

m. S. of the scene of his victory, to supersede Myriandrus as

key of the Syrian Gates (Beilan Pass). The importance of the

place ever since has been derived from its relation to this

pass, the easiest approach to the open ground of N. Syria of

which Antioch and Aleppo have been the successive capitals;

and this relation has prevailed over the extreme unhealthiness

of the site, which lies on marshy deltaic ground, screened by

the horseshoe of Elma Dagh from all purifying influences of

N. and E. winds. As the main outlet for the overland trade

from Bagdad and India, whose importance was great until the

establishment of the Egyptian overland route, the place was a

great resort, first of Genoese and Venetian merchants, then of

those of West and North European nations. The British Levant

(Turkey) Company maintained an agency and factory here for 200

years, till 1825, in spite of appalling mortality among its

employes. Alexandretta is still the main port for the Aleppo

district, to which a good chaussee leads over the Beilan

Pass, and it has a considerable export trade in tobacco, silk,

cereals, liquorice, textiles. The health of the place has

improved with the draining of the marshes and the provision

of a better supply of water, but still leaves much to be

desired. The wealthier inhabitants have summer residences

at Beilan near the summit of the pass, long a stronghold of

freebooting Dere Beys and the scene of the victory won by

Ibrahim Pasha in 1832, which opened Cilicia to his advance.

There are resident consuls of all the principal powers, and

the port is well served by coasting steamers under European

and Ottoman flags. The distance by road to Aleppo has been

shortened to about 70 m., and Antakia (Antioch) is about 45

m. distant by a branch of the same chaussee. (D. G. H.)

ALEXANDRIA (Arab. Iskenderia), a city and chief seaport

of Egypt, and for over a thousand years from its foundation

the capital of the country, situated on the Mediterranean in

31 deg. 12' N., 29 deg. 15' E., and 129 m. by rail N.W. of Cairo.

The ancient Canopic mouth of the Nile (now dry) was 12 m. E.

I. The Modern City.--The city is built on the strip of land

which separates the Mediterranean from Lake Mareotis ( Mariut),

and on a T-shaped peninsula which forms harbours east and

west. The stem of the T was originally a mole leading to an

island (Pharos) which formed the cross-piece. In the course

of centuries this mole has been silted up and is now an isthmus

half a mile wide. On it a part of the modern city is built.

The cape at the western end of the peninsula is Ras et-Tin (Cape

of Figs); the eastern cape is known as Pharos or Kait Bey. South

of the town--between it and Lake Mareotis--runs the Mahmudiya

canal, which enters the western harbour by a series of locks.

The customs house and chief warehouses are by the western

harbour, but the principal buildings of the city are in the

east and south-east quarters. From the landing-stage, by the

customs house, roads lead to the Place Mehemet Ali, the centre

of the life of the city and the starting-point of the electric

tramways. The place, usually called the Grand Square,

is an oblong open space, tree-lined, in the centre of which

there is an equestrian statue of the prince after whom it is

named. The square is faced with handsome buildings mainly

in the Italian style. The most important are the law courts,

exchange, Ottoman bank, English church and the Abbas Hilmi

theatre. A number of short streets lead from the square

to the eastern harbour. Here a sea wall, completed in

1905, provides a magnificent drive and promenade along

the shore for a distance of about 3 m. In building this

quay a considerable area of foreshore was reclaimed and an

evil-smelling beach done away with. From the south end of

the square the rue Sherif Pasha--in which are the principal

shops--and the rue Tewfik Pasha lead to the boulevard, or

rue, de Rosette, a long straight road with a general E. and W.

direction. In it are the Zizinia theatre and the municipal

palace (containing the public library); the museum lies up a

short street to the N. Opened in 1895 this museum possesses an

important collection of Egyptian, Greek and Roman antiquities,

found not only in the city but in all Lower Egypt and the

Fayum. The western end of the boulevard leads to the Place

Ibrahim, often called Place Ste Catherine, from the Roman

Catholic church at its S.E. side. In a street running S. from

the boulevard to the railway station is the mosque of Nebi

Daniel, containing the tombs of Said Pasha and other members

of the khedivial family. Immediately E. of the mosque is Kom

ed-Dik, garrisoned by British troops, one of several forts built

for the protection of the city. Except Kom ed-Dik the forts

have not been repaired since the bombardment of 1882. Equally

obsolete is the old line of fortifications which formerly marked

the limits of the city south and east and has now been partly

demolished. Throughout the central part of Alexandria the

streets are paved with blocks of lava and lighted by electricity.

The north quarter is mainly occupied by natives and Levantines.

The narrow winding streets and the Arab bazaars present an

Oriental scene contrasting with the European aspect of the

district already described. This Arab quarter is traversed

by the rue Ras et-Tin, leading to the promontory of than

name. Here, overlooking the harbour, is the khedivial yacht

club (built 1903) and the palace, also called Ras et-Tin,

built by Mehemet Ali, a large but not otherwise noteworthy

building. In the district between the Grand Square and the

western harbour, one of the poorest quarters of the city,

is an open space with Fort Caffareli or Napoleon in the

centre. This quarter has been pierced by several straight

roads, one of which, crossing the Mahmudiya canal by the Pont

Neuf, leads to Gabbari, the most westerly part of the city

and an industrial and manufacturing region, possessing asphalt

works and oil, rice and paper mills. On either side of the

canal are the warehouses of wholesale dealers in cotton, wool,

sugar, grain and other commodities. In the southern part of

the city are the Arab cemetery, ``Pompey's Pillar'' and the

catacombs. ``Pompey's Pillar,'' which stands on the highest

spot in Alexandria, is nearly 99 ft. high, including the

pedestal. The shaft is of red granite and is beautifully

polished. Nine feet in diameter at the base, it tapers to eight

feet at the top. The catacombs, a short distance S.W. of the

pillar, are hewn out of the rocky slope of a hill, and are an

elaborate series of chambers adorned with pillars, statues,

religious symbols and traces of painting (see below, Ancient

City.) Along the northern side of the Mahmudiya canal,

which here passes a little S. of the catacombs, are many fine

houses and gardens (Moharrem Bey quarter), stretching eastward

for a considerable distance, favourite residences of wealthy

citizens. A similar residential quarter has also grown up

on the N.E., where the line of the old fortifications has

become a boulevard. The district extending outside the E.

fortifications, in the direction of Hadra, has been laid out

with fine avenues, and contains numerous garden-cafes and

pleasure resorts. Thence roads lead to the E. suburb known

generally as Ramleh, which stretches along the coast, and is

served by a local railway. It begins E. of the racecourse

with Sidi Gabr, and does not end till the khedivial estates

E. of San Stefano are reached, some 5 m. E. All this space

is filled with villas, gardens and hotels, and is a favourite

summer resort not only of Alexandrians but also of Cairenes.

The eastern bay is rocky, shallow and exposed, and is now used

only by native craft. The harbour is on the W. of Pharos and

partly formed by a breakwater (built 1871-1873 and prolonged

1906-1907), 2 m. long. The breakwater starts opposite the

promontory of Ras et-Tin, on which is a lighthouse, 180 ft.

above the sea, built by Mehemet Ali. Another breakwater starts

from the Gabbari side, the opening between the two works

being about half a mile. A number of scattered rocks lie

across the entrance, but through them two fairways have been

made, one 600 ft. wide and 35 ft. deep, the other 300 ft.

wide and 30 ft. deep. The enclosed water is divided into an

outer and inner harbour by a mole, 1000 yds. long, projecting

N.W. from the southern shore. The inner harbour covers 464

acres. It is lined for 2 1/2 m. by quays, affording accommodation

for ships drawing up to 28 ft. The outer harbour (1400 acres

water area) is furnished with a graving dock, completed in

1905, 520 ft. long, and with quays and jetties along the

Gabbari foreshore. Their construction was begun in 1906.

Alexandria is linked by a network of railway and telegraph

lines to the other towns of Egypt, and there is a trunk

telephone line to Cairo. The city secured in 1906 a new

and adequate water-supply, modern drainage works having been

completed the previous year. Being the great entrepot

for the trade of Egypt, the city is the headquarters of the

British chamber of commerce and of most of the merchants and

companies engaged in the development of the Delta. About 90%

of the total exports and imports of the country pass through

the port, though the completion, in 1904, of a broad-gauge

railway connecting Cairo and Port Said deflected some of the

cotton exports to the Suez Canal route. The staple export

is raw cotton, the value of which is about 80% of all the

exports. The principal imports are manufactured cotton goods

and other textiles, machinery, timber and coal. The value

of the trade of the port increased from L. 30,000,000 in 1900

to L. 46,000,000 in 1906. In the same period the tonnage

of the ships entering the harbour rose from 2,375,000 to

3,695,000. Of the total trade Great Britain supplies from

35 to 40% of the imports and takes over 50% of the exports.

Among the exports sent to England are the great majority of the

80,000,000 eggs annually shipped (see also EGYPT: Commerce.)

The population of the city (1907) was 332,246 or including

the suburbs, about 400,000. The foreigners numbered over

90,000. The majority of these were Greeks, Italians, Syrians,

Armenians and other Levantines, though almost every European

and Oriental nation is represented. The predominant languages

spoken, besides the Arabic of the natives, are Greek, French,

English and Italian. The labouring population is mainly

Egyptian; the Greeks and Levantines are usually shopkeepers

or petty traders. In its social life Alexandria is the

most progressive and occidental of all the cities of North

Africa, with the possible exception of Algiers. (F. R. C.)

II. The Ancient City.--The Greek Alexandria was divided

into three regions: (1) the Jews' quarter, forming the

north-east portion of the city; (2) Rhacotis, on the west,

occupied chiefly by Egyptians; (3) Brucheum, the Royal or

Greek quarter, forming the most magnificent portion of the

city. In Roman times Brucheum was enlarged by the addition of

an official quarter, making up the number of four regiones

in all. The city was laid out as a gridiron of parallel

streets, each of which had an attendant subterranean canal.

Two main streets, lined with colonnades and said to have been

each about 200 ft. wide, intersected in the centre of the

city, close to the point where rose the Sema (or Soma)

of Alexander (i.e. his Mausoleum). This point is very

near the present mosque of Nebi Daniel; and the line of the

great east-west ``Canopic'' street only slightly diverged

from that of the modern Boulevard de Rosette. Traces of its

pavement and canal have been found near the Rosetta Gate; but

better remains still of streets and canals were exposed in

1899 by the German excavators outside the E. fortifications,

which lie well within the area of the ancient city.

Alexandria consisted originally of little more than the

island of Pharos, which was joined to the mainland by a mole

nearly a mile long and called the Heptastadium. The end

of this abutted on the land at the head of the present Grand

Square, where rose the ``Moon Gate.'' All that now lies

between that point and the modern Ras et-Tin quarter is built

on the silt which gradually widened and obliterated this

mole. The Ras et-Tin quarter represents all that is left

of the island of Pharos, the site of the actual lighthouse

having been weathered away by the sea. On the east of

the mole was the Great Harbour, now an open bay; on the

west lay the port of Eunostos, with its inner basin

Kibotos, now vastly enlarged to form the modern harbour.

In Strabo's time, (latter half of 1st century B.C.) the

principal buildings were as follows, enumerated as they were to

be seen from a ship entering the Great Harbour. (1) The Royal

Palaces, filling the N.E. angle of the town and occupying the

promontory of Lochias, which shut in the Great Harbouron the

east. Lochias, the modern Pharillon, has almost entirely

disappeared into the sea, together with the palaces, the

``Private Port'' and the island of Antirrhodus. There has been

a land subsidence here, as throughout the N. Delta and indeed

all the N.E. coast of Africa; and on calm days the foundations

of buildings may be seen, running out far under sea, near the

Pharillon. Search was made for relics of these palaces by

German explorers in 1898-1899, but without much success. (2)

The Great Theatre, on the modern Hospital Hill near the Ramleh

station. This was used by Caesar as a fortress, where he

stood a siege from the city mob after the battle of Pharsalus.

(3)The Poseideion or Temple of the Sea God, close to the

theatre and in front of it. (4) The Timonium built by Antony.

(5, 6, 7) The Emporium (Exchange), Apostases (Magazines)

and Navalia (Docks), lying west of (4), along the sea-front

as far as the mole. Behind the Emporium rose (8) the Great

Caesareum, by which stood the two great obelisks, later known

as ``Cleopatra's Needles,'' and now removed to New York and

London. This temple became in time the Patriarchal Church,

some remains of which have been discovered: but the actual

Caesareum, so far as not eroded by the waves, lies under

the houses lining the new sea-wall. (9) The Gymnasium

and (10) the Palaestra are both inland, near the great

Canopic street (Boulevard de Rosette) in the eastern half

of the town, but on sites not determined. (11) The Temple

of Saturn: site unknown. (12) The Mausolea of Alexander

(Soma) and the Ptolemies in one ring-fence, near the point

of intersection of the two main streets. (13) The Museum

with its library and theatre in the same region; but on a

site not identified. (14) The Serapeum, the most famous of

all Alexandrian temples Strabo tells us that this stood in

the west of the city; and recent discoveries go far to place

it near ``Pompey's Pillar'' (see above) which, however, was

an independent monument erected to commemorate Diocletian's

siege of the city. We know the names of a few other public

buildings on the mainland, but nothing as to their position.

On the eastern point of the Pharos island stood the Great

Lighthouse, one of the ``Seven Wonders,'' reputed to be 400 ft.

high. The first Ptolemy began it, and the second completed

it, at a total cost of 800 talents. It is the prototype of

all lighthouses (q.v.) in the world. A temple of Hephaestus

also stood on Pharos at the head of the mole. In the Augustan

age the population of Alexandria was estimated at 300,000

free folk, in addition to an immense number of slaves.

III. History.--

Ancient and medieval period.

Founded in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great, Alexandria was

intended to supersede Naucratis (q.v.) as a Greek centre in

Egypt, and to be the link between Macedonia and the rich Nile

Valley. If such a city was to be on the Egyptian coast, there

was only one possible site, behind the screen of the Pharos

island and removed from the silt thrown out by Nile mouths.

An Egyptian townlet, Rhacotis, already stood on the shore and

was a resort of fishermen and pirates. Behind it (according

to the Alexandrian treatise, known as pseudo-Callisthenes)

were five native villages scattered along the strip between

Lake Mareotis and the sea. Alexander occupied Pharos, and

had a walled city marked out by Deinocrates on the mainland

to include Rhacotis. A few months later he left Egypt for

the East and never returned to his city; but his corpse was

ultimately entombed there. His viceroy, Cleomenes, continued

the creation of Alexandria. The Heptastadium, however, and

the mainland quarters seem to have been mainly Ptolemaic

work. Inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the

centre of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian

and Indian East, the city grew in less than a century to be

larger than Carthage; and for some centuries more it had to

acknowledge no superior but Rome. It was a centre not only of

Hellenism but of Semitism, and the greatest Jewish city in the

world. There the Septuagint was produced. The early Ptolemies

kept it in order and fostered the development of its museum

into the leading Greek university; but they were careful

to maintain the distinction of its population into three

nations, ``Macedonian'' (i.e. Greek), Jew and Egyptian.

From this division arose much of the later turbulence which

began to manifest itself under Ptolemy Philopater. Nominally

a free Greek city, Alexandria retained its senate to Roman

times; and indeed the judicial functions of that body were

restored by Septimius Severus, after temporary abolition by

Augustus. The city passed formally under Roman jurisdiction

in 80 B.C., according to the will of Ptolemy Alexander: but

it had been under Roman influence for more than a hundred years

previously. There Julius Caesar dallied with Cleopatra in

47 B.C. and was mobbed by the rabble; there his example

was followed by Antony, for whose favour the city paid dear

to Octavian, who placed over it a prefect from the imperial

household. Alexandria seems from this time to have regained its

old prosperity, commanding, as it did, an important granary of

Rome. This latter fact, doubtless, was one of the chief

reasons which induced Augustus to place it directly under

the imperial power. In A.D. 215 the emperor Caracalla

visited the city; and, in order to repay some insulting

satires that the inhabitants had made upon him, he commanded

his troops to put to death all youths capable of bearing

arms. This brutal order seems to have been carried out

even beyond the letter, for a general massacre was the

result. Notwithstanding this terrible disaster, Alexandria

soon recovered its former splendour, and for some time longer

was esteemed the first city of the world after Rome. Even as

its main historical importance had formerly sprung from pagan

learning, so now it acquired fresh importance as a centre of

Christian theology and church government. There Arianism was

formulated and there Athanasius, the great opponent of both

heresy and pagan rcaction, worked and triumphed. As native

influences, however, began to reassert themselves in the Nile

valley, Alexandria gradually became an alien city, more and

more detached from Egypt; and, losing much of its commerce

as the peace of the empire broke up during the 3rd century

A.D., it declined fast in population and splendour. The

Brucheum, and Jewish quarters were desolate in the 5th century,

and the central monuments, the Soma and Museum, fallen to

ruin. On the mainland life seems to have centred in the

vicinity of the Serapeum and Caesareum, both become Christian

churches: but the Pharos and Heptastadium quarters remained

populous and intact. In 616 it was taken by Chosroes, king

of Persia; and in 640 by the Arabians, under `Amr, after a

siege that lasted fourteen months, during which Heraclius, the

emperor of Constantinople, did not send a single ship to its

assistance. Notwithstanding the losses that the city had

sustained, `Amr was able to write to his master, the caliph

Omar, that he had taken a city containing ``4000 palaces, 4000

baths, 12,000 dealers in fresh oil, 12,000 gardeners, 40,000

Jews who pay tribute, 400 theatres or places of amusement."

The story of the destruction of the library by the Arabs is

first told by Bar-hebraeus (Abulfaragius), a Christian writer

who lived six centuries later; and it is of very doubtful

authority. It is highly improbable that many of the 700,000

volumes collected by the Ptolemies remained at the time of the

Arab conquest, when the various calamities of Alexandria from the

time of Caesar to that of Diocletian are considered, together with

the disgraceful pillage of the library in A.D. 389 under the

rule of the Christian bishop, Theophilus, acting on Theodosius'

decree concerning pagan monumcnts (see LIBRARIES: Ancient

History). The story of Abulfaragius runs as follows:--

John the Grammarian, a famous Peripatetic philosopher,

being in Alexandria at the time of its capture, and in high

favour with `Amr, begged that he would give him the royal

library. `Amr told him that it was not in his power to grant

such a request, but promised to write to the caliph for his

consent. Omar, on hearing the request of his general, is

said to have replied that if those books contained the same

doctrine with the Koran, they could be of no use, since the

Koran contained all necessary truths; but if they contained

anything contrary to that book, they ought to be destroyed; and

therefore, whatever their contents were, he ordered them to be

burnt. Pursuant to this order, they were distributed among

the public baths, of which there was a large number in the

city, where, for six months, they served to supply the fires.

Shortly after its capture Alexandria again fell into the hands

of the Greeks, who took advantage of `Amr's absence with the

greater portion of his army. On hearing what had happened,

however, `Amr returned, and quickly regained possession of the

city. About the year 646 `Amr was deprived of his government

by the caliph Othman. The Egyptians, by whom `Amr was greatly

beloved, were so much dissatisfied by this act, and even

showed such a tendency to revolt, that the Greek emperor

determined to make an effort to reduce Alexandria. The attempt

proved perfectly successful. The caliph, perceiving his

mistake, immediately restored `Amr, who, on his arrival in

Egypt, drove the Greeks within the walls of Alexandria, but

was only able to capture the city after a most obstinate

resistance by the defenders. This so exasperated him that

he completely demolished its fortifications, although he

seems to have spared the lives of the inhabitants as far

as lay in his power. Alexandria now rapidly declined in

importance. The building of Cairo in 969, and, above all,

the discovery of the route to the East by the Cape of Good

Hope in 1498, nearly ruined its commerce; the canal, which

supplied it with Nile water, became blocked; and although it

remained a principal Egyptian port, at which most European

visitors in the Mameluke and Ottoman periods landed, we hear

little of it until about the beginning of the 19th century.

[Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations

of Napoleon's Egyptian expedition of 1798. The French troops

stormed the city on the 2nd of July 1798, and it remained in

their hands until the arrival of the British expedition of 1801.

The battle of Alexandria, fought on the 21st of March of that

year, between the French army under General Menou and the

British expeditionary corps under Sir Ralph Abercromby,

took place near the ruins of Nicopohs, on the narrow spit

of land between the sea and Lake Aboukir, along which the

British troops had advanced towards Alexandria after the

actions of Aboukir on the 8th and Mandora on the 13th.

Battle of 1801.

The British position on the night of the 20th extended across

the isthmus, the right resting upon the ruins of Nicopolis and

the sea, the left on the lake of Aboukir and the Alexandria

canal. The line faced generally south-west towards the

city, the reserve division under Major-General (Sir) John

Moore on the right, the Guards brigade in the centre, and

three other brigades on the left. In second line were two

brigades and the cavalry (dismounted). On the 21st the

troops were under arms at 3 A.M., and at 3.30 the French

attacked and drove in the outposts. The French army now

moved forward with great rapidity in their usual formation of

columns. The brunt of the attack fell upon the command of

Moore, and in particular upon the 28th (Gloucestershire

Regiment). The first shock was repulsed, but a French column

penetrated in the dark between two regiments of the British

and a confused fight ensued in the ruins, in which the 42nd

(Black Watch) captured a colour. The front and rear ranks

of the 28th were simultaneously engaged, and the conduct of

the regiment won for it the distinction of wearing badges

both at the front and at the back of their head-dress.

Other regiments which assisted in the overthrow of the French

column were the 23rd, 40th and 58th. In a second attack the

enemy's cavalry inflicted severe losses on the 42nd. Sir

Ralph Abercromby was here engaged in personal conflict with

some French dragoons, and about this time received a mortal

wound, though he remained on the field and in command to the

end. The attack on the centre was repulsed by the cool and

steady fire of the Guards, and the left wing maintained its

position with ease, but the French cavalry for the second time

came to close quarters with the reserve. About half-past eight

the combat began to wane, and the last shots were fired at

ten. The real attack had been pressed home on the British

right, and the History of the Queen's Royal West Surrey

Regiment gives no undue praise to the regiments of the

reserve in saying that ``the determined attack would have been

successful against almost any other troops.'' Technically,

the details of the action show that, while not markedly better

in a melee than the war-seasoned French, the British

infantry had in its volleys a power which no other troops

then existing possessed, and it was these volleys that decided

the day even more than the individual stubbornness of the

men. The 42nd, twice charged by cavalry, had but thirteen

men wounded by the sabre. Part of the French losses, which

were disproportionately heavy, were caused by the gunboats

which lay close inshore and cannonaded the left flank of the

French columns, and by a heavy naval gun which was placed in

battery near the position of the 28th. The forces engaged

on this day mere approximately 14,000 British to about 20,000

French, and the losses were:-- British, 1468 killed, wounded

and missing, including Abercromby (who died on the 28th),

Moore and three other generals wounded; French, 1160 killed

and (?) 3000 wounded. The British subsequently advanced upon

Alexandria, which surrendered on the 31st of August. (C. F. A.)

Modern city.

During the anarchy which accompanied Ottoman rule in Egypt

from first to last, Alexandria sank to a small town of about

4000 inhabitants; and it owed its modern renascence solely to

Mehemet Ali, who wanted a deep port and naval station for his

viceregal domain. He restored its water communication with

the Nile by making the Mahmudiya canal, finished in 1820; and

he established at Ras et-Tin his favourite residence. The

Old Eunostus harbour became the port, and a flourishing city

arose on the old Pharos island and the Heptastadium district,

with outlying suburbs and villa residences along the coast

eastwards and the Mareotic shore. Being the starting-point

of the ``overland route'' to India, and the residence of the

chief foreign consuls, it quickly acquired a European character

and attracted not only Frank residents, but great numbers of

Greeks, Jews and Syrians. There most of the negotiations

between the powers and Mehemet All were conducted; thence

started the Egyptian naval expeditions to Crete, the Morea

and Syria; and thither sailed the betrayed Ottoman fleet in

1839. It was twice threatened by hostile fleets, the Greek in

1827 and the combined British, French and Russian squadrons in

1828. The latter withdrew on the viceroy's promise that

Ibrahim should evacuate the Morea. The fortifications

were strengthened in 1841, and remained in an antiquated

condition until 1882, when they were renovated by Arabi

Pasha. Alexandria was connected with Cairo by railway in

1856. Much favoured by the earlier viceroys of Mehemet Ali's

house, and removed from the Mameluke troubles, Alexandria was

the real capital of Egypt till Said Pasha died there in 1863

and Ismail came into power. Though this prince continued to

develop the city, giving it a municipality in 18661 and new

harbour works in 1871-1878, he developed Cairo still more; and

the centre of gravity definitely shifted to the inland capital.

Bombardment of 1882.

Fate, however, again brought Alexandria to the front. After

a mutiny of soldiers there in 1881, the town was greatly

excited by the arrival of an Anglo-French fleet in May 1882,

and on the 11th of June a terrible riot and massacre took

place, resulting in the death of four hundred Europeans.

Since satisfaction was not given for this and the forts were

being strengthened at the instigation of Arabi Pasha, the

war minister, the British admiral, Sir Beauchamp Seymour

(afterwards Lord Alcester), sent an ultimatum on the 10th of

July and opened fire on the forts the next day. They were

demolished, but as no troops were landed immediately a fresh

riot and massacre ensued. As Arabi did not submit, a British

military expedition landed at Alexandria on the 10th of

August, the sequel being the British occupation of the whole

country, the history of which is set forth under EGYPT.

Since the restoration of tranquillity and the establishment

of sound political and economic conditions in the Nile valley,

Alexandria has greatly expanded. As the British consular

report for 1904 says, ``Building . . . for residential and

other purposes proceeds with almost feverish rapidity. The

cost of living has doubled and the price of land has risen

enormously.'' On the E. and S.E. a new town of handsome

houses, gardens and boulevards has been called into existence,

in the arrangement of which the controlling influence of

the municipality is evident (see Modern Gity above).

IV. Antiquities.--Persistent efforts have been made to explore

the antiquities of Alexandria. Encouragement and help have

been given by the local Archaeological Society, and by many

individuals, notably Greeks justly proud of a city which is

one of the glories of their national story. The past and

present directors of the museum have been enabled from time

to time to carry out systematic excavations when opportunity

offered; Mr D. G. Hogarth made tentative researches on behalf

of the Egypt Exploration Fund and the Society for the Promotion

of Hellenic Studies in 1895; and a German expedition worked

for two years (1898-1899). But two difficulties face the

would-be excavator in Alexandria. First, since the great

and growing modern city stands right over the ancient one,

it is almost impossible to find any considerable space in

which to dig, except at enormous cost. Second, the general

subsidence of the coast has sunk the lower-lying parts of

the ancient town under water. Unfortunately the spaces

still most open are the low grounds to N.E. and S.W., where

it is practically impossible to get below the Roman strata.

The most important results were those achieved by Dr G.

Botti, late director Of the museum, in the neighbourhood

of ``Pompey's Pillar,'' where there is a good deal of open

ground. Here substructures of a large building or group of

buildings have been exposed, which are perhaps part of the

Serapeum. Hard by immense catacombs and columbaria

have been opened which may have been appendages of the

temple. These contain one very remarkable vault with curious

painted reliefs, now lighted by electricity and shown to

visitors. The objects found in these researches are in the

museum, the most notable being a great basalt bull, probably

once an object of cult in the Serapeum. Other catacombs and

tombs have been opened in Kore es-Shugafa Hadra (Roman) and

Ras et-Tin (painted). The Germans found remains of a Ptolemaic

colonnade and streets in the north-east of the city, but little

else. Mr Hogarth explored part of an immense brick structure

under the mound of Kom ed-Dik, which may have been part of

the Paneum, the Mausolea or a Roman fortress. The making of

the new foreshore led to the dredging up of remains of the

Patriarchal Church; and the foundations of modern buildings

are seldom laid without some objects of antiquity being

discovered. The wealth underground is doubtless immense;

but, despite all efforts, there is not much for antiquarians

to see in Alexandria outside the museum and the neighbourhood

of ``Pompey's Pillar.'' The native tomb- robbers, well-sinkers,

dredgers and the like, however, come upon valuable objects from

time to time, which find their way into private collections.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--(1) Modern City. See latest editions of

guidebooks to Lower Egypt (Baedeker, Murray, Macmillan). (2)

History. See authorities for history of EGYPT. (3) Ancient

City and Antiquities. Mahmud Bey el Fallaki, Memoire

sur l'antique Alexandrie (1872); T. D. Neroutsos, L'A

ncienne A lexandrie ( I 888) D.G. Hogarth and E. F.

Benson, Report on Prospects of Research in Alexandria Egypt

Expl. Fund Archaeological Report, 1894-1895); Bulletin

de la Societe Archeologique d'Alexandrie(1898 foll.);

O. Puchstein in Pauly- Wissowa, Realencyclopadie, s.v.

``Alexandria''; U. Wilcken, Observationes ad historiam

Egypti Provinciae Romanae (1885); G. Lumbroso, L'Egitto

al tempo dei Greci e dei Romani (1882); H. Kiepert, Zur

Topographie des alten Alexandria (1872). (D. G. H.)

1 This municipality was superseded by a new municipal

body, with extensive powers, created in 1890.

ALEXANDRIA, a city of Madison county, Indiana, U.S.A., about 46

m. N.E. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1890) 715; (1900) 7221,

(1002 foreign-born); (1910) 5096. Alexandria is served by the

Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, and the Lake Erie

& Western railways, and by the Indiana Union Traction System

(electric). In the city are a Carnegie library and Beulah

Park (24 acres), the latter belonging to the Northern Indiana

Holiness Association, which there holds summer camp-meetings.

The city is in a rich farming country, which produces Indian

corn, oats and wheat; and is in the Indiana natural gas region,

to which fact it owes its rapid growth as a manufacturing

centre. It is one of the principal seats of the glass

industry in Indiana-- plate glass, lamp chimneys, mirrors,

&c., being manufactured here--and also has mineral wool

factories and paper mills. The municipality owns and operates

the water-works and the gas-lighting plant. Alexandria

was founded in 1836 and was chartered as a city in 1893.

ALEXANDRIA, a city of Louisiana, U.S.A., capital of Rapides

Parish, on the S. bank of the Red river in almost the exact

geographical centre of the state. Pop. (1890) 2861; (1900)

5648 (3142 negroes); (1910) 11,213. The city is served

by the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company, the St

Louis, Watkins & Gulf, the Texas & Pacific, the Louisiana &

Arkansas, the Southern Pacific, the Chicago, Rock Island &

Pacific, and the Missouri Pacific railways. The Red river is

navigable to Alexandria during the entire year. Alexandria

is on a level plain in the centre of the Louisiana long-leaf

pine forests, in which pine is interspersed with various

hardwoods. The forests stretch on all sides within a radius of 75

m. In the immediate vicinity of the city, on the Red river,

cotton, sugar, alfalfa and garden vegetables are cultivated;

south of the Red river is a peculiarly rich farming country

watered by Bayou Rapides and Bayou Boeuf. Near the city is

the Louisiana Asylum for the Insane. The principal industaes

are cotton- pressing and the manufacture of lumber and of

cotton-seed products; sugar and molasses, artificial ice,

mineral waters and brick are other manufactures. The city

owns and operates the water-works and electric-lighting plant;

the water-supply is derived from artesian wells. Alexandria

was named in honour of Alexander Fulton, on whose grant from

Spain the first settlement was made in 1785; it was first

incorporated as a town in 1818 and received a city charter in

1882. In the spring of 1863 a Union fleet under Admiral David

D. Porter, operating on the Red river, co-operated with land

forces under General N. P. Banks in pushing the Confederates

westward. Alexandria was occupied on the 7th of May 1863,

but the troops were soon withdrawn for the Port Hudson

attack. On the 19th of March 1864 it was again occupied by

the Union forces, who made it the point of concentration for

another land and naval expedition against E. Kirby Smith and

Shreveport. After the check of this expedition and its

abandonment, Alexandria was again vacated on the 12th-13th of

May, when the city was almost entirely burned. The Union

gunboats, which had passed up the river toward Shreveport

at high water, were caught in its decline above the falls at

Alexandria, but they were saved by a splendid piece of engineering

(a dam at the falls), constructed by Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph

Bailey (1827-1867), who for this service received the thanks

of Congress and the brevet of brigadier-general of volunteers.

ALEXANDRIA, a town of Rumania, situated among the rich

corn-lands of the Teleorman department, on the right bank of

the river Vedea. Pop. (1900) 13,675. Its chief trade is in

grain, despatched by rail to the Danubian port of Zimnicea, or

by river to Giurgevo. Alexandria was named after its founder,

Alexander John Cuza, prince of Rumania from 1859 to 1866.

ALEXANDRIA, a manufacturing town of Dumbartonshire,

Scotland, situated on the right bank of the Leven about 3

m. north of Dumbarton, on the North British and Caledonian

railways. It owes its origin almost entirely to the cotton

printing and bleaching works of the vicinity, for which there

is an abundant supply of excellent water, and contains one

of the largest of the Turkey-red dyeing establishments in the

Vale of Leven. The public buildings include a public hall,

the mechanics' institute with library and lecture-hall, an

institute for men, with library and recreation rooms, a similar

institution for women, banks and other important commercial

offices. Pop. (1891) 7796; (1901) 8007. Alexandria is

connected with BONHILL, on the opposite bank of the river,

by a bridge which replaced in 1898 one bought three years

earlier by the county council from the Smollett family, who

have been closely associated with the district since the

time of Sir James Smollett, the novelist's grandfather.

The industries of Bonhill centre in the calico printing,

dyeing and bleaching which find their headquarters in the

valley. Population (1891) 3843; (1901) 3333. JAMESTOWN,

about 1 m. to the north-east of Alexandria, with a station

on the Forth & Clyde railway from Balloch to Stirling (North

British), contains some of the largest cotton-printing

works in Scotland. Population (1891) 1668; (1901) 2080.

ALEXANDRIA, a city and a port of entry of Alexandria county,

Virginia, U.S.A., on the W. bank of the Potomac river, 6

m. below Washington, D.C., with which it is connected by a

ferry. Pop. (1890) 14,339; (1900) 14,528, of whom 4533 were

negroes; (1910, census), 15,329. Alexandria is served by the

Baltimore & Ohio, the Chesapeake & Ohio, the Southern and the

Washington Southern railways; by the Washington, Alexandria &

Mount Vernon electric railway; and by several lines of river

and coasting steamboats. It is a quaint, old-fashioned city,

with quiet, shady streets, and a number of buildings dating

back to the 18th century; of these the most interesting is the

old Christ Church in which George Washington and Robert E. Lee

worshipped. The city has a public library. About 2 1/2

m. W. of Alexandria is the Protestant Episcopal Theological

Seminary in Virginia, opened here in 1823 and chartered in

1854; in 1906-1907 the Seminary had a faculty of 7 and 46

students. Alexandria is a distributing and jobbing centre for

the north-east counties of Virginia. Among its manufactures

are fertilizers, bottles, carbonated beverages, flour, beer,

shoes, silk thread, aprons, brooms, leather, bricks, and

tiling and structural iron. The total value of its factory

product in 1905 was $2,186,658. The municipality owns and

operates its gas-lighting plant. Alexandria, first known as

Belhaven, was named in honour of John Alexander, who in the

last quarter of the 17th century had bought the land on which

the city now stands from Robert Howison; the first settlement

here was made in 1695. Alexandria was laid out in 1749 and

was incorporated in 1779. From 1790 until 1846 Alexandria

county was a part of the District of Columbia; at present the

city, although within the limits of Alexandria county, is not

administratively a part of it. The city was re-chartered in

1852. For some time Alexandria seemed destined to become

an important commercial centre, but the rise of Washington

created a rival that soon outstripped it, and since the

Civil War the city's growth has been comparatively slight.

At Alexandria in 1755 General Edward Braddock organized his

fatal expedition against Fort Duquesne, and here, in April of

the same year, the governors of Virginia, Massachusetts, New

Yfork, Pennsylvania and Maryland met (in a house still standing)

to determine upon concerted action against the French in

America. In March 1785 commissioners from Virginia and

Maryland met here to discuss the commercial relations of

the two states, finishing their business at Mount Vernon on

the 28th with an agreement for freedom of trade and freedom

of navigation of the Potomac. The Maryland legislature in

ratifying this agreement on the 22nd of November proposed

a conference between representatives from all the states to

consider the adoption of definite commercial regulations.

This led to the calling of the Annapolis convention of 1786,

which in turn led to the calling of the Federal convention of

1787. In 1814 Alexandria was threatened by a British fleet,

but bought immunity from attack by paying about $100,000. At

the opening of the Civil War the city was occupied by Federal

troops, and great excitement throughout the North was caused

by the killing (May 24, 1861) of Colonel E. E. Ellsworth

(1837-1861) by Captain James W. Jackson, a hotel proprietor,

from whose building Ellsworth had removed a Confederate

flag. After the erection of the state of West Virginia (1863),

and until the close of the war, Alexandria was the seat of what

was known as the ``Alexandria Government'' (see VIRGINIA).

ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL. Under this title are generally included

certain strongly marked tendencies in literature, science and

art, which took their rise in the ancient Egyptian city of

Alexandria. That city, founded by Alexander the Great about

the time when Greece, in losing her national independence, lost

also her intellectual supremacy, was in every way admirably

adapted for becoming the new centre of the world's activity and

thought. Its situation brought it into commercial relations

with all the nations lying around the Mediterranean, and at

the same time rendered it the one communicating link with

the wealth and civilization of the East. The great natural

advantages it thus enjoyed were artificially increased to

an enormous extent by the care of the sovereigns of Egypt.

Ptolemy Soter (reigned 323-285 B.C.), to whom, in the

general distribution of Alexander's conquests, this kingdom had

fallen, began to draw around him from various parts of Greece

a circle of men eminent in literature and philosophy. To these

he gave every facility for the prosecution of their learned

researches. Under the inspiration of his friend Demetrius of

Phalerum, the Athenian orator, statesman and philosopher, this

Ptolemy laid the foundations of the great Alexandrian library

and originated the keen search for all written works, which

resulted in the formation of a collection such as the world

has seldom seen. He also built, for the convenience of his

men of letters, the Museum, in which, maintained by the royal

bounty, they resided, studied and taught. This Museum, or

academy of science, was in many respects not unlike a modern

university. The work thus begun by Ptolemy Soter was carried

on vigorously by his descendants, in particular by his

two immediate successors, Ptolemy Philadelphus and Ptolemy

Euergetes. Philadelphus (285-247), whose librarian was the

celebrated Callimachus, bought up all Aristotle's collection

of books, and also introduced a number of Jewish and Egyptian

works. Among these appears to have been a portion pf the

Septuagint. Euergetes (247-222) largely increased the library

by seizing on the original editions of the dramatists laid up

in the Athenian archives, and by compelling all travellers who

arrived in Alexandria to leave a copy of any work they possessed.

The intellectual movement so originated extended over a long

period of years. If we date its rise from the 4th century

B.C., at the time of the fall of Greece and the foundation

of the Graeco- Macedonian empire, we must look for its final

dissolution in the 7th century of the Christian era, at the

time of the fall of Alexandria and the rise of the Mahommedan

power. But this very long period falls into two divisions.

The first, extending from about 306 to 30, includes the time

from the foundation of the Ptolemaic dynasty to its final

subjugation by the Romans; the second extends from 30 to

A.D. 642, when Alexandria was destroyed by the Arabs. The

characteristic features of these divisions are very clearly

marked, and their difference affords an explanation of

the variety and vagueness of meaning attaching to the term

``Alexandrian School.'' In the first of the two periods the

intellectual activity was of a purely literary and scientific

nature. It was an attempt to continue and develop, under new

conditions, the old Hellenic culture. This direction of

effort was particularly noticeable under the early Ptolemies,

Alexandria being then almost the only home in the world for pure

literature. During the last century and a half before the

Christian era, the school, as it might be called, began to break

up and to lose its individuality. This was due partly to the

state of government under some of the later Ptolemies, partly

to the formation of new literary circles in Rhodes, Syria and

elsewhere, whose supporters, though retaining the Alexandrian

peculiarities, could scarcely be included in the Alexandrian

school. The loss of active life, consequent on this gradual

dissolution, was much increased when Alexandria fell under Roman

sway. Then the influence of the school was extended over the

whole known world, but men of letters began to concentrate

at Rome rather than at Alexandria. In that city, however,

there were new forces in operation which produced a second

grand outburst of intellectual life. The new movement was

not in the old direction--had, indeed, nothing in common

with it. With its character largely determined by Jewish

elements, and even more by contact with the dogmas of

Christianity, this second Alexandrian school resulted in

the speculative philosophy of the Neo-Platonists and the

religious philosophy of the Gnostics and early church fathers.

There appear, therefore, to be at least two definite significations

of the title Alexandrian School; or rather, there are two

Alexandrian schools, distinct both chronologically and in

substance. The one is the Alexandrian school of poetry and

science, the other the Alexandrian school of philosophy.

The term ``school,'' however, has not the same meaning as

when applied to the Academics or Peripatetics, the Stoics or

Epicureans. These consisted of a company united by holding

in common certain speculative principles, by having the same

theory of things. There was nothing at all corresponding to

this among the Alexandrians. In literature their activities

were directed to the most diverse objects; they have only

in common a certain spirit or form. There was among them

no definite system of phllosophy. Even in the later schools

of philosophy proper there is found a community rather of

tendency than of definite result or of fixed principles.

I. Literature.--The general character of the literature of

the school appears as the necessary consequence of the state

of affairs brought about by the fall of Greek nationality and

independence. The great works of the Greek mind had formerly

been the products of a fresh life of nature and perfect

freedom of thought. All their hymns, epics and histories were

bound up with their individuality as a free people. But the

Macedonian conquest at Chaeroneia brought about a complete

dissolution of this Greek life in all its relations, private and

political. The full, genial spirit of Greek thought vanished

when freedom, with which it was inseparably united, was

lost. A substitute for this originality was found at Alexandria

in learned research, extended and multifarious knowledge.

Amply provided with means for acquiring information, and

under the watchful care of a great monarch, the Alexandrians

readily took this new direction in literature. With all the

great objects removed which could excite a true spirit of

poetry, they devoted themselves to minute researches in all

sciences subordinate to literature proper. They studied

criticism, grammar, prosody and metre, antiquities and

mythology. The results of this study constantly appear in their

productions. Their works are never national, never addressed

to a people, but to a circle of learned men. Moreover, the very

fact of being under the protection and, as it were, in the pay

of an absolute monarch was damaging to the character of their

literature. There was introduced into it a courtjy element,

clear traces of which, with all its accompaniments, are found

in the extant works of the school. One other fact, not to

be forgotten in forming a general estimate of the literary

value of their productions, is, that the same writer was

frequently or almost always distinguished in several special

sciences. The most renowned poets were at the same time men

of culture and science, critics, archaeologists, astronomers

or physicians. To such writers the poetical form was

merely a convenient vehicle for the exposition of science.

The forms of poetical composition chiefly cultivated by the

Alexandrians were epic and lyric, or elegiac. Great epics

are wanting; but in their place, as might almost have been

expected, are found the historical and the didactic or expository

epics. The subjects of the historical epics were generally

some of the well-known myths, in the exposition of which

the writer could exhibit the full extent of his learning and

his perfect command of verse. These poems are in a sense

valuable as repertoires of antiquities; but their style is

on the whole bad, and infinite patience is required to clear

up their numerous and obscure allusions. The best extant

specimen is the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius; the

most characteristic is the Alexandra or Cassandra of

Lycophron, the obscurity of which is almost proverbial.

The subjects of didactic epics were very numerous; they

seem to have depended on the special knowledge possessed by

the writers, who used verse as a form for unfolding their

information. Some, e.g. the lost poem of Callimachus,

called Ai'tia, were on the origin of myths and religious

observances; others were on special sciences. Thus we have

two poems of Aratus, who, though not resident at Alexandria,

was so thoroughly imbued with the Alexandrian spirit as to

be with reason included in the school; the one is an essay

on astronomy, the other an account of the signs of the

weather. Nicander of Colophon has also left us two epics, one

on remedies for poisons, the other on the bites of venomous

beasts. Euphorion and Rhianus wrote mythological epics. The

spirit of all their productions is the same, that of learned

research. They are distinguished by artistic form, purity

of expression and strict attention to the laws of metre and

prosody, qualities which, however good in themselves, do

not compensate for want of originality, freshness and power.

In their lyric and elegiac poetry there is much worthy of

admiration. The specimens we possess are not devoid of

talent or of a certain happy art of expression. Yet, for

the most part, they either relate to objects thoroughly

incapable of poetic treatment, where the writer's endeavour

is rather to expound the matter fully than to render it

poetically beautiful, or else expend themselves on short

isolated subjects, generally myths, and are erotic in

character. The earliest of the elegiac poets was Philetas,

the sweet singer of Cos. But the most distinguished was

Callimachus, undoubtedly the greatest of the Alexandrian

poets. Of his numerous works there remain to us only a few

hymns, epigrams and fragments of elegies.1 Other lyric poets

were Phanocles, Hermesianax, Alexander of Aetolla and Lycophron.

Some of the best productions of the school were their

epirams. Of these we have several specimens, and the art

of composing them seems to have been assiduously cultivated,

as might naturally be expected from the court life of the

poets, and their constant endeavours after terseness and

neatness of expression. Of kindred character were the

parodies and satirical poems, of which the best examples

were the Silli of Timon and the Cinaedi of Sotades.

Dramatic poetry appears to have flourished to some

extent. There are still extant three or four varying lists

of the seven great dramatists who composed the Pleiad of

Alexandria. Their works, perhaps not unfortunately, have

perished. A ruder kind of drama, the amoebaean verse, or

bucolic mime, developed into the only pure stream of genial

poetry found in the Alexandrian School, the Idylls of

Theocritus. The name of these poems preserves their

original idea; they were pictures of fresh country life.

The most interesting fact connected with this Alexandrian poetry

is the powerful influence it exercised on Roman literature.

That literature, especially in the Augustan age, is not to be

thoroughly understood without due appreciation of the character

of the Alexandrian school. The historians of this period

were numerous and prolific. Many of them, e.g. Cleitarchus,

devoted themselves to the life and achievements of Alexander the

Great. The best-known names are those of Timaeus and Polybius.

Before the Alexandrians had begun to produce original works,

their researches were directed towards the masterpieces of ancient

Greek literature. If that literature was to be a power in the

world, it must be handed down to posterity in a form capable

of being understood. This was the task begun and carried out

by the Alexandrian critics. These men did not merely collect

works, but sought to arrange them, to subject the texts to

criticism, and to explain any allusion or reference in them

which at a later date might become obscure. The complete

philological examination of any work consisted, according to

them, of the following processes:---diorthosis, arrangement

of the text; anagnosis, settlement of accents; tenn??,

theory of forms, syntax; lxegnsis, explanation either of

words or things; and finally, krisis, judgment on the author

and his work, including all questions as to authenticity and

integrity. To perform their task adequately required from the

critics a wide circle of knowledge; and from this requirement

sprang the sciences of grammar, prosody, lexicography, mythology

and archaeology. The service rendered by these critics is

invaluable. To them we owe not merely the possession of

the greatest works of Greek intellect, but the possession of

them in a readable state. The most celebrated critics were

Zenodotus; Aristophanes of Byzantium, to whom we owe the

theory of Greek accents; Crates of Mallus; and Aristarchus of

Samothrace, confessedly the coryphaeus of criticism. Others

were Lycophron, Callimachus, Eratosthenes and many of a later

age, for the critical school long survived the literary.

Dionysius Thrax, the author of the first scientific Greek

grammar, may also be mentioned. These philological labours

were of great indirect importance, for they led immediately

to the study of the natural sciences, and in particular to a

more accurate knowledge of geography and history. Considerable

attention began to be paid to the ancient history of Greece,

and to all the myths relating to the foundation of states and

cities. A large collection of such curious information

is contained in the Bibliotheca of Apollodorus, a pupil

of Aristarchus who flourished in the 2nd century B.C.

Eratosthenes was the first to write on mathematical and physical

geography; he also first attempted to draw up a chronological

table of the Egyptian kings and of the historical events of

Greece. The sciences of mathematics, astronomy and medicine

were also cultivated with assiduity and success at Alexandria,

but they can scarcely be said to have their origin there, or in

any strict sense to form a part of the peculiarly Alexandrian

literature. The founder of the mathematical school was

the celebrated Euclid (Eucleides); among its scholars were

Archimedes; Apollonius of Perga, author of a treatise on

Conic Sections; Eratosthenes, to whom we owe the first

measurement of the earth; and Hipparchus, the founder of

the epicyclical theory of the heavens, afterwards called the

Ptolemaic system, from its most famous expositor, Claudius

Ptolemaeus. Alexandria continued to be celebrated as a

school of mathematics and science long after the Christian

era. The science of medicine had distinguished representatives

in Herophilus and Erasistratus, the two first great anatomists.

AUTHORITIES.--Muller and Donaldson, History of the

Literature of Ancient Greece; W. Christ, Geschichte

der griechischen Litteratur; Mahaffy, Greek Life

and Thought from the Age of Alexander to the Roman

Empire; Couat, La Poesie alexandrine; and especially

Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur in der

Alexandninerzeit. Nicolai's Gricchische Literaturgeschichte,

though somewhat out of date, is useful for bibliography.