Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/133

Rh Maccab. 10.11; J. AJ 13.2.4; Euseb. Chronicon; Clinton, Fasti, iii. p. 324.)

ALEXANDER, of BEROEA; he and Thyrsis suffocated Demetrius, the son of Philip III. of Macedonia, at Heracleia, in B. C. 179. (Liv. 40.24; comp. DEMETRIUS, son of PHILIPPUS.)

ALEXANDER (Ἀλέξανδρος), at first bishop in CAPPADOCIA, flourished A. D. 212. On the death of Severus, A. D. 211, he visited Jerusalem, and was made coadjutor of the aged Narcissus, bishop of that city, whom he afterwards succeeded. He founded an ecclesiastical library at Jerusalem, of which Eusebius made great use in writing his History. After suffering under Severus and Caracalla, he was at last thrown into prison at Caesarea, and, after witnessing a good confession, died A. D. 250. Eusebius has preserved fragments of a letter written by him to the Antinoites; of another to the Antiochenes (Hist. Eccl. 6.11); of a third to Origen (6.14); and of another, written in conjunction with Theoctistus of Caesarea, to Demetrius of Alexandria. (6.19.)

ALEXANDER, CARBONARIUS （Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Ἀνθρακεὺς), flourished in the third century. To avoid the dangers of a handsome person, he disguised himself and lived as a coal-heaver at Cumae, in Asia Minor. The see of this city being vacant, the people asked St. Gregory Thaumaturgus to come and ordain them a bishop. He rejected many who were offered for consecration, and when he bade the people prefer virtue to rank, one in mockery cried out, " Well, then ! make Alexander, the coal-heaver, bishop!" St. Gregory had him summoned, discovered his disguise, and having arrayed him in sacerdotal vestments, presented him to the people, who, with surprise and joy, accepted the appointment. He addressed them in homely but dignified phrase, and ruled the church till the Decian persecution, when he was burnt, A. D. 251. (S. Greg. Nyssen. Vit. S. Greg. Thaumaturg. §§ 19, 20, ap. Galland. Biblioth. Patr. vol. iii. pp. 457-460.)

ALEXANDER (Ἀλέξανδρος), third son of CASSANDER, king of Macedonia, by Thessalonica, sister of Alexander the Great. In his quarrel with his elder brother Antipater for the government [ANTIPATER], he called in the aid of Pyrrhus of Epirus and Demetrius Poliorcetes. To the former he was compelled to surrender, as the price of his alliance, the land on the sea-coast of Macedonia, together with the provinces of Ambracia, Acarnania, and Amphilochia. (Plut. Pyrrh. p. 386b.) Demetrius, according to Plutarch (Plut. Pyrrh. 386, d., Demetr. 906, a.), arrived after Pyrrhus had retired, and when matters, through his mediation, had been arranged between the brothers. Demetrius, therefore, was now an unwelcome visitor, and Alexander, while he received ceived him with all outward civility, is said by Plutarch to have laid a plan for murdering him at a banquet, which was baffled, however, by the precaution of Demetrius. (Demetr. 906, a. b.) The next day Demetrius took his departure, and Alexander attended him as far as Thessaly. Here, at Larissa, he went to dine with Demetrius, and (taking no guards with him by a fancied refinement of policy) was assassinated, together with his friends who attended him, one of whom is said to have exclaimed, that Demetrius was only one day beforehand with them. (Plut. Demetr. p. 906c. d.; Just. 16.1; Diod. xxi. Exc. 7.)

ALEXANDER (Ἀλέξανδρος), emperor of CONSTANTINOPLE, was the third son of the emperor Basilius and Eudocia. He was born about A. D. 870, and, after his father's death, he and his brother Leo, the philosopher, bore the title of imperator in common. Leo died on the 11th of May, 911, and Alexander received the imperial crown, together with the guardianship of his brother's son, Constantinus Porphyrogenitus, whom he would have mutilated so as to render him unfit to govern, had he not been prevented. The reign of Alexander, which lasted only for one year and some days, was one uninterrupted series of acts of cruelty, debauchery, and licentiousness; for the restraints which he had been obliged to put on himself during the lifetime of his brother, were thrown off immediately after his accession, and the worthiest persons were removed from the court while the ministers to his lusts and passions were raised to the highest honours. He involved his empire in a war with Simeon, king of the Bulgarians, but he did not live to see its outbreak. He died on the 7th of June, 912, in consequence of a debauch, after which he took violent exercise on horseback. (Constant. in Basil. 26; Scylitz. pp. 569, 608; Zonaras, 16.15, §c.)

ALEXANDER (ST.), patriarch of Constantinople. [ARIUS.]

ALEXANDER CORNELIUS (Ἀλέξανδρος Κορνήλιος), surnamed POLYHISTOR (Πολυΐστωρ), a Greek writer and contemporary of Sulla. According to Suidas he was a native of Ephesus and a pupil of Crates, and during the war of Sulla in Greece was made prisoner and sold as a slave to Cornelius Lentulus, who took him to Rome and made him the paedagogus of his children. Afterwards Lentulus restored him to freedom. From Suidas it would seem as if he had received the gentile name Cornelius from Lentulus, while Servius (Serv. ad Aen. 10.388) says, that he received the Roman franchise from L. Cornelius Sulla. He died at Laurentumin a fire which consumed his house, and as soon as his wife heard of the calamity, she hung herself. The statement of Suidas that he was a native of Ephesus is contradicted by Stephanus Byzantius (s. v. Κοτιάεον), who says that he was a native of Cotiaeum in Lesser Phrygia, and a son of Asclepiades, and who is borne out by the Etymologicum Magnum (s. vv. δέδοικα and τεριρρηδής), where Alexander is called Κοτιαεύς. The surname of Polyhistor was given to him on account of his prodigious learning. He is said to have written innumerable works, but the greatest and most important among them was one consisting of 42 books, which Stephanus Byzantius calls Παντοδαπῆς Ὕλης Λόγοι. This work appears to have contained historical and geographical accounts of nearly all countries of the ancient world. Each of the forty books treated of a separate country, and bore a corresponding title, such as Phrygiaca, Carica, Lyciaca, &c. But such titles are not always sure indications of a book forming only a part of the great work; and in some cases it is manifest that particular countries were treated of in separate works. Thus we find mention of the first book of a separate work on Crete (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1492), and of another on the "Tractus Illyricus." (Val. Max. viii.13, ext. 7.) These geographico-historical works are referred to in innumerable passages of Stephanus Byzantius and Pliny. A separate work on the Phrygian