Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/140

122 where he lost his great favourite Hephaestion; and his grief for his loss knew no bounds. From Ecbatana he marched to Babylon, subduing in his way the Cossaei, a mountain tribe; and before he reached Babylon, he was met by ambassadors from almost every part of the known world, who had come to do homage to the new conqueror of Asia.

Alexander reached Babylon in the spring of B. C. 324, about a year before his death, notwithstanding the warnings of the Chaldeans, who predicted evil to him if he entered the city at that time. He intended to make Babylon the capital of his empire, as the best point of communication between his eastern and western dominions. His schemes were numerous and gigantic. His first object was the conquest of Arabia, which was to be followed, it was said, by the subjugation of Italy, Carthage, and the west. But his views were not confined merely to conquest. He sent Heracleides to build a fleet on the Caspian, and to explore that sea, which was said to be connected with the northern ocean. He also intended to improve the distribution of waters in the Babylonian plain, and for that purpose sailed down the Euphrates to inspect the canal called Pallacopas. On his return to Babylon, he found the preparations for the Arabian expedition nearly complete; but almost immediately afterwards he was attacked by a fever, probably brought on by his recent exertions in the marshy districts around Babylon, and aggravated by the quantity of wine he had drunk at a banquet given to his principal officers. He died after an illness of eleven days, in the month of May or June, B. C. 323. He died at the age of thirty-two, after a reign of twelve years and eight months. He appointed no one as his successor, but just before his death he gave his ring to Perdiccas. Roxana was with child at the time of his death, and afterwards bore a son, who is known by the name of Alexander Aegus.

The history of Alexander forms an important epoch in the history of mankind. Unlike other Asiatic conquerors, his progress was marked by something more than devastation and ruin; at every step of his course the Greek language and civilization took root and flourished; and after his death Greek kingdoms were formed in all parts of Asia, which continued to exist for centuries. By his conquests the knowledge of mankind was increased ; the sciences of geography, natural history and others, received vast additions; and it was through him that a road was opened to India, and that Europeans became acquainted with the products of the remote East.

No contemporary author of the campaigns of Alexander survives. Our best account comes from Arrian, who lived in the second century of the Christian aera, but who drew up his history from the accounts of Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, and Aristobulus of Cassandria. The history of Quintus Curtius, Plutarch's life of Alexander, and the

epitomes of Justin and Diodorus Siculus, were also compiled from earlier writers. The best modern writers on the subject are : St. Croix, Examcn critique des ancicns Historiens d' Alexandre le Grand, Droysen, Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen ; Williams, Life of Alexander ; Thirlwall, History of Greece, vols. vi. and vii.

ALEXANDER IV. (Ἀλέξανδρος), king of MACEDONIA, the son of Alexander the Great and Roxana, was born shortly after the death of his father, in B. C. 323. He was acknowledged as the partner of Philip Arrhidaeus in the empire, and was under the guardianship of Perdiccas, the regent, till the death of the latter in B. C. 321. He was then for a short time placed under the guardianship of Pithon and the general Arrhidaeus, and subsequently under that of Antipater, who conveyed him with his mother Roxana, and the king Philip Arrhidaeus and his wife to Macedonia in 320. (Diod. 18.36, 39.) On the death of Antipater in 319, the government fell into the hands of Polysperchon; but Eurydice, the wife of Philip Arrhidaeus, began to form a powerful party in Macedonia in opposition to Polysperchon; and Roxana, dreading her influence, fled with her son Alexander into Epeirus, where Olympias had lived for a long time. At the instigation of Olympias, Aeacides, king of Epeirus, made common cause with Polysperchon, and restored the young Alexander to Macedonia in 317. [AEACIDES.] Eurydice and her husband were put to death, and the supreme power fell into the hands of Olympias. (19.11; Justin, 14.5.) But in the following year Cassander obtained possession of Macedonia, put Olympias to death, and imprisoned Alexander and his mother. They remained in prison till the general peace made in 311, when Alexander's title to the crown was recognized. Many of his partizans demanded that he should be immediately released from prison and placed upon the throne. Cassander therefore resolved to get rid of so dangerous a rival, and caused him and his mother Roxana to be murdered secretly in prison. (B. C. 311. Diod. 19.51, 52, 61, 105; Justin, xv.2 ; Paus. ix.7.2.)

ALEXANDER (Ἀλέξανδρος), a MEGALOPOLITAN. He was originally a Macedonian, but had received the franchise and was settled at Megalopolis about B. C. 190. He pretended to be a descendant of Alexander the Great, and accordingly called his two sons Philip and Alexander. His daughter Apama was married to Amynander, king of the Athamanians. Her eldest brother, Philip, followed her to her court, and being of a vain character, he allowed himself to be tempted with the prospect of gaining possession of the throne of Macedonia. (Liv. 35.47; Appian, App. Syr. 13; comp. PHILIPPUS, son of ALEXANDER.)

ALEXANDER (Ἀλέξανδρος), brother of MOLO. On the accession of Antiochus III., afterwards called the Great, in B. C. 224, he entrusted Alexander with the government of the satrapy of Persis, and Molo received Media. Antiochus was then only fifteen years of age, and this circumstance, together with the fact that Hermeias, a base flatterer and crafty intriguer, whom every one had to fear, was all-powerful at his court, induced the two brothers to form the plan of causing the upper satrapies of the kingdom to revolt. It was the secret wish of Hermeias to see the king involved in as many difficulties as possible, and it was on his