Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/141

Rh advice that the war against the rebels was entrusted to men without courage and ability. In B. C. 220, however, Antiochus himself undertook the command. Molo was deserted by his troops, and to avoid falling into the hands of the king, put an end to his own life. All the leaders of the rebellion followed his example, and one of them, who escaped to Persis, killed Molo's mother and children, persuaded Alexander to put an end to his life, and at last killed himself upon the bodies of his friends. (Plb. 5.40, 41, 43, 54.)

ALEXANDER the MONK (Ἀλέξανδρος μοναχός), perhaps a native of Cyprus. All we know of his age is, that he lived before Michael Glycas, A. D. 1120, who quotes him. Two orations by him are extant. 1. A Panegyric on St. Barnabas, apud Bollandi Acta Sanctorum, vol. xxi. p. 436. 2. Concerning the Invention of the Cross, apud Gretser. de Cruce Christi, 4to. Ingolst. 1600.

ALEXANDER (Ἀλέξανδρος) of MYNDUS in Caria, a Greek writer on zoology of uncertain date. His works, which are now lost, must have been considered very valuable by the ancients, since they refer to them very frequently. The titles of his works are : Κτηνῶν Ἱστορία, a long fragment of which, belonging to the second book, is quoted by Athenaeus. (v. p. 221, comp. ii. p. 65; Aelian, Ael. NA 3.23, 4.33, 5.27, 10.34.) This work is probably the same as that which in other passages is simply called Περὶ Ζώων, and of which Athenaeus (ix. p. 392) likewise quotes the second book. The work on birds (Περὶ Πτηνῶν, Plut. Mar. 17; Athen. ix. pp. 387, 388, 390, &c.) was a separate work, and the second book of it is quoted by Athenaeus. Diogenes Laertius (1.29) mentions one Alexon of Myndus as the author of a work on myths, of which he quotes the ninth book. This author being otherwise unknown, Menage proposed to read Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μύνδιος instead of Ἀλέξων. But everything is uncertain, and the cojecture at least is not very probable.

ALEXANDER NUME'NIUS ('AXe'|aj/Spos No u/litJ vios, or NovjUTji/ioi;, as Suidas calls him), a Greek rhetorician, who lived in the reign of Ha- drian or that of the Antonines. About his life nothing is known. We possess two works which are ascribed to him. The one which certainly is his work bears the title Ilepl raiv rTs Aiavoias Koi Ae'lews 2xt?,""'«, i. e. " De Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis." J. Rufinianus in his work on the same subject (p. 195, ed. Ruhnken) expressly states that Aquila Roraanus, in his treatise " De Figuris Sententiarum et Elocutionis," took his materials from Alexander Numenius' work mentioned above. The second work bearing the name of Alexander Numenius, entitled Ucpl 'EiriSeiKTiKwv, i. e. " On Show-speeches," is admitted on all hand's not to be his work, but of a later grammarian of the name of Alexander ; it is, to speak more correctly, made up very clumsily from two distinct ones, one of which was written by one Alexander, and the other by Menander. (Vales, ad EujivL Hist. Eccles. p. 28.) The first edition of these two works is that of Aldus, in his collection of the Rlietores Grand., Venice, 1508, fol., vol. i. p. 574, &c. They are also contained in Walz's Klielarcs Graeci, vol. viii. Tlie genuine work of Alexander Numenius has also been edited, together with Minucianus and Phoebammon, by L. Nermann, with a Latin trans- lation and useful notes, Upsala, 1G90, Bvo. (See Ruhnken, (t, «. 1 3, § 104, n. 7.) [L. S.] ALEXANDER, an Athenian painter, one of whose productions is extant, painted on a marble tablet which bears his name. ( Winckelmann, vol. ii. p. 47, V. p. 120, ed. Eiselein.) There was a son of king Perseus of this name, who was a skilful toreutes. (Plut. Aemil. Paul. 37.) There was also a M. Lollius Alexander, an engraver, whose name occurs in an inscription in Doni, p. 319, No. 14. [C. P. M.] ALEXANDER ("AX4^avSpos the Paphlago- NiAN, a celebrated impostor, who flourished about the beginning of the second century (Lucian.^/e<r. 6), a native of Abonoteichos on the Euxine, and the pupil of a friend of Apollonius Tyanaeus. His history, which is told by Lucian with great na'ivefje, is chiefly an account of the various contrivances by which he established and maintained the credit of an oracle. Being, according to Lucian's account, at his wit's end for the means of life, with many natural advantages of manner and person, he de- termined on the following imposture. After rais- ing the expectations of the Paphlagonians with a reported visit of the god Aesculapius, and giving himself out, under the sanction of an oracle, as a descendant of Perseus, he gratified the expectation which he had himself niised, by finding a serpent, which he juggled out of an egg, in the foundations of the new temple of Aesculapius. A larger ser- pent, which he brought with him from Pella, was disguised with a human head, until the dull Paph- lagonians really believed that a new god Glycon had appeared among them, and gave oracles in the likeness of a serpent. Dark and crowded rooms, juggling tricks, and the other arts of more vulgar magicians, were the chief means used to impose on a credulous populace, which Lucian detects with as much zest as any modem sceptic in the marvels of animal magnetism. Every one who attempted to expose the impostor, was accused of being a Christian or Epicurean ; and even Lucian, who amused himself with his contradictory ora- cles, hardly escaped the effects of his malignity. He had his spies at Rome, and busied himself with the aflfairs of the whole world : at the time when a pestilence was raging, many were executed at his instigation, as the authors of this calamity. He said, that the soul of Pythagoras had migrated into his body, and prophesied that he should live a hundred and fifty years, and then die from the fall of a thunderbolt : •unfortunately, an ulcer in the leg put an end to his imposture in the seven- tieth year of his age, just as he was in the height of his glory, and had requested the emperor to have a medal struck in honour of himself and the new god. The influence he attained over the populace seems incredible ; indeed, the narrative of Lucian would appear to be a mere romance, were it not confirmed by some medals of Antoninus and M. Aurelius. [B. J.] ALEXANDER ('AA6|a%os) of Paphius, a Greek writer on mythology of uncertain date. Eustathius {ad Horn. Od. x. pp. 1658, 1713) refers to him as his authority. [L. S.] ALEXANDER ('AAeloi/Spos), sumamed Pklo- platon ( riTjAoirAoTajv), a Greek rhetorician of the age of the Antonines, was a son of Alexander of Seleucia, in Cilicia, and of Soloucis. (Philostr. Vit. So})h. ii. 5. § 1, compared with J^pist. Apollon. Tiian. 13, where the father of Alexander Pelopla-