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 292 ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL ALEXIS they are useless and need not be preserved ; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed." Accordingly, it is said, they were employed to heat the 4,000 baths of the city; and such was their number, that six months were barely sufficient for the con- sumption of the precious fuel. There is no doubt, however, that after 640 the library ceased to exist as a public institution. Con- nected with the library was a college, or re- treat for learned men, called the museum, where they were maintained at public expense. ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL, a term vaguely ap- plied to a development of Neo-Platonism by the philosophers of Alexandria in Egypt about the end of the 2d century. The characteristic of the school was a broad eclecticism based upon the rationalism of Plato and largely in- fluenced by the supernaturalism of the Grecian- ized Jews. Afterward the early teachers of Christianity modified it still more by an ad- mixture of Aristotelianism, and it became a transition system between the pagan and Chris- tian beliefs, aiming to harmonize all philosophy and all religion. The earliest philosopher of this school was the Jew Philo, but it first took decided form from Ammonius Saccas, about 193. The other chief names identified with it are those of Plotinus, Porphyry, lamblichus, Hiero- cles, Proclus, Pantasnus, Clement, Origen, Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, and Cyril. Of these, Philo represents the Judaistic ex- treme, while Clement is the great Christian Alexandrian. The history of the Alexandrian school has been written by Matter (2 vols., Paris, 1840-'44) and Simon (2 vols., Paris, 1844-' 5). See also De Vecole d 1 Alexandria, by Bnrth61emy Saint-Hilaire (Paris, 1845). ALEXANDRINE, or Alexandrian, in poetry, a metre consisting of 12 syllables, or 12 and 13 alternately; so called, according to some, from a poem on the life of Alexander written in this kind of verse by a French poet of the latter half of the 12th century. The French have ever since cultivated this spe- cies of verse more than any other European nation. Their tragedies are mostly composed of Alexandrines. In his "Essay on Criticism," Pope gives the English opinion of them : A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That like a wounded snake drags its slow length along. ALEXANDROPOL (formerly Gumrf), an im- portant fortress and town in Russian Armenia, near the frontier of Turkey, 54 m. N. W. of Erivan; pop. in 1870, 17,272. Near it the Russians under Bariatinski obtained on Oct. 80, 1853, a great victory over the Turks. ALEXANDROV, a town of Russia, in the government of Vladimir, 58 m. N. E. of Mos- cow, on the river Seraya; pop. in 1870, 5,810. It contains dye works and manu- factories of iron ware and muskets. Among the many churches is one with a nunnery and the tombs of Martha and Theodosia, two sisters of Peter the Great. The czar Ivan II. Vasilievitch established here the first printing press introduced into Russia, and in 1560 made the town the capital of his newly founded dominion of Opritchina. Near the town is an extensive imperial stud of horses founded by the empress Elizabeth in 1761 and completed in .1781, famous for the variety of the breeds. ALEXANDROVSK, a town of Little Russia, on the left bank of the Dnieper, below its cata- racts, in the government and 48 m. S. of Ye- katerinoslav ; pop. in 1870, 4,601. It is the place of shipment by the Dnieper for the Black sea, though the trade might be much more active considering the excellent situation of the town. The district of Alexandrovsk for- merly contained the lines of fortifications from the Dnieper to the sea of Azov, established in 1770 against the Tartars. The neighboring village of Stilja is noted for its extensive coal mines. Many settlements of foreigners, chiefly Germans, are in this district. ALEXEI, the Russian form of Alexis. See ALEXIS. ALEXIS (or Alexius) I., Comnenns, emperor of Trebizond (Trapezns), born in 1182, died in February, 1222. The enmity of Isaac Angelus to the family of the Comneni threatened the entire extermination of that illustrious house. The sons of the last Comnenian emperor of Constantinople, John and Manuel, were by his command mutilated and murdered in prison. The latter, however, left two infant sons, Alexis and David, who fled with their mother to their relative Thamar, the Georgian queen of Tiflis, by whom they were protected and educated. They gradually formed a do- minion on the banks of the Phasis, which the distracted government of the Angeli failed to suppress. On the second capture of Constan- tinople by the Latins, in 1204, Alexis and his brother rallied around them numerous discontented Greeks, left their retreat, and passed the Phasis. Alexis captured Trebizond, Cerasus, and Mesochaldion, and took posses- sion of all that coast of the Black sea as far as Amisus, while David advanced beyond the Halys, took Sinope, and pushed his conquests to the environs of Constantinople. Alexis now assumed the imperial title, proclaiming himself king and ruler of all Anatolia. His reign was troubled by perpetual wars with the Turks, and with Theodore Lascaris, who having, like Alexis, become master of a fragment of the empire, was entitled the emperor of Niceea. In " 1214 Alexis concluded a peace with Theodore, but the same year fell into the hands of the sultan of Iconium, and purchased his liberty by yielding to the Turks the town and dis- trict of Sinope. His empire at his death was reduced to the coast of the Black sea, com- prised between the Phasis on the east and the Thermodon on the west. ALEXIS (or Alexius) I., Comnenns, emperor of Constantinople, born in 1048, died Ang. 15, 1118. He was the son of John. Comnenus, who refused the succession bequeathed to him