Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/379

ALEXANDER. ordered to sail along the Persian Gulf and up the river Pasitigris to Susa, whither Alexander proceeded overland. Upon his arrival his first task was the correction and punishment of misrule on the part of his satraps, many of whom, believing he would never return, had oppressed their provinces and had planned to set up independent kingdoms. hen the abuses had Ijcen corrected and the guilty punished, Alexander set about the further amalgamation of the Greeks and Orientals. He had already founded Greek cities wherever he had been; he now encouraged intermarriage and set the example himself by taking to wife Statira, the daughter of Darius. He had already married Roxana (q.v.), a Bactrian princess. Many of his officers chose Persian consorts. Furthermore he planned to admit Orientals and Greeks to equality in military service, and established military schools in the various provinces, much against his veterans' wishes.

The greater part of the year 324 was spent in a survey of the Persian Gulf and in general organ- ization at Ectabana. In the winter Alexander returned to Babylon, where embassies from the remotest West came to seek his friendship. But his mind was now busy with plans for building up a great sea trade with India by way of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. Babylon was to become a great seaport. With these things in view he planned a naval expedi- tion to circumnavigate and conquer Arabia. Be- fore this could start, Alexander fell ill of a fever following a carouse, and in twelve days he lay dead (June, 323).

The rapidity and brilliancy of Alexander's military operations have generally obscured his preeminent qualities as a statesman. He inher- ited from his father the concept of a great empire, and he had the genius to lay the foundations of a unified realm surpassing the dreams of Philip. Throughout the course of his conquest he organ- ized the rule of his satrapies .so that the ])ower was divided and revolt made difficult. Seeing that the ruler of the vast realm which he was conquering should adopt much of the native cus- tom, he assumed not a little Oriental state, which undoubtedly strengthened his position in spite of the disapproval it aroused among his Greek fol- lowers : and he took many wise measures to amal- gamate the East and West. His plans for trade development would have had great eft'ect on social and economic conditions if he could have carried them out. The unified empire which he had cre- ated was soon divided among many Macedonian rulers. Yet all the results of his work were not lost. The small Hellenic State had disappeared forever with its narrow exclusiveness, and a more tolerant attitude was maintained by the Greek world after him. The Romans entered into the fruit of his conquests, and the spread of Christi- anity in the East was made the easier by them. Consult: Droysen. Geschiclite Alexanders des (Irosscii (Gotha! 1S08) ; Grote, Histor;/ of Greece (Xew York. lS.53-.5fi) ; Holm. Grierhh-chr (le- schichte. iii. (Berlin, 1803) : B. I. Wheeler's Life (Xew York. 1000). See. ALEXANDER. The name of eight Popes. , Pope about 100-117.— Alexander TI. (Anselm. Bishop of Lucca), Pope 1001-73. He was one of those raised to the papal see by Hildebrand. and showed the latter's zeal in abro- gating simony and clerical marriages. He favored William the Concpicror's invasion of England. Through the first part of his reign there was an anti-po])!', Honorius II. — Alexander III. (Roland of Siena), Pope 1150-81. He had the active opposition of the Emperor Frederick I., who set U]) three anti-popes in succession. But he finally overcame all his rivals and the Enqieror himself. The tragic history of Thomas A Bccket comes in his pontificate, and he forced the unwitting cause of the murder. Henry II. of England, to do pen- ance for the deed and to restore the church prop- erty which he had conti.scated. His works are in Migne, Pat. Lat., vol. cc. His Siimma was sep- arately edited by F. Thaner (Innsbruck, 1874). For his life, consult H. F. Renter (Leipzig, 1860- 04). — Alexander IV. (Rinaldo de Conti ), Pope 1254-01, Ho had a controversy with the Emperor Frederick II.. and in the last year of his pontifi- cate the Flagellants ajjpeared in Ronu'. — Alex- ander V. (Pietro Philargi), Pope 1400-10. He was the choice of the Council of Pi.sa, and de- signed to supersede the two rival claimants to the pai)al succession. But his rivals would not retire, and he dismissed the council, thus really making more trouble. He conferred upon the mendicant monks the right to hear confession. — Alexander VI. (Roderico Lenzuoli Borgia). Pope 1402-1503 (1431-1503). The most celebrated of the eight Popes of this name, and the most notorious prince of his age. He was a native of Valencia in Spain. He was handsome and gallant, and his early life was flagrantly dissolute; but he was made a car- dinal at the age of twenty-five by his uncle. Calix- tiis III., and on the death of Innocent VIII. as- cended the ])apal chair, which he virtually bought. The long absences of the Popes from Italy had weakened their authority and curtailed their rev- enues, and, as a compensation, Alexander endeav- ored to break up the power of the Italian princes and appropriate their possessions for the benefit of his own children, Giovanni, Duke of Gandia, Cesare, Duke of Valentinois, and Lucrezia, the Duchess of Ferrara, borne him by a mistress with whom he lived publicly even during his occupa- tion of the papal seat. To gain his end he em- ployed the favorite weapons of the princes of the Renaissance, perjury, poison, and the dagger. Jlodern research discredits the tradition of his death by poison, and ascribes it to a fever. The most memorable events of his pontificate were the burning of Savonarola (q.v.) the partition of the New 'orld between Portugal and Spain, and the introdiu'tion of the Index Kxpurfiatorius of pro- hibited books. Alexander VI. came down to re- cent times as one of the most nefarious men in history, laden with such vices and crimes as mur- der, treason, incest, and apostasy. In the nine- teenth century, however, serious attempts were made, if not to rehabilitate his character, at least to mitigate the charges brought against hiuL For the older view in its extremest form, see the Dinrhnn of Burehard, master of ceremonies to Alexander VI. (Paris, 1883), and Gordon, Alexander 17. and flif: .Vo« (London. 1720). For a more cluiritalde estimate, see Roscoe's Life and Pontificate of Leo X. (London. 1805), and for a well sustained apology-, Leonetti, Papa Alessandro VI. (Bologna. 1880) : Gregorovius, llisiory of Rome in Ihe Middle Aijes (vols. vi. and vii., Eng. translation. London. 1000), while inclining to the generally accepted opinions, deprives Alexander of the qualities of sagacity and fearlessness which no one else denies him, and depicts him as