Part 22

ALEXANDER I, Emperor of Russia, son of Paul I and Maria, daughter of Prince Eugene of Wuertemberg, was born in 1777, and died in 1825. On the assassination of his father, in 1801, Alexander ascended the throne, and one of his first acts was to conclude peace with Britain, against which his predecessor had declared war. In 1803 he offered his services as mediator between England and France, and two years later a convention was entered into between Russia, England, Austria, and Sweden for the purpose of resisting the encroachments of France on the territories of independent States. He was present at the battle of Austerlitz (1805), when the combined armies of Russia and Austria were defeated by Napoleon. In the succeeding campaign the Russians were again beaten at Eylau (8th Feb., 1807) and Friedland (14th June), the result of which was an interview between Alexander and Napoleon, and the treaty at Tilsit. The Russian emperor now for a time identified himself with the Napoleonic schemes, and soon obtained possession of Finland and an extended territory on the Danube. The French alliance, however, he found to be too oppressive, and his having separated himself from Napoleon led to the disastrous French invasion of 1812. In 1813 he published a manifesto which served as the basis of the coalition of the other European powers against France, which was followed by the capture of Paris (in 1814), the abdication of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbons, and the utter overthrow of Napoleon the following year. After Waterloo, Alexander, accompanied by the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia, made his second entrance into Paris, where they concluded the treaty known as the Holy Alliance. The remaining part of his reign was chiefly taken up with measures of internal reform, including the gradual abolition of serfdom, and the promotion of education, agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, as well as literature and the fine arts.

ALEXANDER II, Emperor of Russia, was born 29th April, 1818, and succeeded his father Nicholas in 1855, before the end of the Crimean war. After peace was concluded, the new emperor set about effecting reforms in the empire, the greatest of all being the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, a measure which gave freedom, on certain conditions, to 50,000,000 of human beings who were previously in a state little removed from that of slavery. Under him, too, representative assemblies in the provinces were introduced, and he also did much to improve education, and to reorganize the judicial system. During his reign the Russian dominions in Central Asia were extended, a piece of territory south of the Caucasus, formerly belonging to Turkey, was acquired, and a part of Bessarabia restored to Russia. The latter additions resulted from the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8. He was killed by an explosive missile flung at him by a Nihilist in a street in St. Petersburg (now Petrograd), 13th March, 1881. He was succeeded by his son, Alexander III. His only daughter was married to the Duke of Edinburgh.

ALEXANDER III, Emperor of Russia, son of Alexander II, born in 1845, became heir to the throne on the death of his eldest brother, Nicholas (1865). In 1863 he married Princess Dagmar of Denmark; he succeeded to the throne in 1881, on the assassination of his father, being crowned in Moscow in 1883. He gave up the reforms begun by his father, and ruled in the old autocratic fashion, restricting the liberties of Finland and the Baltic Provinces, and encouraging persecution of the Jews. He spent much time in the closely-guarded castle of Gatchina, to be safe from Nihilistic attempts, several of which he narrowly escaped. He endeavoured to put down corruption and underhand dealing among the bureaucracy, and in his own habits gave an example of simplicity and economy. While showing himself suspicious of Germany and Austria-Hungary, he entered on friendly relations with France. He began to suffer from disease of the kidneys in 1893, and died at Livadia on 1st Nov., 1894. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Nicholas II.

ALEXANDER I, King of Serbia, born in 1876. He was the son of King Milan, and on the abdication of his father in 1889 was proclaimed king under a regency. He married Madame Draga Mashin, a widow, who was much older than himself. Both were assassinated on 11th June, 1903.

ALEXANDER OF HALES. See _Hales, Alexander de._

ALEXANDER, Boyd, British explorer and naturalist, born in 1873. He led many expeditions for research and exploration to the Cape Verde Islands, the Zambesi River, and various parts of the world. He also discovered many new birds when he ascended the Mount St. Isabel. In 1908 he received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He was murdered by natives in May, 1910, while exploring the French Congo. He wrote _From the Niger to the Nile_ (1907), &c. _Boyd Alexander's Last Journey_ was published in 1912.

ALEXANDER NEVSKOI, a Russian hero and saint, son of the Grand-Duke Jaroslav, born in 1219, died in 1263. He fought valiantly against assaults of the Mongols, the Danes, Swedes, and Knights of the Teutonic Order. He gained the name of _Nevskoi_ in 1240, for a splendid victory, on the Neva, over the Swedes. The gratitude of his countrymen commemorated the hero in popular songs, and raised him to the dignity of a saint. Peter the Great built a splendid monastery at St. Petersburg (Petrograd) in his honour, and in memory of him established the Order of Alexander Nevskoi.

ALEXANDER SEVE'RUS, a Roman emperor, born in 208, died A.D. 235. He was raised to the imperial dignity in A.D. 222 by the praetorian guards, after they had put his cousin the Emperor Heliogabalus to death. He governed ably both in peace and war; and also occupied himself in poetry, philosophy, and literature. He was very tolerant in religious matters, and although not professing Christianity intended to erect a temple to Christ, but was prevented by the pagan priests from carrying out this plan. In 232 he defeated the Persians under Artaxerxes, who wished to drive the Romans from Asia. When on an expedition into Gaul, to repress an incursion of the Germans, he was murdered with his mother in an insurrection of his troops, headed by the brutal Maximin, who succeeded him as emperor.

ALEXANDERS (_Smyrnium Olus[=a]trum_), an umbelliferous biennial plant, a native of the Mediterranean region, but found in Great Britain and Ireland. It was formerly cultivated for its leaf-stalks, which, having a pleasant aromatic flavour, were blanched and used instead of celery--a vegetable that has taken its place.

ALEXANDRA, the queen mother, widow of Edward VII, daughter of Christian IX, King of Denmark, was born at Copenhagen on 1st Dec., 1844, and was married on 10th March, 1863, being Princess of Wales up to the death of Queen Victoria and the accession of King Edward in Jan., 1901. She was highly popular from the first in the country of her husband, as she constantly showed an interest in all benevolent causes. She has been the mother of six children, one of whom died in infancy, while the eldest, Edward, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, died in 1892 at the age of twenty-eight. Cf. S. A. Tooley, _Queen Alexandra_.

ALEXANDRET'TA, or ISKANDEROON (ancient ALEXANDRIA AD ISSUM), a small seaport in Asia Minor, on the Gulf of Iskanderoon, the port of Aleppo and Northern Syria. Named after Alexander the Great, and founded in memory of the battle of Issus. In 1832 Mehemet Ali won a victory over the Turks near Alexandretta. There is a large export and import trade. It was occupied by British and French troops in Nov., 1918. Pop. 10,000.

ALEXAN'DRIA, an ancient city and seaport in Egypt, at the north-west angle of the Nile delta, on a ridge of land between the sea and Lake Mareotis. Ancient Alexandria was founded by, and named in honour of, Alexander the Great, in 332 B.C., and was long a great and splendid city, the centre of commerce between the east and west, as well as of Greek learning and civilization, with a population at one time of perhaps 1,000,000. It was especially celebrated for its great library, and also for its famous lighthouse, one of the wonders of the world, standing upon the little island of Pharos, which was connected with the city by a mole. Under Roman rule it was the second city of the empire, and when Constantinople became the capital of the East it still remained the chief centre of trade; but it received a blow from which it never recovered when captured by Amru, general of Caliph Omar, in 641, after a siege of fourteen months. Its ruin was finally completed by the building of Cairo (969) and the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope (1498) which opened up a new route for the Asiatic trade. See _Alexandrian Library_, _Alexandrian School_.--Modern Alexandria stands partly on what was formerly the island of Pharos, partly on the peninsula which now connects it with the mainland and which was formed by the accumulation of soil, and partly on the mainland. The streets in the Turkish quarter are narrow, dirty, and irregular; in the foreign quarter they are regular and wide, and it is here that the finest houses are situated. Here also are the principal shops and hotels, banks, offices of companies, &c.; this part of the city being supplied with gas, and with water brought by the Mahmudieh Canal from the western branch of the Nile. Alexandria is connected by railway with Cairo, Rosetta, and Suez. A little to the south of the city are the catacombs, which now serve as a quarry. Another relic of antiquity is Pompey's Pillar, 98 feet 9 inches high. Alexandria has two ports, on the east and west respectively of the isthmus of the Pharos peninsula, the latter having a breakwater over 3000 yards in length, with fine quays and suitable railway and other accommodation. The trade of Alexandria is large and varied, the exports being cotton, beans, pease, rice, wheat, &c.; the imports chiefly manufactured goods, machinery, timber, and coal. The origin of its more recent career of prosperity it owes to Mohammed Ali. In 1882 the insurrection of Arabi Pasha and the massacre of Europeans led to the intervention of the British, and the bombardment of the forts by the British fleet in July. The administrative district has an area of 19 sq. miles; pop. 444,617 (or 23,401 per square mile).

ALEXANDRIA, a town and port of the United States, in Virginia, on the right bank of the Potomac (which is of sufficient depth for large vessels), 7 miles south of Washington, carries on a considerable trade, chiefly in flour. Pop. (1920), 18,060.

ALEXANDRIA, a town of Scotland, in Dumbartonshire, on the Leven, 4 miles north of Dumbarton, with extensive cotton-printing and bleaching works. Pop. 9850.

ALEXANDRIA, a town of the Ukraine, in the former Russian government of Kherson, on a tributary of the Dnieper. Pop. 10,521.

ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY, the largest and most famous of all the ancient collections of books, founded by Ptolemy Soter (died 283 B.C.), King of Egypt, and greatly enlarged by succeeding Ptolemies. The first librarian was Zenodotus (234 B.C.). At its most flourishing period it is said to have numbered 700,000 volumes, accommodated in two different buildings, one of them being the Serapeion, or temple of Jupiter Serapis. The other collection was burned during Julius Caesar's siege of the city, but the Serapeion library existed to the time of the Emperor Theodosius the Great, when, at the general destruction of the heathen temples, the splendid temple of Jupiter Serapis was gutted (A.D. 391) by a fanatical crowd of Christians, and its literary treasures destroyed or scattered. A library was again accumulated, but was burned by the Arabs when they captured the city under the caliph Omar in 641. Amru, the captain of the caliph's army, would have been willing to spare the library, but Omar is said to have disposed of the matter in the famous words: "If these writings of the Greeks agree with the Koran they are useless, and need not be preserved; if they disagree they are pernicious, and ought to be destroyed". This story, however, which rests solely on the authority of Abulfaragius, a writer who lived six centuries later, is now generally discredited.

ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL or AGE, the school or period of Greek literature and learning that existed at Alexandria in Egypt during the three hundred years that the rule of the Ptolemies lasted (323-30 B.C.), and continued under the Roman supremacy. Ptolemy Soter founded the famous library of Alexandria (see above) and his son, Philadelphus, established a kind of academy of sciences and arts. Many scholars and men of genius were thus attracted to Alexandria, and a period of literary activity set in, which made Alexandria for long the focus and centre of Greek culture and intellectual effort. It must be admitted, however, that originality was not a characteristic of the Alexandrian age, which was stronger in criticism, grammar, and science than in pure literature. Among the grammarians and critics were Zenodotus, Eratosthenes, Aristophanes, Aristarchus, and Zoilus, proverbial as a captious critic. Their merit is to have collected, edited, and preserved the existing monuments of Greek literature. To the poets belong Apollonius, Lycophron, Aratus, Nicander, Euphorion, Callimachus, Theocritus, Philetas, &c. Among those who pursued mathematics, physics, and astronomy was Euclid, the father of scientific geometry; Archimedes, great in physics and mechanics; Apollonius of Perga, whose work on conic sections still exists; Nicomachus, the first scientific arithmetician; and (under the Romans) the astronomer and geographer Ptolemy. Alexandria also was distinguished in philosophical speculation, and it was here that the New Platonic school was established by Ammonius of Alexandria (about A.D. 193), whose disciples were Plotinus and Origen. Being for the most part Orientals, formed by the study of Greek learning, the writings of the New Platonists are strikingly characterized--for example, those of Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Iamblicus, Porphyrius--by a mixture of Asiatic and European elements. The connection of Neo-Platonism with Alexandria is, however, less than is commonly supposed.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mahaffy, _Greek Life and Thought from the Age of Alexander to the Roman Empire_; Kingsley, _Alexandria and her Schools_; Vacherot, _Histoire critique de l'ecole d'Alexandrie_ (3 vols.).

ALEXANDRIAN VERSION. See _Codex Alexandrinus_.

ALEXANDRINE, in prosody, the name given, from an old French poem on Alexander the Great, to a species of verse, which consists of six iambic feet, or twelve syllables, the pause being, in correct Alexandrines, always on the sixth syllable; for example, the second of the following verses:--

A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.

In English Drayton's _Polyolbion_ is written in this measure, and the concluding line of the Spenserian stanza is an Alexandrine. In France the verse fell into disuse during the early part of the sixteenth century, but was again revived by Jean Antoine de Baif, one of the poets of the Pleiade. Jodelle introduced the verse into the drama, and Ronsard made it very popular. French epics and dramas being confined to this verse, it is therefore called the _heroic_.

ALEXANDRO'POL, formerly a Russian town and fortress in the Transcaucasian government of Erivan, near the highway from Erivan to Kars; now belonging to Armenia; it has silk manufactories. Pop. 48,938.

ALEXAN'DROV, a town of Russia, government of Vladimir, with a famous convent, in the church of which are interred two sisters of Peter the Great; manufactures of steel and cotton goods. Pop. 7179.

ALEX'ISBAD, a bathing-place of Germany, Anhalt, in the Harz Mountains, with two mineral springs strongly impregnated with iron.

ALEX'IS MIKHAI'LOVITSH (son of Michael), second Russian Tsar of the line of Romanov, born in 1629, succeeded his father Mikhail Feodorovitsh in 1645, and died in 1676. He did much for the internal administration and for the enlargement of the empire; reconquered Little Russia from Poland, and carried his authority to the extreme east of Siberia. He was father of sixteen children, the most famous of them being Peter the Great and his sister Sophia.

ALEXIS PETRO'VITSH, eldest son of Peter the Great and Eudoxia Lopukhina, repudiated in 1698, was born in Moscow, 1690, and died in 1718. He opposed the innovations introduced by his father, who on this account disinherited him by a ukase in 1718, and when he discovered that Alexis was paving the way to succeed to the crown he had his son tried and condemned to death. A few days afterwards Alexis died, after having received twenty-five strokes with the knout, leaving a son, afterwards the Emperor Peter II.

ALEX'IUS COMNE'NUS, Byzantine Emperor, was born in 1048, and died in 1118. He was a nephew of Isaac the first emperor of the Comneni, and attained the throne in 1081, at a time when the Empire was menaced from various sides, especially by the Turks and the Normans. From these dangers he managed to extricate himself by policy or warlike measures, and maintained his position till the age of seventy, during a reign of thirty-seven years. His daughter Anna wrote a life of him (_The Alexiad_), which is one continuous eulogy, but all the Latin historians are very severe on him.

AL'FA. See _Esparto_.

ALFAL'FA, generally known in Britain as lucerne, a prolific forage plant largely grown in California, &c.

ALFARA'BI, an eminent Arabian scholar of the tenth century; died at Damascus in 950; wrote on Aristotelian philosophy, and compiled a kind of encyclopedia.

AL'FENID, an alloy of nickel plated with silver, used for spoons, forks, candlesticks, tea services, &c.

ALFIERI ([.a]l-f[=e]-[=a]'r[=e]), Vittorio, Count, Italian poet, was born at Asti in 1749, and died in 1803. After extensive European travels he began to write, and his first play, _Cleopatra_ (1775), being received with general applause he determined to devote all his efforts to attaining a position among writers of dramatic poetry. At Florence he became intimate with the Countess of Albany, wife of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, and on the death of the prince she lived with him as his mistress. This connection he believed to have served to stimulate and elevate his poetic powers. He died at Florence and was buried in the church of Santa Croce, between Macchiavelli and Michael Angelo, where a beautiful monument by Canova covers his remains. He wrote twenty-one tragedies and six comedies. His theatrical work has been rightly styled a creation of his pride as much as of his genius; he endeavoured to turn the theatre into a platform and was constantly preaching from the stage. Anxious to use his characters as exponents of his theories, and to make them _talk_, he often forgot to make them _act_. Alfieri himself admitted that he was writing with a view to "teaching men how to become free, strong, generous, and passionate for real virtue", but such an attitude is opposed to true art. His tragedies are full of lofty and patriotic sentiments, but the language is stiff and without poetic grace, and the plots poor. Nevertheless he is considered the first tragic writer of Italy, and has served as a model for his successors. Alfieri composed also an epic, lyrics, satires, and poetical translations from the ancient classics. He left an interesting autobiography. The best edition of his works is that published at Pisa (1805-13) in 22 vols.

ALFON'SO. See _Alphonso_.

AL'FORD, Henry, D.D., Dean of Canterbury, an English poet, scholar, and miscellaneous writer, was born in London in 1810. After attending various schools he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1827, graduated B.A. in 1832, was elected fellow in 1834, and next year became vicar of Wymeswold, Leicestershire. In 1842 he was appointed examiner in logic and moral philosophy to the University of London, and held the appointment till 1857. He early began the great work of his life, his edition of the Greek Testament with commentary, which occupied him for twenty years, the first volumes being published in 1849, the fourth and last in 1861. In 1853 he was transferred to Quebec Chapel, London, and in 1857 was appointed Dean of Canterbury. He was the first editor of the _Contemporary Review_ (1866-70). He died in 1871. Among other works he wrote _Chapters on the Poets of Ancient Greece_, _Sermons_, _Psalms and Hymns_, _Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles_, _Letters from Abroad_, _Poetical Works_, _Plea for the Queen's English_.

AL'FRED (or AEL'FRED) THE GREAT, King of England, was born at Wantage, in Berkshire, A.D. 849, his father being Ethelwulf, son of Egbert, King of the West Saxons. He succeeded his brother Ethelred in 872, at a time when the Danes, or Northmen, had extended their conquests widely over the country, and they had completely overrun the kingdom of the West Saxons by 878. Alfred was obliged to flee in disguise. At length he gathered a small force, and having fortified himself on the Isle of Athelney, formed by the confluence of the Rivers Parret and Tone, amid the marshes of Somerset, he was able to make frequent sallies against the enemy. It was during his abode here that he went, according to legend, disguised as a harper into the camp of King Guthrum (or Guthorm), and, having ascertained that the Danes felt themselves secure, hastened back to his troops, led them against the enemy, and gained such a decided victory that fourteen days afterwards the Danes begged for peace. This battle took place in May, 878, near Edington, in Wiltshire. Alfred allowed the Danes who were already in the country to remain, on condition that they gave hostages, took a solemn oath to quit Wessex, and embraced Christianity. Their king, Guthrum, was baptized, with thirty of his followers, and ever afterward remained faithful to Alfred. They received that portion of the east of England now occupied by the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge, as a place of residence. The few years of tranquillity (886-93) which followed were employed by Alfred in rebuilding the towns that had suffered most during the war, particularly London; in training his people in arms and no less in agriculture; in improving the navy; in systematizing the laws and internal administration; and in literary labours and the advancement of learning. He caused many manuscripts to be translated from Latin, and himself translated several works into Anglo-Saxon, such as the _Psalms_, _Aesop's Fables_, _Boethius on the Consolation of Philosophy_, the _History of Orosius_, _Bede's Ecclesiastical History_, &c. He also drew up several original works in Anglo-Saxon. These peaceful labours were interrupted, about 894, by an invasion of the Northmen, who, after a struggle of three years, were finally driven out. Alfred died in 901. He had married, in 868, Alswith or Ealhswith, the daughter of a Mercian nobleman, and left two sons: Edward, who succeeded him, and Ethelwerd, who died in 922.--BIBLIOGRAPHY: Plummer, _Life and Times of Alfred the Great_; A. Bowker, _Alfred the Great, Chapters on his Life and Times_; B. A. Lees, _Alfred the Great_.