Alessandria
city and capital of the province of Alessandria, Italy; on the river Tanaro. It was built in 1168 for protection against Emperor Frederick I. Its original name, Cæsarea, was changed to Alessandria in honor of Pope Alexander III. It was taken by Sforza, Duke of Milan, in 1522, by Prince Eugene in 1707, and ceded to Savoy in 1713 by the Peace of Utrecht. By the armistice of Alessandria, after the battle of Marengo (1800), all of north Italy as far as the Mincio was ceded to France. It was taken by the Austrians in 1821, and became the headquarters of the Piedmontese in the insurrection of 1848-1849. The richly decorated cathedral was rebuilt in 1823. Pop. about 72,500. The province has an area of 1,980 square miles. Pop. about 900,000. A considerable trade is conducted in linen, silk, and woolen stuffs, hats, and artificial flowers. ALEUTIAN (a-lū'shi-an) ISLANDS, or CATHERINE ARCHIPELAGO, a group of about 150 islands, extending W. from Alaska peninsula for a distance of 1,650 miles; belongs to Alaska Territory. The principal islands are Umnak and Unalaska. The inhabitants are nearly all Aleuts, a people allied to the Eskimos. These islands were discovered by Bering in 1728. Pop. about 3,000.
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Alexander I
King of Jugoslavia (Serb, Croat and was born December 4, 1888, the second Slovene State). He son of Peter I, King of Serbia ceeded to the throne of Jugoslavia at the . He sucdeath of his father, August 16, 1921, and took oath to the constitution on November 6, 1921. On June 8, 1922, he married Marie, second daughter of Ferdinand I , King of Rumania.
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Alexander of Tralles
A physician born at Tralles in Asia Minor , in the sixth century, very learned, and with a leaning towards medico-magical practice. He prescribed for his patients amulets and charmed words, as, for instance, when he says in his Practice of Medicine that the figure of Hercules strangling the Nemean lion, graven on a stone and set in a ring, was an excellent cure for colic. He also claimed that charms and philacteries were efficacious remedies for gout, fevers, etc.
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Alexander Severus
a Roman emperor, born in 205 A.D.; was the cousin and adopted son of Heliogabalus, whom he succeeded in 222. He sought the society of the learned; Paulus and Ulpianus were his counselors; Plato and Cicero were, next to Horace and Vergil, his favorite authors. Although a pagan, he reverenced the doctrines of Christianity. Beloved as he was by the citizens on account of his equity, he soon became an object of hatred to the unruly prætorian guards. His first expedition (231-233) against Artaxerxes, King of Persia, was terminated by a speedy overthrow of the enemy; but during one which he undertook in 234 against the Germans on the Rhine an insurrection broke out among his troops, headed by Maximus, in which Alexander was murdered (235).
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Alexander's Feast
an ode for St. Cecilia's day, written by John Dryden in 1697. See Dryden
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Alexandrian Codex
an important manuscript of the sacred Scriptures in Greek, now in the British Museum. It is written on parchment in finely formed uncial letters, and is without accents, marks of aspiration, or spaces between the words. Its probable date is the middle of the 5th century. With the exception of a few gaps, it contains the whole Bible in Greek (the Old Testament being in the translation of the Septuagint), along with the epistles of Clemens Romanus, of whose genuine epistle to the Corinthians it is the only manuscript extant. This celebrated manuscript belonged, as early as 1098, to the library of the Patriarch of Alexandria. In 1628 it was sent as a present to Charles I. of England, by Cyrillus Lucaris, Patriarch of Constantinople.
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Alexandrian Library
a remarkable collection of books, the largest of the ancient world, was founded by the first Ptolemy, and fostered by his son. It quickly grew, and already in the time of the first Ptolemy, Demetrius Phalereus had 50,000 volumes or rolls under his care. During its most flourishing period, under the direction of Zenodotus, Aristarchus of Byzantium, Callimachus, Apollonius Rhodius, and others, it is said to have contained 490,000, or, according to another authority, including all duplicates, as many as 700,000 volumes. During the siege of Ale Alexandria by Julius Cæsar, this part of the library was destroyed by fire; but it was afterward replaced by the collection of Pergamos, which was presented to Cleopatra by Mark Antony. When Theodosius the Great permitted all the heathen temples in the Roman empire to be destroyed, a mob of Christians wrecked the temple containing the library (391 A. D.). In 641 Arabs under the Caliph Omar completed the destruction of the library treasures.
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Alexandrian School
the common designation of a series of scientific endeavors which were founded and encouraged through the generosity of the Ptolemies, and which had their seat in Alexandria and continued for more than 700 years, from 300 b. c. to 500 A. D. The basis of these schools was the Museion (museum) where the scientists lived and taught as pensioners at the public cost. For the use of these learned men two libraries were founded by the Ptolemies. See ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY.
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Alexandropol
an important fortress and the largest town in the Erivan district of Russian Armenia. It lies on a treeless plateau on the road from Erivan to Kara. The stronghold gives the Russians complete command of the headwaters of the Euphrates. The silk trade is actively carried on in the town. Pop. about 40,000.
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Alexius Comnenus
one of the ablest rulers of the Byzantine empire, was born at Constantinople in 1048. He was the nephew of the Emperor Isaac. Comnenus, on whose abdication, in 1059, his own father refused the purple; and Alexius was, in 1081, elevated by his soldiers to the throne. Everywhere he was encompassed with foes. The Scythians and Turks were pouring down from the N. and N. E.; the fierce Normans, who had effected a lodgment in Sicily and Italy, were menacing his western provinces; and, in 1096, the myriad warriors of the first crusade burst into his empire on their way to Palestine, and encamped around the gates of his capital. Yet he contrived to avoid all perils by the wisdom of his policy, the mingled patience and promptitude of his character, his discipline in the camp, and his humanity on the throne. He died in 1118.
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