in Paphlagonia in the early part of the 2nd century A.D.
The vivid narrative of his career given by Lucian might be
taken as fictitious but for the corroboration of certain
coins of the emperors Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius (J. H.
Eckhel, Doctrina Nummorum veterum, ii. pp. 383, 384) and
of a statue of Alexander, said by Athenagoras (Apology, c.
26) to have stood in the forum of Parium. After a period of
instruction in medicine by a doctor who also, according to
Lucian, was an impostor, he succeeded in establishing an
oracle of Aesculapius at his native town. Having circulated
a prophecy that the son of Apollo was to be born again, he
contrived that there should be found in the foundations of
the temple to Aesculapius, then in course of construction at
Abonouteichos, an egg in which a small live snake had been
placed. In an age of superstition no people had so great a
reputation for credulity as the Paphlagonians, and Alexander
had little difficulty in convincing them of the second coming
of the god under the name of Glycon. A large tame snake with
a false human head, wound round Alexander's body as he sat
in a shrine in the temple, gave ``autophones'' or oracles
unasked, but the usual methods practised were those of the
numerous oracle-mongers of the time, of which Lucian gives a
detailed account, the opening of sealed inquiries by heated
needles, a neat plan of forging broken seals, and the giving
of vague or meaningless replies to difficult questions, coupled
with a lucrative blackmailing of those whose inquiries were
compromising. The reputation of the oracle, which was in origin
medical, spread, and with it grew Alexander's skilled plans
of organized deception. He set up an ``intelligence bureau''
in Rome, instituted mysteries like those of Eleusis, from
which his particular enemies the Christians and Epicureans
were alike excluded as ``profane,'' and celebrated a mystic
marriage between himself and the moon. During the plague of
A.D. 166 a verse from the oracle was used as an amulet and
was inscribed over the doors of houses as a protection, and
an oracle was sent, at Marcus Aurelius' request, by Alexander
to the Roman army on the Danube during the war with the
Marcomanni, declaring that victory would follow on the throwing
of two lions alive into the river. The result was a great
disaster, and Alexander had recourse to the old quibble of
the Delphic oracle to Croesus for an explanation. Lucian's
own close investigations into Alexander's methods of fraud
led to a serious attempt on his life. The whole account
gives a graphic description of the inner working of one among
the many new oracles that were springing up at this period.
Alexander had remarkable beauty and the striking personality
of the successful charlatan, and must have been a man of
considerable intellectual abilities and power of organization.
His income is said by Lucian to have reached an enormous
figure. He died of gangrene of the leg in his seventieth year.
See Lucian, 'Alexandros e pseudomantis; Samuel Dill, Roman
Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius (1904): and F. Gregorovius,
The Emperor Hadrian, trans. by M. E. Robinson (1898).
ALEXANDERS (botanical name, Smyrnium Olusatrum, natural
order Umbelliferae), a stout herbaceous plant with a
furrowed, much-branched stem 1-3 ft. high, and large compound
leaves with broad sheathing stalks, and broad, cut or lobed
segments. The small yellow flowers are borne in compound
umbels. The plant is a native of the Mediterranean region,
and was formerly cultivated as a pot-herb. It is now found
apparently wild in Great Britain and Ireland, growing in
waste places, especially near the sea and amongst ruins.
In England the plant is sometimes popularly termed
``alisander''; in North America Thaspium aureum is sometimes
called ``alexanders.'' ``Alexander's foot,'' botanical
name Anacyclus Pyrethrum, is the pellitory of Spain.
ALEXANDERSBAD, a watering-place of Germany, in the kingdom
of Bavaria, romantically situated in the Fichtelgebirge,
near Wunsiedel, at a height of 1900 ft. above the sea. Pop.
1200. Its waters, which are ferruginous and largely charged
with carbonic acid gas, are of use in nervous and rheumatic
disorders. In the neighbourhood is the Luisenburg (or Luxburg),
so called after a visit paid by Queen Louise of Prussia in
1805, a hill covered by majestic granite rocks, commanding
a grand view of the whole range of the Fichtelgebirge.
ALEXANDRE, NOEL (NATALIS ALEXANDER) (1639-1724), French
theologian and ecclesiastical historian, was born at Rouen
on the 19th of January 1639. In his 15th year he joined the
Dominicans, and shortly after his ordination was appointed
professor of philosophy at the convent of Saint-Jacques in
Paris. The success of his subsequent lectures at the Sorbonne
led to his selection by Colbert as tutor to his son, Jacques
Nicolas Colbert, afterwards archbishop of Rouen. Alexandre
obtained the degree of doctor in divinity from the Sorbonne
in 1675 and for twelve years taught philosophy, theology
and ecclesiastical law to the members of the Saint-Jacques
community. He played a prominent part in ecclesiastical
affairs and preached several times before Louis XIV., who
granted him an annual pension of 800 livres, and in the
general assemblies of the French bishops. He became provincial
of his order in 1706, but was banished to Chatellerault
in 1709 for having subscribed to the Cas de conscience
(1703), and was deprived of his pension in 1713 on account
of his opposition to the bull Unigenitus. He died in Paris
on the 21st of August 1724, having lost his sight some time
before owing to his strenuous literary activity. His numerous
works are still much valued by ecclesiastical students.
His best-known work, the Selecta historiae ecclesiasticae
capita, et in loca ejusdem insignia dissertationes
historicae, chronologicae, dogmaticae (26 vols., Paris,
1676-1686), was placed on the Index by Innocent XI., on
account of his bold defence of the Gallican claims. In 1689
he brought out at Paris his history of the Old Testament:
Selecta historiae Veteris Testamenti capita, &c., in 6
vols. Of the numerous editions of Alexandre's ecclesiastical
history the best is that of P. J. D. Mansi, which contains
many valuable notes and additions (11 vols., Lucca, 1749)
and has been frequently reprinted. Alexandre's principal
contribution to theological literature is his Theologia
dogmatica et moralis secundum ordinem catechismi concilii
Tridentini (10 vols., Paris, 1694), in which he clearly shows
himself a disciple of the Thomist school. His Couformite
des ceremonies chinoises avec l'idolatrie grecque et
romaine and Sept lettres sur les ceremonies de la Chine
(both published at Cologne in 1700) are interesting as they
mark him out as a pioneer in the study of comparative religion.
See Catalogue complet des oeuvres du Pere Alexandre (Paris,
1716); Quetif-Echard, Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum (Paris,
1719-1721), t. ii. p. 810; and full bibliography in A. Vacant, Dict.
de theologie (scholarly article by P. Mandounet, cols. 769-772).
ALEXANDRETTA, or ISKANDERUN (med. Scanderoon), a town
of N. Syria, situated in the N.E. angle of the Levantine
Mediterranean on the S.E. of the gulf to which it gives a
title. Pop. about 10,000, two-thirds Moslem. Iskanderun
preserves the name, but probably not the exact site, of Alexandria
ad Issum, founded by Alexander in 333 B.C., about 23
m. S. of the scene of his victory, to supersede Myriandrus as
key of the Syrian Gates (Beilan Pass). The importance of the
place ever since has been derived from its relation to this
pass, the easiest approach to the open ground of N. Syria of
which Antioch and Aleppo have been the successive capitals;
and this relation has prevailed over the extreme unhealthiness
of the site, which lies on marshy deltaic ground, screened by
the horseshoe of Elma Dagh from all purifying influences of
N. and E. winds. As the main outlet for the overland trade
from Bagdad and India, whose importance was great until the
establishment of the Egyptian overland route, the place was a
great resort, first of Genoese and Venetian merchants, then of
those of West and North European nations. The British Levant
(Turkey) Company maintained an agency and factory here for 200
years, till 1825, in spite of appalling mortality among its
employes. Alexandretta is still the main port for the Aleppo
district, to which a good chaussee leads over the Beilan
Pass, and it has a considerable export trade in tobacco, silk,
cereals, liquorice, textiles. The health of the place has
improved with the draining of the marshes and the provision
of a better supply of water, but still leaves much to be
desired. The wealthier inhabitants have summer residences
at Beilan near the summit of the pass, long a stronghold of
freebooting Dere Beys and the scene of the victory won by
Ibrahim Pasha in 1832, which opened Cilicia to his advance.
There are resident consuls of all the principal powers, and
the port is well served by coasting steamers under European
and Ottoman flags. The distance by road to Aleppo has been
shortened to about 70 m., and Antakia (Antioch) is about 45
m. distant by a branch of the same chaussee. (D. G. H.)
ALEXANDRIA (Arab. Iskenderia), a city and chief seaport
of Egypt, and for over a thousand years from its foundation
the capital of the country, situated on the Mediterranean in
31 deg. 12' N., 29 deg. 15' E., and 129 m. by rail N.W. of Cairo.
The ancient Canopic mouth of the Nile (now dry) was 12 m. E.
I. The Modern City.--The city is built on the strip of land
which separates the Mediterranean from Lake Mareotis ( Mariut),
and on a T-shaped peninsula which forms harbours east and
west. The stem of the T was originally a mole leading to an
island (Pharos) which formed the cross-piece. In the course
of centuries this mole has been silted up and is now an isthmus
half a mile wide. On it a part of the modern city is built.
The cape at the western end of the peninsula is Ras et-Tin (Cape
of Figs); the eastern cape is known as Pharos or Kait Bey. South
of the town--between it and Lake Mareotis--runs the Mahmudiya
canal, which enters the western harbour by a series of locks.
The customs house and chief warehouses are by the western
harbour, but the principal buildings of the city are in the
east and south-east quarters. From the landing-stage, by the
customs house, roads lead to the Place Mehemet Ali, the centre
of the life of the city and the starting-point of the electric
tramways. The place, usually called the Grand Square,
is an oblong open space, tree-lined, in the centre of which
there is an equestrian statue of the prince after whom it is
named. The square is faced with handsome buildings mainly
in the Italian style. The most important are the law courts,
exchange, Ottoman bank, English church and the Abbas Hilmi
theatre. A number of short streets lead from the square
to the eastern harbour. Here a sea wall, completed in
1905, provides a magnificent drive and promenade along
the shore for a distance of about 3 m. In building this
quay a considerable area of foreshore was reclaimed and an
evil-smelling beach done away with. From the south end of
the square the rue Sherif Pasha--in which are the principal
shops--and the rue Tewfik Pasha lead to the boulevard, or
rue, de Rosette, a long straight road with a general E. and W.
direction. In it are the Zizinia theatre and the municipal
palace (containing the public library); the museum lies up a
