ALEXANDER the Great, king of Macedonia. His father Philip laid the plan of that extensive empire which his son afterwards completed. Philip, having made himself master of Greece, began to cast his eyes upon Persia, with a view to retaliate upon that haughty empire the injuries of former times. It was the popular topic of the day. But this prince was cut off in the midst of his enterprise. Such, however, was the influence of Alexander in the assembly of the Grecian states, that he was created general of their combined forces, in the room of his father. Having made every needful preparation, at the head of a veteran army he invaded Asia. The lieutenants of Darius, who was then king of Persia, opposed him at the river Granicus, where Alexander obtained a complete victory, after which he pursued his march through Asia. At Issus, near Scanderoon, he was met by Darius in person, at the head of a prodigious army. Here he obtained a second victory, and took the camp of Darius, together with his family, whom he treated with the utmost humanity. Contrary to all the maxims of war, instead of pursuing Darius, he made an excursion into Egypt, and, as far as appears, through no better motives than those of vanity. Here he was acknowledged to be the son of Jupiter Ammon. In the mean time Darius recruited his strength, and got together an army superior to what he brought into the plain of Issus. Alexander, having finished his Egyptian expedition, traversed Asia, and passed the Euphrates. At Arbela, a town in Assyria, he met Darius. Here a decisive battle was fought, which put all Persia into the hands of Alexander. His ambition not being satisfied with the conquest of that vast country, he projected an expedition into India. Here he met with great opposition from Po-rus, a gallant prince, whom in the end he reduced. Beyond the Ganges lay a country still unsubdued. He notified it to his army, that he proposed to pass the river. But these veterans, harassed with their fatigues, and seeing no end of their labour, mutinied, and refused to march further. The disappointed chief was therefore obliged to return. At Babylon he proposed to receive ambassadors, appoint governors, and settle his vast monarchy; but his excesses put an end to his life in the midst of his designs, and in the flower of his age.

The character of this hero is so familiar to every body, that it is almost needless labour to draw it All the world knows, says Mr Bayle, that it was equally composed of very great virtues and very great vices. He had no mediocrity in any thing but his stature: in his other properties, whether good or bad, he was all extremes. His ambition rose even to madness. His father was not at all mistaken in supposing the bounds of Macedon too small for his son; for how could Macedon bound the ambition of a man who reckoned the whole world too small a dominion? He wept at hearing the philosopher Anaxarchus say that there was an infinite number of worlds: his tears were owing to his despair of conquering them all, since he had not yet been able to conquer one. Livy, in a short digression, has attempted to inquire into the events which might have happened if Alexander, after the conquest of Asia, had brought his arms into Italy. Doubtless, things might have taken a very different turn with him; and all the grand projects which succeeded so well against an effeminate Persian monarch might easily have miscarried if he had had to do with rough, hardy, Roman armies. And yet the vast aims of this mighty conqueror, if seen under another point of view, may appear to have been confined in a very narrow compass; since, as we are told, the utmost wish of that great heart, for which the whole earth was not big enough, was, after all, to be praised by the Athenians: for it is related, that the difficulties which he encountered in order to pass the Hydaspes, forced him to cry out, “0 Athenians, could you believe to what dangers I expose myself for the sake of being celebrated by you ?” But Bayle affirms that this was quite consistent with the vast unbounded extent of his ambition, as he wanted to make all future time his own, and be an object of admiration to the latest posterity; yet did not expect this from the conquest, of worlds, but from books. “He was perfectly in the right,” says Bayle; “for if Greece had not furnished him with good writers, he would long ago have been as much forgotten as the kings who reigned in Macedon before Amphitryon.”

His excesses with regard to wine were notorious, and he committed, when drunk, a thousand extravagancies. It was owing to wine that he killed Clitus, who saved his life, and burnt Persepolis, one of the most beautiful cities of the East: he did this last, indeed, at the instigation of the courtesan Thai's; but this circumstance made it only the more heinous. It is generally believed that he died by drinking immoderately; and even Plutarch, who affects to contradict it, owns that he did nothing but drink the whole day he was taken ill. The reader who is desirous of further information in regard to Alexander and his historians, may consult Μ. de St Croix’s Critical Inquiry concerning his Life, of which there is an English translation by Clayton.

Alexander ab Alexandro, a Neapolitan lawyer, of great learning, who flourished toward the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century. He followed the profession of the law, first at Naples, afterwards at Rome: but he devoted all the time he could spare to the study of polite literature; and at length he entirely left the bar, that he might lead a more easy and agreeable life with the Muses. The particulars of his life are to be gathered from his work entitled Dies Geniales. We are there informed that he lodged at Rome, in a house that was haunted; and he relates many surprising particulars about the ghost. He says also, that when he was very young, he went to the lectures of Philelphus, who explained at Rome the Tusculan Questions of Cicero. He was there also when Nicholas Perot and Domitius Calderinus read their lectures upon Martial. The particular time when he died is not known; but he was buried in the monastery of the Olivets. Tiraqueau wrote a learned commentary upon his work, which was printed at Lyons in 1587, and reprinted at Leyden in 1673, with the notes of Dennis Godfrey, Christopher Colerus, and Nicholas Mercerus.

Alexander, Noel, an indefatigable writer of the 17th century, born at Rouen, in Normandy, 1639. After finishing his studies at Rouen, he entered into the order of Dominican friars, and was professed there in 1655. Soon after he went to Paris, to go through a course of philosophy and divinity in the great convent, where he distinguished himself so, that he was appointed to teach philosophy there, which he did for twelve years. Μ. Colbert showed him many marks of his esteem; - and being determined to omit nothing to perfect the education of his son, afterwards archbishop of Rouen, he formed an assembly of the most learned persons, whose conferences upon ecclesiastical history might be of advantage to him. Father Alexander was invited to this assembly, where he exerted himself with so much genius and ability, that he gained the particular friendship of young Colbert, who showed him the utmost regard as long as he lived. These conferences gave rise to Alexander’s design of writing an ecclesiastical[7:2:408] history; for, being desired to reduce what was material in these conferences to writing, he didit with so much accuracy, that the learned men who composed this assembly advised him to undertake a complete body of church history. This he executed with great assiduity, collecting and digesting the materials himself, and writing even the tables with his own hand. He at last completed his work in 1686. Towards the latter part of his life he was afflicted with the loss of his sight; a most inexpressible misfortune to one whose whole pleasure was in study, yet he bore it with great patience and resignation. He died merely of a decay of nature, 1724, in the 86th year of his age.

Alexander Severus, emperor of Rome, succeeded Heliogabalus about a. d. 222, when but 16 years of age. His mother’s name was Mammaea, and by her advice he in a great measure regulated his conduct. He applied himself to the reformation of abuses, the state having been greatly disordered by the vicious conduct of his predecessor. He was a most strict lover of justice, an encourager of learning and learned men, and favourable to the Christians. He made a successful expedition against the Persians; but endeavouring to reform his troops, who had grown very licentious under the late bad government, they murdered him at the instigation of Maximinus, in the 29th year of his age, together with his mother, a. d. 235.

Alexander VI. Pope, had four bastards when he was cardinal, for one of whom he had so great affection, that he stuck at nothing to raise him. Designing to poison some cardinals, he was poisoned himself, a. d. 1503. See Borgia. Alexander VII. Pope. See Chigī. Alexander, bishop of Lincoln in the reigns of Henry I. and Stephen, was a Norman by birth, and nephew of the famous Roger, bishop of Salisbury, who first made him archdeacon of Salisbury, and afterwards, by his interest with the king, raised him to the mitre. Alexander was consecrated at Canterbury, July 22. 1123. Having received his education under his uncle the bishop of Salisbury, and been accustomed to a splendid way of living, he affected show and state, more than was suitable to his character or consistent with his fortune. This failing excepted, he was a man worthy of honour, and every way qualified for his station. The year after his consecration, his cathedral church at Lincoln having been accidentally burnt down, he rebuilt it, and secured it against the like accident for the future by a stone roof. This prelate increased the number of prebends in his church, and augmented its revenues with several manors and estates. In imitation of the barons and some of the bishops, particularly his uncle the bishop of Salisbury, he built three castles; one at Banbury, another at Sleaford, and a third at Newark. He likewise founded two monasteries; one at Haverholm, for regular canons and nuns together; the other at Tame, for white friars. He went twice to Rome, in the years 1142 and 1144. The first time, he came back in quality of the pope’s legate for calling a synod, in which he published several wholesome and necessary canons. In August 1147 he took a third journey to the pope, who was then in France, where he fell sick through the excessive heat of the weather, and returned with great difficulty to England, where he died, in the 24th year of his prelacy.

Alexander, William,e⅛x ∖ of Stirling, an eminent Scotish statesman and poet in the reigns of James VI. and Charles I., who, after travelling with the duke of Argyll as his tutor or companion, wrote a poetical work, with the view of alleviating the sorrows of unsuccessful love, under the title of Aurora. He then removed to the court of James VI., where he applied to the more solid parts of poetry, forming himself upon the plan of the Greek and Roman tragedians. In 1607 he published some dramatic performances, entitled Monarchic Tragedies, dedicated to King James, who was so well pleased with them as to call him his philosophical poet. After this, he is said to have written A Supplement to complete the third part of Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia. He also wrote a poetical piece, entitled A Paraenesis to the Prince; and in 1614 he published his last poem, called Doomsday, or the Great Day of Judgment. His poetical works were published by himself, in a folio volume, under the title of Recreations with lìrn. Muses. He was made gentleman-usher to Prince Charles and master of the requests; was knighted; and obtained a grant of Nova Scotia, where he projected the settlement of a colony, but afterwards sold it to the French. In 1626 he was made secretary of state for Scotland, was created first viscount and then earl of Stirling, and died in 1640.

Alexander I. St, whom St Irenaeus reckons the fifth bishop of Rome, succeeded St Everistus in the year 109, and died in the year 119. There is no account of his life, and the epistles which are attributed to him are supposititious.

Alexander II., king of Scotland, succeeded his father William in 1213, at 16 years of age. He made an expedition into England, to oppose the tyranny of King John, who returned the visit, and was offered battle by Alexander, but refused it. He took the city of Carlisle from Henry III., which was afterwards exchanged for Berwick. Alexander died in 1249, in the 51st year of his age and 35th of his reign, and left for his successor his son, Alexander III., who was crowned king of Scotland in 1249. The Cummings, a powerful family, took arms against him, and, taking him prisoner, confined him at Stirling; but he was afterwards released by his subjects. He married the daughter of Henry HL, king of England and was at length killed by a fall from his horse, on the 10th of April 1290, after having reigned 42, or, according to others, 37 years.