had opened the whole country to the Macedonians. A. took possession of Damascus, which contained a large portion of the royal treasures, and secured all the towns along the Mediterranean sea. Tyre, imboldened by the strength of its situation, resisted, but was taken, after seven months of incredible exertions, and destroyed. A. continued his victorious march through Palestine, where all the towns surrendered, except Gaza, which shared the fate of Tyre. Egypt, weary of the Persian yoke, received him as a deliverer. In order to confirm his power, he restored the former customs and religious rites, and founded Alexandria, which became one of the first cities of ancient times. Hence he went through the desert of Libya, to consult the oracle of Jupiter Ammon. Some historians assert that the god recognised him as his son, but others reject all that has been related respecting this journey. At the return of spring, A. marched against Darius, who, in the meantime, had collected an army in Assyria, and rejected the proposals of A. for peace. A battle was fought at Gaugamela, not far from Arbela, in 331. Justin estimates the forces of Darius at 500,000 men; Diodorus, Arrian and Plutarch at more than double that number. Notwithstanding the immense numerical superiority of his enemy, A. was not a moment doubtful of victory. At the head of his cavalry, he attacked the Persians, and routed them immediately; he then hastened to the aid of his left wing, which had been, in the mean time, severely pressed. His wish was to take, or kill, the king of Persia. The latter was on an elevated chariot, in the midst of his body-guards. These, when they saw how A. overthrew every thing, fled. Darius then mounted a horse, and fled likewise, leaving his army, baggage and immense treasures to the victor. Babylon and Susa, where the riches of the East lay accumulated, opened their gates to A., who directed his march towards Persepolis, the capital of Persia. The only passage thither, Pylæ Persidis, was defended by 40,000 men under Ariobarzanes. A. attacked them in the rear, routed them, and entered Persepolis triumphant. From this time the glory of A. began to decline. Master of the greatest empire in the world, he became a slave to his own passions; gave himself up to arrogance and dissipation; showed himself ungrateful and cruel, and, in the arms of pleasure, shed the blood of his bravest generals. Hitherto sober and moderate, this hero,

who strove to equal the gods, and called himself a god, sunk to the level of vulgar men. Persepolis, the wonder of the world, he burned in a fit of intoxication Ashamed of this act, he set out with his cavalry to pursue Darius. Learning that Bessus, satrap of Bactriana, kept the king prisoner, he hastened his march with the hope of saving him. But Bessus, when he saw himself closely pursued, caused Darius to be assassinated (B. C. 330), because he was an impediment to his flight. A. beheld, on the frontiers of Bactriana, a dying man, covered with wounds, lying on a chariot. It was Darius. The Macedonian hero could not restrain his tears. After interring him with all the honors usual among the Persians, he took possession of Hyrcania, the land of the Marsi, and Bactriana, and caused himself to be proclaimed king of Asia. He was forming still more gigantic plans, when a conspiracy broke out in his own camp. Philotas, the son of Parmenio, was implicated. A., not satisfied with the blood of the son, caused the father also to be secretly murdered. This act of injustice excited general displeasure. At the same time, his power in Greece was threatened. Agis, king of Sparta, had collected 30,000 men to shake off the Macedonian yoke; but Antipater, at the head of a numerous army, overcame the Spartans, and dissolved the league of the Greeks. In the mean time, A. marched, in the winter, through the north of Asia, as far as it was then known, checked neither by mount Caucasus nor the Oxus, and reached the Caspian sea, hitherto unknown to the Greeks. Insatiable of glory, and thirsting for conquest, he spared not even the hordes of the Scythians. Returning to Bactriana, he hoped to gain the affections of the Persians, by assuming their dress and manners, but this hope was not realized. The discontent of the army gave occasion to the scene which ended in the death of Clitus. A., whose pride he had offended, killed him with his own hand at a banquet. Clitus had been one of his most faithful friends and bravest generals, and A. was afterwards a prey to the keenest remorse. In the following year, he subdued the whole of Sogdiana. Oxyantes, one of the leaders of the enemy, had secured his family in a castle built on lofty rocks. The Macedonians stormed it. Roxana, the daughter of Oxyantes, one of the most beautiful virgins of Asia, was among the prisoners. A. fell in love with and married her. Upon the news of this,

Oxyantes thought it best to submit, and came to Bactra, where A. received him with distinction. Here a new conspiracy was discovered, at the head of which was Hermolaus, and, among the accomplices, Callisthenes. All the conspirators were condemned to death, except Callisthenes, who was mutilated, and carried about with the army in an iron cage, until he terminated his torments by poison. A. now formed the idea of conquering India, the name of which was scarcely known. He passed the Indus, and formed an alliance with Taxilus, the ruler of the region beyond this river, who assisted him with troops and 130 elephants. Conducted by Taxilus, he marched towards the river Hydaspes, the passage of which, Porus, another king, defended at the head of his army. A. conquered him in a bloody battle, took him prisoner, but restored him to his kingdom. He then marched victoriously through India, established Greek colonies, and built, according to Plutarch, 70 towns, one of which he called Bucephala, after his horse, which had been killed on the Hydaspes. Intoxicated by success, he intended to advance as far as the Ganges, when the murmurs of his army compelled him to return, in doing which he was exposed to great dangers. When he had reached the Hydaspes, he built a fleet, in which he sent a part of his army down the river, while the rest proceeded along the banks. On his march, he encountered several Indian princes, and, during the siege of a town belonging to the Mallii, was severely wounded. Having recovered, he continued his march, sailed down the Indus, and thus reached the sea. Nearchus, his admiral, sailed hence to the Persian gulf, while A. directed his march by land to Babylon. He had to wander through immense deserts, in which the greater part of his army, destitute of water and food, perished in the sand. Only the fourth part of the troops, with which he had set out, returned to Persia. On his route, he quelled several mutinies, and placed governors over various provinces. In Susa, he married two Persian princesses, and rewarded those of his Macedonians who had married Persian women, because it was his intention to unite the two nations as closely as possible. He distributed rich rewards among his troops. At Opis, on the Tigris, he declared his intention of sending the invalids home with presents. The rest of the army mutinied; but he persisted, and effected his

purpose. Soon after, his favorite, Hephæstion, died. His grief was unbounded, and he buried his body with royal splendor. On his return from Ecbatana to Babylon, the magicians are said to have predicted that this city would be fatal to him. The representations of his friends induced him to despise these warnings. He went to Babylon, where many foreign ambassadors waited for him, and was engaged in extensive plans for the future, when he became suddenly sick, after a banquet, and died in a few days, 323 B. C. Such was the end of this conqueror, in his 32d year, after a reign of 12 years and 8 months. He left behind him an immense empire, which became the scene of continual wars. He had designated no heir, and, being asked by his friends to whom he left the empire, answered, "To the worthiest." After many disturbances, the generals acknowledged Aridæus, a man of a very weak mind, the son of Philip and the dancer Philinna, and Alexander, the posthumous son of A. and Roxana, as kings, and divided the provinces among themselves, under the name of satrapies. They appointed Perdiccas, to whom A. on his death-bed had given his ring, prime minister of the infant kings. The body of A. was interred, by Ptolemy, in Alexandria, in a golden coffin, and divine honors were paid to him, not only in Egypt, but also in other countries. His sarcophagus, since 1802, has been in the British museum. Arrian, Diodorus, Plutarch and Curtius are the sources from whence the history of A. is drawn. (See also St. Croix, Exam. critique des Historiens d' Alex., 4to., Paris, 1804.) Secunder is the oriental name of A.

ALEXANDER BALAS, king of Syria, was, according to some, the natural son of Antiochus Epiphanes, but, according to others, a young man of mean extraction at Rhodes, suborned by Heraclides, at the instigation of Ptolemy, Attalus and Ariarthes, to personate the son of Antiochus, and under that title to lay claim to the crown of Syria, in opposition to Demetrius, In a war between the two competitors, A. was slain, B. C. 145.

ALEXANDER JANNEUS, king of the Jews, succeeded to the throne B. C. 106. His fourth brother endeavored to deprive him of the crown, and was put to death. A. began his reign by leading an army against Ptolemais, but was obliged to return to defend his own dominions against Ptolemy Lathyrus, and was defeated on the banks of the Jordan. He subsequently conquered Gaza, made war on the Ara

bians, and was engaged in quarrels with his own subjects. After reducing them to order, he extended his conquests through Syria, Idumæa, Arabia and Phœnicia. On returning to Jerusalem, he devoted himself to drinking and debauchery, and died B. C. 79.

ALEXANDER SEVERUS, a Roman emperor, was born at Acre, in Phoenicia, in the year 205. He was the son of Genesius Marcianus and of Mammæa, niece to the emperor Severus. He was admirably educated by his mother, and was adopted and made Cæsar by his cousin Heliogabalus, then but a few years older than himself, at the prudent instigation of their common grandmother, Mæsa. That contemptible emperor, however, soon grew jealous of his cousin, and would have destroyed him, but for the interference of the prætorian guards, who soon after put Heliogabalus himself to death, and raised Alexander to the imperial dignity in his 17th year. Alexander adopted the noble model of Trajan and the Antonines; and the mode in which he administered the affairs of the empire, and otherwise occupied himself in poetry, philosophy and literature, is eloquently described by Gibbon. On the whole, he governed ably both in peace and war; but, whatever he might owe to the good education given him by his mother, he allowed her a degree of influence in the government, which threw a cloud over the latter part of his reign, as is usually the case with the indirect exercise of female political influence. A. behaved with great magnanimity in one of the frequent insurrections of the prætorian guards; but, either from fear or necessity, he allowed many of their seditious mutinies to pass unpunished, although, in one of them, they murdered their prefect, the learned lawyer Ulpian, and, in another, compelled Dion Cassius, the historian, then consul, to retire into Bithynia. At length, undertaking an expedition into Gaul, to repress an incursion of the Germans, he was murdered, with his mother, in an insurrection of his Gallic troops, headed by the brutal and gigantic Thracian, Maximin, who took advantage of their discontent at the emperor's attempts to restore discipline. This event happened in the year 235, after a reign of 12 years. A. was favorable to Christianity, following the predilections of his mother, Mammæa; and he is said to have placed the statue of Jesus Christ in his private temple, in company with those of Orpheus and Apollonius Tyaneus. In return, the Christian

writers all speak very favorably of him. Herodian, on the contrary, accuses him of great timidity, weakness, and undue subjection to his mother; but exhibits a disposition to detract from his good character on all occasions, in a way that renders his evidence very suspicious. He was thrice married, but left no children. Ælius Lampridius tells the following singular story of A.:-Ovinius Camillus, a Roman senator, conspired against him. A., learning the fact, sent for Ovinius, thanked him for his willingness to relieve him from the burden of government, and then proclaimed him his colleague. A. now gave him so much to do, that he had hardly time to breathe, and, on the breaking out of a war with Artaxerxes, the fatigues to which A. exposed himself, and which Ovinius was compelled to share, so overwhelmed the latter, that, at last, he besought A. to permit him to return to a private station. He was accordingly allowed to resign the imperial dignity.

ALEXANDER; the name of several popes. Alexander I reigned from 109 to 119, and is known only as having introduced the use of holy water.-A. II, Anselm of Milan, previously bishop of Lucca, was, in 1061, raised to the papal throne by the party of Hildebrand, afterwards Gregory VII, while the adherents of the German king, and of the nobility of Rome, chose Honorius II at Basle. This antipope expelled A. from Rome, but Hildebrand, then the soul of the papal government, supported him; a synod at Cologne acknowledged him in 1062, and the Romans themselves revolted, in 1063, from Honorius. Thus A. attained quiet possession of Rome, and of the papal power, which, however, Hildebrand administered in his name. The papal bulls, therefore, against lay investiture, against the marriage of priests, and the divorce of Henry IV, and the haughty summons of this king to appear before the papal chair, must be ascribed to the influence of Hildebrand, who used the weak A. II as his tool. A. died in 1073. (See Gregory VII.)

A. III reigned from 1159 to 1181, and struggled with various fortune, but undaunted courage, against the party of the emperor Frederic I, and the antipopes Victor III, Paschal III, and Calixtus III, who rose, one after the other, against him. He was obliged to flee to France in 1161, where he lived in Sens, until the dissatisfaction of the Lombards with the government of Frederic, the assistance of the German ecclesiastical princes, and the desire of the Romans, opened a way for his

return, in 1165. He now strengthened his power by a league with the cities of Lombardy, but was obliged to retire, in 1167, before the imperial army, and resided in Benevento, Anagni and Venice, until after the victory of the Lombards over the emperor at Legnano, followed by the peace of Venice (so humiliating to the pride of the emperor Frederic, who was compelled to kiss the feet and hold the stirrup of A., in 1177), the abdication of the third antipope, and the return of the victor to Rome. A. humbled, also, Henry II, king of England, who had exposed himself to the papal vengeance by the assassination of Becket. The terms, on which the German and English sovereigns were restored to favor, were such as to increase the power of the pope in both countries. He placed Alfonso II on the throne of Portugal, and laid Scotland under an interdict on account of the disobedience of the king. The rest of his labors to augment the papal power, and his persevering efforts, in the spirit of Gregory VII, till the period of his death, are related in the article Popery.-A. IV, count of Segni and bishop of Ostia, ascended the papal throne in 1254, at a very unfavorable time. Conquered by Manfred of Sicily, implicated in the quarrels of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, despised in Italy, this pope, with good intentions, and a peaceable disposition, was not able to prevent, either by his prayers or his excommunications (which were only laughed at), the disturbances prevailing over the whole country. At his death, in 1261, he left the papal power in a state of great weakness.-A. V., a Greek from Candia, under the name of Peter Philargi, a mendicant friar, rose to the dignity of cardinal, and was chosen pope in 1409, at the same time with the antipopes Gregory XII and Benedict XIII. He was considered by the greater part of Christendom legitimate pope, but carried his prodigality and luxury in Bologna, where he constantly resided, to an extent injurious to the interests of the church. At the council of Pisa, he promised to reform the abuses prevailing in the church, but took no steps towards it. While occupied in the condemnation of the doctrines of Wickliffe, and in preparations for the trial of the Bohemian reformer, Huss, he died in 1410, probably by poison.-A. VI. (See the following article.)—A. VII, who was employed, when cardinal Chigi, as papal nuncio, in negotiations of peace at Munster and Osnabruck, and was revered on account of his pious zeal for the church and holy life,

laid aside the mask of sanctity after his elevation to the papal throne, April 8, 1655, and gave himself openly up to luxury and voluptuousness. He surrounded himself with show and splendor, and appeared in the character of an intriguing politician. For an account of his condemnation of the 5 points of Jansen's Augustinus, and the quarrels in which he was consequently involved in France, see Jansen. He quarrelled not only with the Sorbonne, and the parliament, but even with king Louis XÎV; so that the latter declared war against him, took Avignon and Venaissin, and forced him, in 1663, to make a disgraceful peace at Pisa. His improvements in the city of Rome, his attempts at poetry, and encouragement of learned men, could not indemnify the Roman court for the loss of authority in France, and he died without glory, May 22, 1667. —A. VIII, an Ottoboni from Venice, became pope in 1689. By artful negotiations, he induced Louis XIV to deliver up Avignon and Venaissin, and to renounce the privileges belonging to the quarter of his ambassador in Rome. He supplied the Venetians with men, money and ships to carry on a war against the Turks. Less intent upon the weal of the church than on enriching his own family, he delayed the condemnation of the 4 articles of the Gallican church, in order to gain advantages for his relations. He was hostile towards the Jesuits, and condemned their doctrine of the philosophical sin; at the same time, however, 31 theses of the Jansenists. (See Jansen.) The library of the Vatican is indebted to him for the purchase of the excellent library of the queen Christina of Sweden. He died in 1691, 81 years old.

ÅLEXANDER VI, a notorious pope, was born at Valencia, in Spain, in 1430, and ascended the papal throne in 1492. His name was Rodrigo Lenzuoli; but he took the ancient and renowned name of his mother's family, Borgia. In his youth he was noted for dissipation, though not destitute of talent. He had 5 children, by a woman famous for her beauty, Rosa Vanozza. Cæsar Borgia and Lucretia are the most known; the latter was four times married, and was suspected of incestuous intercourse with her father and brothers. A. was made a cardinal by pope Calixtus III, his uncle. By bribing the cardinals Sforza, Riario and Cibo, he prepared his way to the papal throne, after the death of Innocent VIII. The long residence of the popes in Avignon, at a distance from their dominions in Italy, had