What the
ancients
took for a nest
of a bird, is in reality a zoophyte, of the class named
halcyonium by Linnreus, and of the particular species
called gcodie by Lamarck.
of a bird, is in reality a zoophyte, of the class named
halcyonium by Linnreus, and of the particular species
called gcodie by Lamarck.
Charles - 1867 - Classical Dictionary
, 40, 47, *eqq.
)
ALCMOR, an Argive, who, along with Chronius,
wrrired on his side, the battle between 300 of his
fxintrrmen and 3OO Lacedemonians. ( Vid. Othrya-
bi. --Hcrodat. , I, 82. )
ALCKTIS, daughter of Pelias and wife of Admetus.
Her father had offered to give her in marriage to this
prince, on condition of his previously yoking lions and
tears to a chariot, and Admetus successfully accom-
plished this through the aid of Apollo. This same deity,
who was then serving with Admetus, in accordance
with the sentence that had been passed against him
(nd. . ? sculapius, Amphry sus, and Cyclopes), obtained
from the fates, that when Admetus should be about
to end his existence, his life would be spared and pro-
longed, provided another willingly died in his stead.
When the day came. Alcestis heroically devoted her-
ielf for her husband, but -was rescued from the lower
world and restored to the regions of day by Hercules.
According to another version of the legend, she was
tent back again to life by Proserpina. Euripides has
bunded upon this story of Alcestis one of his most
beautiful tragedies. (Apollod. , 1, 9, 14. ) This game
legend U also given in a different and more historical
form, ax follows ? . when Medea had prevailed upon the
daughters of Pelias to cut their father in pieces, in ex-
pectation of seeing him restored to youth, and they
were panned by their brother Acagtus, Alcestis fled
for protection to her cousin Admetug. This prince
refusing to deliver her up, Acagtus marched against
him, took him prisoner, and threatened to put him to
death, when Alcestis heroically surrendered herself
into her brother's hands, and saved the life of Adme-
tuc. It happened, however, that, just at thig time,
Hercules came that way with the horses of Diomede,
tad was hospitably entertained by Admetus. On
learning from him what had taken place, the hero was
fired with indignation, attacked Acastus, destroyed his
army,and rescued Alcestis. whom he restored in safe-
ty to his royal host. (Eudocia, Ion. ap. Vtlloison. ,
Anted. Grate. , vol. 1, 21, seqq. )
f is, I. a king of Epirus, descended from Pyr-
rhus, the son of Achilles, and an ancestor of 1'ynhus,
king of Epirug. He was driven by his subjects from
the throne, bat regained his power by the aid of Dio-
nyous the elder, of Syracuse. --II. King of Epirug,
? on of Arymbas. and grandson of the preceding. His
subjects strangled him, together with his two sons,
B. C. 312. --III. The eighth king of Macedonia, son
of-'EropuB, and father of Amyntas I. He reigned 29
years, from 576 to 647 B. C. --IV. A general of Al-
exander the Great, and brother of Perdiccas. He slew
himself after a defeat by Antigonus, during the contests
? ? that ensued after Alexander's decease. --V. An his-
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? ALC
ALCM. EON.
For Alcidcm in the passage of Livy here quoted, we
should no doubt read, according to Turnebus (Advers. ,
30, 57), Alcidemum, " the people's strength. "
Aecibachus, a painter. (Vid. Supplement. )
Alcimrdon, I. an Arcadian hero. (Vid. Supple-
ment. )--II. An embosser or chaser spoken of by Vir-
gil (Eclog. , 3, 37, 44), who mentions some goblets of
his workmanship. Sillig thinks he was a contempo-
rary of the poet's.
Alcimknes. Vid. Supplement.
Alcimos. Vid. Supplement.
Alcinoos, I. a son of Nausithous, king of Phseacia,
praised for his love of agriculture. He kindly enter-
tained Ulysses, who had been shipwrecked on his coast.
The gardens of Alcinous are beautifully described by
Homer, and have afforded, also, a favourite theme for
succeeding poets. The island of the Phsacians is
called by Homer Scheria. Its more ancient name
was Drepane. After the days of Homer it was called
Corcyra. Now Corfu. ( Vid. Corcyra. --Homer, Od. ,
7--Orph. , in Argon. --Virg. , G. , 2, 87-- Stat. , I. --
Sylv. , 3, 81. ) -- II. A Platonic philosopher. {Vid.
Supplement. )--III. A son of Hippothoon, who, in con-
junction with his father and eleven brothers, expelled
Icarion and Tyndareus from Lacednmon, but was af-
terward killed, with his father and brothers, by Hercu-
les. (Apollod. , 3, 10, 5. )
Alciphron, the most distinguished of the Greek
epistolary writers. Nothing is known of his life, and
even his era is uncertain. Some critics place him be-
tween Lucian, whom he has imitated, and Aristeme-
tus, to whom he served as a model; in other words,
between the years 170 and 350 of the present era.
Others, however, are inclined to transfer him to the
fifth century. Neither side have attended to the cir-
cumstance of there being among the letters of Aris-
ttenetus a kind of correspondence between Lucian
and Alciphron. This correspondence, it is true, is
fictitious; yet it indicates, at the same time, that Aris-
tsnetus regarded those two writers as contemporaries,
and we have no good reason to accuse him of any er-
ror in this respect. Though a contemporary, Alciph-
ron might still have imitated Lucian: it is much more
probable, however, that the passages which appear to
us to be imitations are borrowed by those two writers
from some ancient comic poets. The letters of Al-
ciphron are 116 in number, forming three books. They
are distinguished for purity, clearness, and simplicity,
and are important as giving us a representation of
Athenian manners, drawn from dramatic poets whose
writings are now lost. The best portion of the work
is the 2d book, containing the letters of the hctera, or
courtesans; and, among these, that of Menander to
Glycerion, and that of Glycerion to Menander. The
principal editions are, that of Bergler, Lips. , 1715,8vo,
with an excellent commentary; that of Wagner, Lips. ,
1778, 2 vols. 8vo, containing a corrected text, a Latin
version, the commentary of Bergler, and the editor's
own notes; and that of Boissonade, Paris, 1822, 8vo.
Wagner had been furnished by Bast with the readings
of two Vienna MSS. , but, according to the Critical
Epistle of the last-mentioned scholar, did not make all
the use of these collated readings which he might have
done. Among the papers of Bast, after his decease,
were found various readings of the Letters of Alciph-
ron, derived from four Paris MSS. , two of the Vat-
ican, and one of Heidelberg. Many of these were
? ? preferable to the received readings. Along with them
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? ALC
Having shown much kindness and attention to the
person* whom Croesus had sent to Delphi for the pur-
pose of consulting the oracle, that monarch invited
him to Sardis, and gave him permission to carry from
the royal treasury as much gold as he could bear off
with him at one visit. Herodotus (6, 125) gives an
account of the mode in which he availed himself of
the royal oOei^ filling with gold his arms, the folds of
hi* habit, his large shoes worn expressly for the occa-
sion, and having not only his hair powdered with gold-
? f'ibut m* mouth fu>> of it. To these Crcesus even
added other valuable presents; and to this source He-
rodotus traces the wealth of the family. We must not,
however, regard this Alcaueon as the founder of the
line. (Compare AIcma=on II. )--IV. The last of the
perpetual archons at Athens, was succeeded by Cha-
mps, the son of ^Eschylus, as decennial archon.
Boecth (. Explic. ad find. , Pylk. , 7, p 301) makes him
not to have belonged to the family of the Alcmajonidaj
proper, but to have been reckoned among the Alcmteon-
ids merely because his mother belonged to that house.
--V. A natural philosopher. (Vid. Supplement. )
Alcjlkoxid^:, a noble family of Athens, descended
from Alcmson. ( Vid. Alcmaon II. ) When driven
from Athens by the tyranny of the Pisistratidae, they
first endeavoured to return by force of arms ; but hav-
ing met with a serious check at Lipsydrion, in the
Psoman borough of A. ttica, they turned their atten-
tion to a surer and more pacific mode of operation.
The temple at Delphi having been burned, and having
remained in ruins for some considerable time, the Alc-
r. iT. jin i. i. after their defeat, engaged with the Am-
phietyonic council to rebuild the structure for the
sum of 300 talents. They finished the work, however,
in a much more splendid manner than the terms of
their contract required, and attained, in consequence, to
great popularity. By dint of the favour with which
they were now regarded, as well as by means of a
Urge sum of money, they prevailed upon the Pytho-
ns-- whenever application of a public or private na-
ture was made from Lacedasinon to the god at Delphi,
to conclude the answer of"the oracle, whatever it might
be, with an admonition to the Lacedcemonians to give
liberty to Athens. This artifice had the desired effect;
and, though Sparta was in friendly relations with the
PUistr atithe, it was determined to invade Attica,
which was accordingly done, and the result was, that
the Spartans expelled Hippias, and restored the Alc-
mioiml. t- (B. C. 510). The restored family found
themselves in an isolated position, between the nobles,
who appeared to have been opposed to them, and the
popular party, which had been hitherto attached to the
PUistratide. Clisthenes, now the head of thc. Alc-
mxonida;, joined the latter party, and gave a new con-
? titution to Athens. He abolished the four ancient
tribes, and made a fresh geographical division of Atti-
ca into ten new tribes, each of which bore a name de-
rived from some Attic hero. The ten tribes were sub-
divided into districts of various extent called- done* or
borough*, each containing a town or village as its chief
place. The constitution of Clisthenes had the effect
of transforming the commonalty into a new body. The
whole frame of the state was recognized to corre-
spond with the new division of the country. To Clis-
thenes. also, i<< ascribed the formal institution of the
ostracism.
Alcmaj. Vid. Supplement.
Alcmena. was daughter of Electryon, king of My-
? ? cene. and Anaxo. whom Plutarch calls I. ysidice, and
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? ALE
ALE
upon it. The halcyon was, on this account, though a
querulous, lamenting bird, regarded by the ancients as
a symbol of tranquillity; and, from living principally
on the water, was consecrated to Thetis. According
to Pliny (10, 47), the halcyons only showed them-
selves at the setting of the Pleiades and towards the
winter-solstice, and even then they were but rarely
seen. They made their nests, according to the same
writer, during the seven days immediately preceding
the winter-solstice, and laid their eggs during the seven
days that follow. These fourteen days are the " dies
halcyonii," or " halcyon-days," of antiquity. He de-
scribes their nests as resembling, while they float upon
the waters, a kind of ball, a little lengthened out at the
top, with a very narrow opening, and the whole not
unlike a large sponge. A great deal of this is pure
fable. The only bird in modern times at all resem-
bling either of the two kinds of halcyons described by
Aristotle (8, 3), is the Alcedo Ismda, or what the
French call martin-pechcur. All that is said, too,
about the nest floating on the water, and the days of
calm, is untrue.
What the ancients took for a nest
of a bird, is in reality a zoophyte, of the class named
halcyonium by Linnreus, and of the particular species
called gcodie by Lamarck. The martin-pechcur makes
its nest in holes along the shore, or, rather, it deposites
its eggs in such holes as it finds there. Moreover, it
lays its eggs in the spring, and has no connexion
whatever with calm weather. (G. Cuvicr, ad Plin. ,
I. c. )--II. A daughter of Atlas, and one of the Pleia-
des. (Vid. Pleiades. -- Apollod. . 3, 10. )--III. An ap-
pellation given to Cleopatra, daughter of Idas and
Marpcssa. The mother had been carried off, in her
younger days, by Apollo, but had been rescued by her
husband Idas, and from the plaintive cries which she
uttered while being abducted, resembling the lament
of the halcyon, the appellation Alcyone was given as
a kind of surname to her daughter Cleopatra. (Horn. ,
H. , 9, 553, seqq. )
Alcyonia, Pai. us, a pool in Argolis, not far from
the Lemean marsh. Nero attempted to measure it by
means of a plummet several stadia in length, but could
discover no bottom. (Pausan. , 2,37. )
Alcyonium hare, a name given to an arm of the Si-
nus Corinthiacus, or Gulf of Lepanto, which stretched
between the western coast of Hrrot ia. the northern coast
of Megaris, and the northwestern extremity of Corin-
thia, as far as the promontory of Olmise. (Strab. , 336. )
Alocabis. Vid. Dubis.
Alea, a town of Arcadia, near the eastern confines,
and to the northeast of Orchomcnus. It had three
famous temples, that of the Ephesian Diana, of Miner-
va Alea, and of Bacchus. The feast of Bacchus, call-
ed Skiria, was celebrated here every third year, at
which time, according to Pausanias, the women were
scourged, in obedience to a command of the oracle at
Delphi. (Pausan. , 8, 23. )
AlebTon and Dercyncs, sons of Neptune. (Vid.
Albion I. )
Alecto, one of the Furies. The name is derived
from u, priv. , and ? . ijyu, "to cease," from her never
ceasing to pursue the wicked. (Vid. Eurnenides. )
Alector. Vid. Supplement.
Ai. ECTRYON. a youth whom Mars, during his meet-
ing with Venus, stationed at the door to watch against
the approach of the sun. He fell asleep, and Apollo
came and discovered the guilty pair. Mars was so
? ? incensed that he changed Alectryon into a cock, who,
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? Aiisu or ALKXIA. , a famous and strongly fortified
tCTol'theMandubu, in Oallia Celtica. It was so an-
neal a city, that Diodorus Siculus (4, 19) ascribes
Iks building of it to Hercules. (Compare the learned
md ingenious remarks of Ritter, in his Vorhallc, p.
378, OB the subject of the Celtic Hercules. ) It wa<<
atoalt on a high hill, supposed to be Mount Anxots,
northe sources of the Sequa'na or Seine, and washed
m two (idea by the small rivers Lutosa and Ozera,
now lot and Ozeram. Alesia was taken and destroy-
edby Cesar after a famous siege, but was rebuilt, and
became a place of considerable consequence under the
Roman emperors. It was laid in ruins in the 9th
century by the Normans. At the foot of Mount Aux-
ois it a village called Alise (Depart. Gated'Or), with
serfral hundred inhabitants. (Flor. , 3, 10. --Cat. .
B. G. , 7. 69. )
ALESIBII, a mountain in the vicinity of Mantinea, on
which was a grove dedicated to Ceres; also the tem-
pfeofthe equestrian Neptune, an edifice of great an-
tiquity, which had been originally built, according to
tradition, by Agamedes and Trophonius, but was af-
terward enclosed -within a new structure by order of
Hadrian. The mountain was said to have taken its
name from the wanderings of Rhca (ri> opo? ra '\faj-
eu>f. diu T^V afajv, c3f oaai, Kafovftevov ryv 'Peoc.
-Pdiuan. , 8, 10).
ALETZS ('AAiJnyf ), a son of Hippotes, and descend-
ant of Hercules in the fifth degree. He is said to have
taken possession of Corinth, and to have expelled the
SmphiiU thirty years after the first invasion of the
Peloponnesus by the rleraclidaB. His family, some-
times called the Alt1 tiilrr, maintained themselves at
Corinth down to the time of Bacchis. (Pa. ua. , 2, 4,
S; 5. 18, 2 -- StraJt. , 8, p. 389. --CaUim. , Frag. , 103.
--Pisi, Otym. 13, 17. ) Velleius Paterculus (1, 3)
call* him a descendant of Hercules in the sixth de-
gree. He received an oracle promising him the sov-
ereignty of Athens, if during the war which was then
goin* on its kings should remain uninjured. This
otaele became known at Athens, and Codrus sacri-
ficed himself for his country. (Vid. Codrus. --Canon. ,
A'orrui. , 26. ) Other persons of this name are men-
tioned in Apottod. , 3, 1O, 6; Hygm. , Fab. , 122; and
rtrgd, JEn. , 1, 121; 9, 462.
ALHUD. T. Vtd. Supplement.
ALEUAL Vid. Supplement.
ALEXAHEMUS, I. a native of Teos. (Vid. Supple-
ment. )--II. A general of the . -Etolians, who, with a body
of his countrymen, slew Nabis, tyrant of Sparta. He
had been sent at the head of a band of auxiliaries, by the
-Etoiiins, ostensibly to aid Nabis, but in reality to get
possession of Lacediemon. The inhabitants, however,
rallied after the fall of the tyrant, defeated the -Etoli-
ans, who were scattered throughout the city and plun-
dering it, and slew Alexamenus. (/,<,-. . 35, 34, seqq. )
ALEXANDER, a name of very common occurrence,
as designating not only kings, but private individuals.
We will classify the monarchs by countries, and then
come to private or leas conspicuous personages.
1. King* of Macedonia.
ALEXANDER I. , son of Amyntas, and tenth king of
Maeedon. He ascended the throne 497 B. C. , and
reigned 43 years. It was he who, while still a youth,
slew, in company with a party of his young friends,
habited in female attire, the Persian ambassadors at
hi* father's court, having been provoked to the act by
their immodest behaviour towards the females present
at 3 banquet. With this prince the glory of Maeedon
? ? may be said to have commenced. He enlarged his
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? ALEXANDER.
ALEXANDER.
gcanec of his father, but he soon obtained pardon and
returned. He afterward accompanied Philip on an
expedition against the Triballi, and saved his life in a
battle. Philip, having been elected chief commander
of the Greeks, was preparing /or a war against Per-
sia, when he was assassinated, B. C. 336. This occur-
rence, at an eventful crisis, excited some suspicion
against Alexander and Olympian; but as it was one
of his first acts to execute justice on those of his fa-
ther's assassins who fell into his hands, several of the
nobility being implicated in the plot, this imputation
rests on little beyond surmise. It is more than prob-
able that the conspirators were in correspondence with
the Persian court, and that ample promises of protec-
tion and support were given to men undertaking to
deliver the empire from the impending invasion of the
captain-general of Greece. Alexander, who succeed-
ed without opposition, was at this time in his twentieth
year; and his youth. in the first instance, excited sev-
eral of the states of Greece to endeavour to set aside
the Macedonian ascendency. By a sudden march into
Thessaly he, however, soon overawed the most active;
and when, on a report of his death, chiefly at the in-
stigation of Demosthenes and his party, the various
states were excited to great commotion, he punished
the open revolt of Thebes with a severity which ef-
fectually prevented any imitation of its example. In-
duced to stand a siege, that unhappy city, after being
mastered with dreadful slaughter, was razed to the
ground, with the ostentatious exception of the houBe
of the poet Pindar alone; while the unfortunate sur-
viving inhabitants were stripped of all their posses-
sions and sold indiscriminately into slavery. Intimi-
dating by this cruel policy, the Macedonian party
gained the ascendency in every state throughout
Greece, and Athens particularly disgraced itself by
the meanness of its submission. Alexander then pro-
ceeded to Corinth, where, in a general assembly of
the states, his office of superior commander was rec-
ognised and defined; and in the twenty-second year
of his age, leaving Antipater, his viceroy, in Macedon,
he passed the Hellespont, to overturn the Persian em-
pire, with an army not exceeding four thousand five
hundred horse and thirty thousand foot. To secure
the protection of Minerva, he sacrificed to her on the
plain of Ilium, crowned the tomb of Achilles, and con-
gratulated this hero, from whom he was descended
through his mother, on his good fortune in having had
such a friend as Patroclus, and such a poet as Homer
to celebrate his fame. The rapid movements of Alex-
ander had evidently taken the Persian satraps by sur-
prise. They had, without making a single attempt to
molest his passage, allowed him, with a far inferior
fleet, to convey his troops into Asia. They now re-
solved to advance and contest the passage of the river
Granicus. A force of twenty thousand cavalry was
drawn up on the right bank of the stream, while an
equal number of Greek mercenaries crowned the hills
in the rear. Unintimidated, however, by this array,
Alexander led his army across, and, after a severe con-
flict, gained a decisive victory. The loss on the Per-
sian side was heavy, on that of their conquerors so
extremely slight (only eighty-five horsemen and thirty
foot soldiers) as to lead at once to the belief, that the
general, who wrote the account of Alexander's cam-
paigns, mentioned the loss of only the native-born
Macedonians. Splendid funeral obsequies were per-
? ? formed in honour of those of his army who had fallen;
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? ALEXANDER.
and rejected the proposals of Alexander for peace.
A battle was fought at Gaugamela, not far from Arbe-
la, B. C. 331. Airian estimates the array of Darius at
1,000. 000 of infantry and 40,000 cavalry; while that
of Alexander consisted of only 40,000 infantry and
<000 horse. On the Persian side, moreover, were
some of the bravest and hardiest tribes of upper Asia.
^ ot withstanding the immense numerical superiority of
his enemy, Alexander was not a moment doubtful of
victory. At the head of his cavalry he attacked the
Persians, and routed them after a short conflict. One
great object of his ambition was to capture the Per-
sian monarch on the field of battle; and that object
was at one time apparently within his grasp, when he
received, at the instant, a message from Parmenio that
the left wing, which that general commanded, was hard
pressed by the Sacse, Albanians, and Parthians, and he
was compelled, of course, to hasten to its relief. Dari-
us fled from the field of battle, leaving his army, bag-
gage, and immense treasures to the victor. Babylon
and Susa, where the riches of the East lay accumula-
ted, opened their gates to Alexander, who directed his
march to Persepolis, the capital of Persia. The only
passage thither was defended by 40,000 men under
Ariobarxanes. Alexander attacked them in the rear,
routed them, and entered Persepolis triumphant.
From this time the glory of Alexander began to decline.
Master of the greatest empire in the world, he became
i slave to his own passions; gave himself up to arro-
gance 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. Per-
Kpolis, the wonder of the world, he burned in a fit ef
intoxication. Ashamed of this act, he set out with his
cavalry to pursue Darius. Learning that Bessus, sa-
trap of Bactriana, kept the king prisoner, he hastened
his march with the hope of saving him.
ALCMOR, an Argive, who, along with Chronius,
wrrired on his side, the battle between 300 of his
fxintrrmen and 3OO Lacedemonians. ( Vid. Othrya-
bi. --Hcrodat. , I, 82. )
ALCKTIS, daughter of Pelias and wife of Admetus.
Her father had offered to give her in marriage to this
prince, on condition of his previously yoking lions and
tears to a chariot, and Admetus successfully accom-
plished this through the aid of Apollo. This same deity,
who was then serving with Admetus, in accordance
with the sentence that had been passed against him
(nd. . ? sculapius, Amphry sus, and Cyclopes), obtained
from the fates, that when Admetus should be about
to end his existence, his life would be spared and pro-
longed, provided another willingly died in his stead.
When the day came. Alcestis heroically devoted her-
ielf for her husband, but -was rescued from the lower
world and restored to the regions of day by Hercules.
According to another version of the legend, she was
tent back again to life by Proserpina. Euripides has
bunded upon this story of Alcestis one of his most
beautiful tragedies. (Apollod. , 1, 9, 14. ) This game
legend U also given in a different and more historical
form, ax follows ? . when Medea had prevailed upon the
daughters of Pelias to cut their father in pieces, in ex-
pectation of seeing him restored to youth, and they
were panned by their brother Acagtus, Alcestis fled
for protection to her cousin Admetug. This prince
refusing to deliver her up, Acagtus marched against
him, took him prisoner, and threatened to put him to
death, when Alcestis heroically surrendered herself
into her brother's hands, and saved the life of Adme-
tuc. It happened, however, that, just at thig time,
Hercules came that way with the horses of Diomede,
tad was hospitably entertained by Admetus. On
learning from him what had taken place, the hero was
fired with indignation, attacked Acastus, destroyed his
army,and rescued Alcestis. whom he restored in safe-
ty to his royal host. (Eudocia, Ion. ap. Vtlloison. ,
Anted. Grate. , vol. 1, 21, seqq. )
f is, I. a king of Epirus, descended from Pyr-
rhus, the son of Achilles, and an ancestor of 1'ynhus,
king of Epirug. He was driven by his subjects from
the throne, bat regained his power by the aid of Dio-
nyous the elder, of Syracuse. --II. King of Epirug,
? on of Arymbas. and grandson of the preceding. His
subjects strangled him, together with his two sons,
B. C. 312. --III. The eighth king of Macedonia, son
of-'EropuB, and father of Amyntas I. He reigned 29
years, from 576 to 647 B. C. --IV. A general of Al-
exander the Great, and brother of Perdiccas. He slew
himself after a defeat by Antigonus, during the contests
? ? that ensued after Alexander's decease. --V. An his-
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? ALC
ALCM. EON.
For Alcidcm in the passage of Livy here quoted, we
should no doubt read, according to Turnebus (Advers. ,
30, 57), Alcidemum, " the people's strength. "
Aecibachus, a painter. (Vid. Supplement. )
Alcimrdon, I. an Arcadian hero. (Vid. Supple-
ment. )--II. An embosser or chaser spoken of by Vir-
gil (Eclog. , 3, 37, 44), who mentions some goblets of
his workmanship. Sillig thinks he was a contempo-
rary of the poet's.
Alcimknes. Vid. Supplement.
Alcimos. Vid. Supplement.
Alcinoos, I. a son of Nausithous, king of Phseacia,
praised for his love of agriculture. He kindly enter-
tained Ulysses, who had been shipwrecked on his coast.
The gardens of Alcinous are beautifully described by
Homer, and have afforded, also, a favourite theme for
succeeding poets. The island of the Phsacians is
called by Homer Scheria. Its more ancient name
was Drepane. After the days of Homer it was called
Corcyra. Now Corfu. ( Vid. Corcyra. --Homer, Od. ,
7--Orph. , in Argon. --Virg. , G. , 2, 87-- Stat. , I. --
Sylv. , 3, 81. ) -- II. A Platonic philosopher. {Vid.
Supplement. )--III. A son of Hippothoon, who, in con-
junction with his father and eleven brothers, expelled
Icarion and Tyndareus from Lacednmon, but was af-
terward killed, with his father and brothers, by Hercu-
les. (Apollod. , 3, 10, 5. )
Alciphron, the most distinguished of the Greek
epistolary writers. Nothing is known of his life, and
even his era is uncertain. Some critics place him be-
tween Lucian, whom he has imitated, and Aristeme-
tus, to whom he served as a model; in other words,
between the years 170 and 350 of the present era.
Others, however, are inclined to transfer him to the
fifth century. Neither side have attended to the cir-
cumstance of there being among the letters of Aris-
ttenetus a kind of correspondence between Lucian
and Alciphron. This correspondence, it is true, is
fictitious; yet it indicates, at the same time, that Aris-
tsnetus regarded those two writers as contemporaries,
and we have no good reason to accuse him of any er-
ror in this respect. Though a contemporary, Alciph-
ron might still have imitated Lucian: it is much more
probable, however, that the passages which appear to
us to be imitations are borrowed by those two writers
from some ancient comic poets. The letters of Al-
ciphron are 116 in number, forming three books. They
are distinguished for purity, clearness, and simplicity,
and are important as giving us a representation of
Athenian manners, drawn from dramatic poets whose
writings are now lost. The best portion of the work
is the 2d book, containing the letters of the hctera, or
courtesans; and, among these, that of Menander to
Glycerion, and that of Glycerion to Menander. The
principal editions are, that of Bergler, Lips. , 1715,8vo,
with an excellent commentary; that of Wagner, Lips. ,
1778, 2 vols. 8vo, containing a corrected text, a Latin
version, the commentary of Bergler, and the editor's
own notes; and that of Boissonade, Paris, 1822, 8vo.
Wagner had been furnished by Bast with the readings
of two Vienna MSS. , but, according to the Critical
Epistle of the last-mentioned scholar, did not make all
the use of these collated readings which he might have
done. Among the papers of Bast, after his decease,
were found various readings of the Letters of Alciph-
ron, derived from four Paris MSS. , two of the Vat-
ican, and one of Heidelberg. Many of these were
? ? preferable to the received readings. Along with them
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? ALC
Having shown much kindness and attention to the
person* whom Croesus had sent to Delphi for the pur-
pose of consulting the oracle, that monarch invited
him to Sardis, and gave him permission to carry from
the royal treasury as much gold as he could bear off
with him at one visit. Herodotus (6, 125) gives an
account of the mode in which he availed himself of
the royal oOei^ filling with gold his arms, the folds of
hi* habit, his large shoes worn expressly for the occa-
sion, and having not only his hair powdered with gold-
? f'ibut m* mouth fu>> of it. To these Crcesus even
added other valuable presents; and to this source He-
rodotus traces the wealth of the family. We must not,
however, regard this Alcaueon as the founder of the
line. (Compare AIcma=on II. )--IV. The last of the
perpetual archons at Athens, was succeeded by Cha-
mps, the son of ^Eschylus, as decennial archon.
Boecth (. Explic. ad find. , Pylk. , 7, p 301) makes him
not to have belonged to the family of the Alcmajonidaj
proper, but to have been reckoned among the Alcmteon-
ids merely because his mother belonged to that house.
--V. A natural philosopher. (Vid. Supplement. )
Alcjlkoxid^:, a noble family of Athens, descended
from Alcmson. ( Vid. Alcmaon II. ) When driven
from Athens by the tyranny of the Pisistratidae, they
first endeavoured to return by force of arms ; but hav-
ing met with a serious check at Lipsydrion, in the
Psoman borough of A. ttica, they turned their atten-
tion to a surer and more pacific mode of operation.
The temple at Delphi having been burned, and having
remained in ruins for some considerable time, the Alc-
r. iT. jin i. i. after their defeat, engaged with the Am-
phietyonic council to rebuild the structure for the
sum of 300 talents. They finished the work, however,
in a much more splendid manner than the terms of
their contract required, and attained, in consequence, to
great popularity. By dint of the favour with which
they were now regarded, as well as by means of a
Urge sum of money, they prevailed upon the Pytho-
ns-- whenever application of a public or private na-
ture was made from Lacedasinon to the god at Delphi,
to conclude the answer of"the oracle, whatever it might
be, with an admonition to the Lacedcemonians to give
liberty to Athens. This artifice had the desired effect;
and, though Sparta was in friendly relations with the
PUistr atithe, it was determined to invade Attica,
which was accordingly done, and the result was, that
the Spartans expelled Hippias, and restored the Alc-
mioiml. t- (B. C. 510). The restored family found
themselves in an isolated position, between the nobles,
who appeared to have been opposed to them, and the
popular party, which had been hitherto attached to the
PUistratide. Clisthenes, now the head of thc. Alc-
mxonida;, joined the latter party, and gave a new con-
? titution to Athens. He abolished the four ancient
tribes, and made a fresh geographical division of Atti-
ca into ten new tribes, each of which bore a name de-
rived from some Attic hero. The ten tribes were sub-
divided into districts of various extent called- done* or
borough*, each containing a town or village as its chief
place. The constitution of Clisthenes had the effect
of transforming the commonalty into a new body. The
whole frame of the state was recognized to corre-
spond with the new division of the country. To Clis-
thenes. also, i<< ascribed the formal institution of the
ostracism.
Alcmaj. Vid. Supplement.
Alcmena. was daughter of Electryon, king of My-
? ? cene. and Anaxo. whom Plutarch calls I. ysidice, and
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? ALE
ALE
upon it. The halcyon was, on this account, though a
querulous, lamenting bird, regarded by the ancients as
a symbol of tranquillity; and, from living principally
on the water, was consecrated to Thetis. According
to Pliny (10, 47), the halcyons only showed them-
selves at the setting of the Pleiades and towards the
winter-solstice, and even then they were but rarely
seen. They made their nests, according to the same
writer, during the seven days immediately preceding
the winter-solstice, and laid their eggs during the seven
days that follow. These fourteen days are the " dies
halcyonii," or " halcyon-days," of antiquity. He de-
scribes their nests as resembling, while they float upon
the waters, a kind of ball, a little lengthened out at the
top, with a very narrow opening, and the whole not
unlike a large sponge. A great deal of this is pure
fable. The only bird in modern times at all resem-
bling either of the two kinds of halcyons described by
Aristotle (8, 3), is the Alcedo Ismda, or what the
French call martin-pechcur. All that is said, too,
about the nest floating on the water, and the days of
calm, is untrue.
What the ancients took for a nest
of a bird, is in reality a zoophyte, of the class named
halcyonium by Linnreus, and of the particular species
called gcodie by Lamarck. The martin-pechcur makes
its nest in holes along the shore, or, rather, it deposites
its eggs in such holes as it finds there. Moreover, it
lays its eggs in the spring, and has no connexion
whatever with calm weather. (G. Cuvicr, ad Plin. ,
I. c. )--II. A daughter of Atlas, and one of the Pleia-
des. (Vid. Pleiades. -- Apollod. . 3, 10. )--III. An ap-
pellation given to Cleopatra, daughter of Idas and
Marpcssa. The mother had been carried off, in her
younger days, by Apollo, but had been rescued by her
husband Idas, and from the plaintive cries which she
uttered while being abducted, resembling the lament
of the halcyon, the appellation Alcyone was given as
a kind of surname to her daughter Cleopatra. (Horn. ,
H. , 9, 553, seqq. )
Alcyonia, Pai. us, a pool in Argolis, not far from
the Lemean marsh. Nero attempted to measure it by
means of a plummet several stadia in length, but could
discover no bottom. (Pausan. , 2,37. )
Alcyonium hare, a name given to an arm of the Si-
nus Corinthiacus, or Gulf of Lepanto, which stretched
between the western coast of Hrrot ia. the northern coast
of Megaris, and the northwestern extremity of Corin-
thia, as far as the promontory of Olmise. (Strab. , 336. )
Alocabis. Vid. Dubis.
Alea, a town of Arcadia, near the eastern confines,
and to the northeast of Orchomcnus. It had three
famous temples, that of the Ephesian Diana, of Miner-
va Alea, and of Bacchus. The feast of Bacchus, call-
ed Skiria, was celebrated here every third year, at
which time, according to Pausanias, the women were
scourged, in obedience to a command of the oracle at
Delphi. (Pausan. , 8, 23. )
AlebTon and Dercyncs, sons of Neptune. (Vid.
Albion I. )
Alecto, one of the Furies. The name is derived
from u, priv. , and ? . ijyu, "to cease," from her never
ceasing to pursue the wicked. (Vid. Eurnenides. )
Alector. Vid. Supplement.
Ai. ECTRYON. a youth whom Mars, during his meet-
ing with Venus, stationed at the door to watch against
the approach of the sun. He fell asleep, and Apollo
came and discovered the guilty pair. Mars was so
? ? incensed that he changed Alectryon into a cock, who,
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? Aiisu or ALKXIA. , a famous and strongly fortified
tCTol'theMandubu, in Oallia Celtica. It was so an-
neal a city, that Diodorus Siculus (4, 19) ascribes
Iks building of it to Hercules. (Compare the learned
md ingenious remarks of Ritter, in his Vorhallc, p.
378, OB the subject of the Celtic Hercules. ) It wa<<
atoalt on a high hill, supposed to be Mount Anxots,
northe sources of the Sequa'na or Seine, and washed
m two (idea by the small rivers Lutosa and Ozera,
now lot and Ozeram. Alesia was taken and destroy-
edby Cesar after a famous siege, but was rebuilt, and
became a place of considerable consequence under the
Roman emperors. It was laid in ruins in the 9th
century by the Normans. At the foot of Mount Aux-
ois it a village called Alise (Depart. Gated'Or), with
serfral hundred inhabitants. (Flor. , 3, 10. --Cat. .
B. G. , 7. 69. )
ALESIBII, a mountain in the vicinity of Mantinea, on
which was a grove dedicated to Ceres; also the tem-
pfeofthe equestrian Neptune, an edifice of great an-
tiquity, which had been originally built, according to
tradition, by Agamedes and Trophonius, but was af-
terward enclosed -within a new structure by order of
Hadrian. The mountain was said to have taken its
name from the wanderings of Rhca (ri> opo? ra '\faj-
eu>f. diu T^V afajv, c3f oaai, Kafovftevov ryv 'Peoc.
-Pdiuan. , 8, 10).
ALETZS ('AAiJnyf ), a son of Hippotes, and descend-
ant of Hercules in the fifth degree. He is said to have
taken possession of Corinth, and to have expelled the
SmphiiU thirty years after the first invasion of the
Peloponnesus by the rleraclidaB. His family, some-
times called the Alt1 tiilrr, maintained themselves at
Corinth down to the time of Bacchis. (Pa. ua. , 2, 4,
S; 5. 18, 2 -- StraJt. , 8, p. 389. --CaUim. , Frag. , 103.
--Pisi, Otym. 13, 17. ) Velleius Paterculus (1, 3)
call* him a descendant of Hercules in the sixth de-
gree. He received an oracle promising him the sov-
ereignty of Athens, if during the war which was then
goin* on its kings should remain uninjured. This
otaele became known at Athens, and Codrus sacri-
ficed himself for his country. (Vid. Codrus. --Canon. ,
A'orrui. , 26. ) Other persons of this name are men-
tioned in Apottod. , 3, 1O, 6; Hygm. , Fab. , 122; and
rtrgd, JEn. , 1, 121; 9, 462.
ALHUD. T. Vtd. Supplement.
ALEUAL Vid. Supplement.
ALEXAHEMUS, I. a native of Teos. (Vid. Supple-
ment. )--II. A general of the . -Etolians, who, with a body
of his countrymen, slew Nabis, tyrant of Sparta. He
had been sent at the head of a band of auxiliaries, by the
-Etoiiins, ostensibly to aid Nabis, but in reality to get
possession of Lacediemon. The inhabitants, however,
rallied after the fall of the tyrant, defeated the -Etoli-
ans, who were scattered throughout the city and plun-
dering it, and slew Alexamenus. (/,<,-. . 35, 34, seqq. )
ALEXANDER, a name of very common occurrence,
as designating not only kings, but private individuals.
We will classify the monarchs by countries, and then
come to private or leas conspicuous personages.
1. King* of Macedonia.
ALEXANDER I. , son of Amyntas, and tenth king of
Maeedon. He ascended the throne 497 B. C. , and
reigned 43 years. It was he who, while still a youth,
slew, in company with a party of his young friends,
habited in female attire, the Persian ambassadors at
hi* father's court, having been provoked to the act by
their immodest behaviour towards the females present
at 3 banquet. With this prince the glory of Maeedon
? ? may be said to have commenced. He enlarged his
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? ALEXANDER.
ALEXANDER.
gcanec of his father, but he soon obtained pardon and
returned. He afterward accompanied Philip on an
expedition against the Triballi, and saved his life in a
battle. Philip, having been elected chief commander
of the Greeks, was preparing /or a war against Per-
sia, when he was assassinated, B. C. 336. This occur-
rence, at an eventful crisis, excited some suspicion
against Alexander and Olympian; but as it was one
of his first acts to execute justice on those of his fa-
ther's assassins who fell into his hands, several of the
nobility being implicated in the plot, this imputation
rests on little beyond surmise. It is more than prob-
able that the conspirators were in correspondence with
the Persian court, and that ample promises of protec-
tion and support were given to men undertaking to
deliver the empire from the impending invasion of the
captain-general of Greece. Alexander, who succeed-
ed without opposition, was at this time in his twentieth
year; and his youth. in the first instance, excited sev-
eral of the states of Greece to endeavour to set aside
the Macedonian ascendency. By a sudden march into
Thessaly he, however, soon overawed the most active;
and when, on a report of his death, chiefly at the in-
stigation of Demosthenes and his party, the various
states were excited to great commotion, he punished
the open revolt of Thebes with a severity which ef-
fectually prevented any imitation of its example. In-
duced to stand a siege, that unhappy city, after being
mastered with dreadful slaughter, was razed to the
ground, with the ostentatious exception of the houBe
of the poet Pindar alone; while the unfortunate sur-
viving inhabitants were stripped of all their posses-
sions and sold indiscriminately into slavery. Intimi-
dating by this cruel policy, the Macedonian party
gained the ascendency in every state throughout
Greece, and Athens particularly disgraced itself by
the meanness of its submission. Alexander then pro-
ceeded to Corinth, where, in a general assembly of
the states, his office of superior commander was rec-
ognised and defined; and in the twenty-second year
of his age, leaving Antipater, his viceroy, in Macedon,
he passed the Hellespont, to overturn the Persian em-
pire, with an army not exceeding four thousand five
hundred horse and thirty thousand foot. To secure
the protection of Minerva, he sacrificed to her on the
plain of Ilium, crowned the tomb of Achilles, and con-
gratulated this hero, from whom he was descended
through his mother, on his good fortune in having had
such a friend as Patroclus, and such a poet as Homer
to celebrate his fame. The rapid movements of Alex-
ander had evidently taken the Persian satraps by sur-
prise. They had, without making a single attempt to
molest his passage, allowed him, with a far inferior
fleet, to convey his troops into Asia. They now re-
solved to advance and contest the passage of the river
Granicus. A force of twenty thousand cavalry was
drawn up on the right bank of the stream, while an
equal number of Greek mercenaries crowned the hills
in the rear. Unintimidated, however, by this array,
Alexander led his army across, and, after a severe con-
flict, gained a decisive victory. The loss on the Per-
sian side was heavy, on that of their conquerors so
extremely slight (only eighty-five horsemen and thirty
foot soldiers) as to lead at once to the belief, that the
general, who wrote the account of Alexander's cam-
paigns, mentioned the loss of only the native-born
Macedonians. Splendid funeral obsequies were per-
? ? formed in honour of those of his army who had fallen;
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? ALEXANDER.
and rejected the proposals of Alexander for peace.
A battle was fought at Gaugamela, not far from Arbe-
la, B. C. 331. Airian estimates the array of Darius at
1,000. 000 of infantry and 40,000 cavalry; while that
of Alexander consisted of only 40,000 infantry and
<000 horse. On the Persian side, moreover, were
some of the bravest and hardiest tribes of upper Asia.
^ ot withstanding the immense numerical superiority of
his enemy, Alexander was not a moment doubtful of
victory. At the head of his cavalry he attacked the
Persians, and routed them after a short conflict. One
great object of his ambition was to capture the Per-
sian monarch on the field of battle; and that object
was at one time apparently within his grasp, when he
received, at the instant, a message from Parmenio that
the left wing, which that general commanded, was hard
pressed by the Sacse, Albanians, and Parthians, and he
was compelled, of course, to hasten to its relief. Dari-
us fled from the field of battle, leaving his army, bag-
gage, and immense treasures to the victor. Babylon
and Susa, where the riches of the East lay accumula-
ted, opened their gates to Alexander, who directed his
march to Persepolis, the capital of Persia. The only
passage thither was defended by 40,000 men under
Ariobarxanes. Alexander attacked them in the rear,
routed them, and entered Persepolis triumphant.
From this time the glory of Alexander began to decline.
Master of the greatest empire in the world, he became
i slave to his own passions; gave himself up to arro-
gance 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. Per-
Kpolis, the wonder of the world, he burned in a fit ef
intoxication. Ashamed of this act, he set out with his
cavalry to pursue Darius. Learning that Bessus, sa-
trap of Bactriana, kept the king prisoner, he hastened
his march with the hope of saving him.
