A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ALEXANDER.
advice that the war against the rebels was entrusted to men without courage and ability. In B. c.
220, however, Antiochus himself undertook the
command. Molo was deserted by his troops, and
to avoid falling into the hands of the king, put an
end to his own life. All the leaders of the rebellion followed his example, and one of them, who
escaped to Persis, killed Molo's mother and children, persuaded Alexander to put an end to his
life, and at last killed himself upon the bodies of
his friends. (Polyb. v. 40, 41, 43, 54.) [L. S.]
ALEXANDER the MONK ('AXE6av3pos povaX.s), perhaps a native of Cyprus. All we know
of his age is, that he lived before Michael Glycas,
A. D. 1120, who quotes him. Two orations by him
are extant. 1. A Panegyric on St. Barnabas, ap.
Bollandi Acta Sanctorum, vol. xxi. p. 436. 2. Concerning the Invention of the Cross, ap. Gretser. de
Cruce Ckristi, 4to. Ingolst. 1600. [A. J. C.]
ALEXANDER ('AA1av3pos) of MYNDUS in
Caria, a Greek writer on zoology of uncertain date.
His works, which are now lost, must have been
considered very valuable by the ancients, since
they refer to them very frequently. The titles of
his works are: KrrcVuV 'la'ropia, a long fragment
of which, belonging to the second book, is quoted
by Athenaeus. (v. p. 221, comp. ii. p. 65; Aelian,
Hist. An. iii. 23, iv. 33, v. 27, x. 34.) This work
is probably the same as that which in other passages is simply called Hiepi Zwwv, and of which
Athenaeus (ix. p. 392) likewise quotes the second
book. The work on birds (liep' nfrlvOv^, Plut.
Mar. 17; Athen. ix. pp. 387, 388, 390, &c.) was
a separate work, and the second book of it is quoted by Athenaeus. Diogenes Laertius (i. 29) mentions one Alexon of Myndus as the author of a
work on myths, of which he quotes the ninth book.
This author being otherwise unknown, Menage
proposed to read 'AAXEýeapos 6 Mivoios instead of
'AA6ewv. But everything is uncertain, and the
conjecture at least is not very probable. [L. S.]
ALEXANDER NUME'NIUS ('AXEaespos
Noueij/tos, or 6 Novluxviov, as Suidas calls him), a
Greek rhetorician, who lived in the reign of Hadrian or that of the Antonines. About his life
nothing is known. We possess two works which
are ascribed to him. The one which certainly is
his work bears the title Ieplt Trv rris Alavoias Kal
AE'ews 2X-Lad'rwV, i. e. " De Figuris Sententiarum
et Elocutionis." J. Rufinianus in his work on the
same subject (p. 195, ed. Ruhnken) expressly states
that Aquila Romanus, in his treatise " De Figuris
Sententiarum et Elocutionis," took his materials
from Alexander Numenius' work mentioned above.
The second work bearing the name of Alexander
Numenius, entitled i-epl 'EmLSecrsIKWv, i. e. " On
Show-speeches," is admitted on all hands not to be
his work, but of a later grammarian of the name of
Alexander; it is, to speak more correctly, made up
very clumsily from two distinct ones, one of which
was written by one Alexander, and the other by
Menander. (Vales. ad Euseb. Hist. Eccles. p. 28.)
The first edition of these two works is that of
Aldus, in his collection of the Rhetores Graeci,
Venice, 1508, fol., vol. i. p. 574, &c. They are
ilso contained in Walz's Rhetores Graeci, vol. viii.
Ihe genuine work of Alexander Numenius has
also been edited, together with Minucianus and
Phoebammon, by L. Normann, with a Latin transation and useful notes, Upsala, 1690, 8vo. (See
fRuhnken, ad A quil. Rom. p. 139, &c.; Wester

ALEXANDER. 123
mann, esclh. der Griech. Beredisamkeit, ~ 95, n. 13,
~ 104, n. 7.) [L. S.]
ALEXANDER, an Athenian PAINTER, one of
whose productions is extant, painted on a marble
tablet which bears his name. (Winckelmann,
vol. ii. p. 47, v. p. 120, ed. Eiselein.) There was
a son of king Perseus of this name, who was a
skilful toreutes. (Plut. Aemil. Paul. 37.) There
was also a M. Lollius Alexander, an engraver,
whose name occurs in an inscription in Doni, p.
319, No. 14. [C. P. M.]
ALEXANDER ('AXhaavspos), the PAPHLAGONIAN, a celebrated impostor, who flourished about
the beginning of the second century (Lucian. Alex.
6), a native of Abonoteichos on the Euxine, and
the pupil of a friend of Apollonius Tyanaeus. His
history, which is told by Lucian with great naivet,
is chiefly an account of the various contrivances by
which he established and maintained the credit of
an oracle. Being, according to Lucian's account, at
his wit's end for the means of life, with many
natural advantages of manner and person, he determined on the following imposture. After raising the expectations of the Paphlagonians with a
reported visit of the god Aesculapius, and giving
himself out, under the sanction of an oracle, as a
descendant of Perseus, he gratified the expectation
which he had himself raised, by finding a serpent,
which he juggled out of an egg, in the foundations
of the new temple of Aesculapius. A larger serpent, which he brought with him from Pella, was
disguised with a human head, until the dull Paphlagonians really believed that a new god Glycon
had appeared among them, and gave oracles in the
likeness of a serpent. Dark and crowded rooms,
juggling tricks, and the other arts of more vulgar
magicians, were the chief means used to impose
on a credulous populace, which Lucian detects
with as much zest as any modern sceptic in the
marvels of animal magnetism. Every one who
attempted to expose the impostor, was accused of
being a Christian or Epicurean; and even Lucian,
who amused himself with his contradictory oracles, hardly escaped the effects of his malignity.
He had his spies at Rome, and busied himself
with the affairs of the whole world: at the time
when a pestilence was raging, many were executed
at his instigation, as the authors of this calamity.
He said, that the soul of Pythagoras had migrated
into his body, and prophesied that he should live
a hundred and fifty years, and then die from the
fall of a thunderbolt: unfortunately, an ulcer in
the leg put an end to his imposture in the seventieth year of his age, just as he was in the height
of his glory, and had requested the emperor to
have a medal struck in honour of himself and the
new god. The influence he attained over the
populace seems incredible; indeed, the narrative
of Lucian would appear to be a mere romance,
were it not confirmed by some medals of Antoninus
and M. Aurelius. [B. J.]
ALEXANDER ('AAJeavSpos) of PAPHIUS, a
Greek writer on mythology of uncertain date.
Eustathius (ad Horn. Od. x. pp. 1658, 1713) refers
to him as his authority. [L. S.]
ALEXANDER ('AA6Eavspos), surnamed PiLOPLATON (iTAho-rAah rv), a Greek rhetorician of the
age of the Antonines, was a son of Alexander of
Seleucia, in Cilicia, and of Seleucis. (Philostr.
Vit. Soph. ii. 5. ~ 1, compared with Epist. Apollon.
Tyan. 13, where the father of Alexander Pelopla