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

ALEXIS. ALEXIS. 129
A thenian citizen, and enrolled in the dome 070o, ALEXIS ('AAeIs), a sculptor and statuary,
belonging to the tribe Leontis. (Steph. Byz. s.v.) mentioned by Pliny (xxxiv. 8. s. 19) as one of
Ile was the uncle and instructor of Menander. the pupils of Polycletus. Pausanias (vi. 3. ~ 3)
(Suidas s. v. AAehss; Proleg. Aristoph. p. xxx.) mentions an artist of the same name, a native of
When he was born we are not expressly told, but Sicyon, and father of the sculptor Cantharus. It
he lived to the age of 106 (Plut. Defect. Orac. cannot be satisfactorily settled whether these are
p. 420, e.), and was living at least as late as the same, or different persons. Pliny's account
B. c. 288. Now the town of Thurii was de- implies that he had the elder Polycletus in view,
stroyed by the Lucanians about B. c. 390. It is in which case Alexis could not have flourished
therefore not at all unlikely that the parents of later than 01. 95 (B. c. 400), whereas Eutychides,
Alexis, in order to escape from the threatened de- under whom Cantharus studied, flourished about
struction of their city, removed shortly before with 01. 120, B. c. 300. (Pliny, H. N. xxxiv. 8. s.
their little son to Athens. Perhaps therefore we 19.) If the two were identical, as Thiersch
may assign about n. c. 394 as the date of the (Epoclen der ild. Kznst. p. 276) thinks, we must
birth of Alexis. He had a son Stephanus, who suppose either that Pliny made a mistake, and that
also wrote comedies. (Suidas 1. c.) He appears Alexis studied under the younger Polycletus, or
to have been rather addicted to the pleasures of else that the Eutychides, whose date is given by
the table. (Athen. viii. p. 344.) According to Pliny, was not the artist under whom Cantharus
Plutarch (De Senis Administ. Reipubl. p. 785, b.), studied. [C. P. M.]
he expired upon the stage while being crowned as ALEXIS or ALE'XIUS I. COMNE'NUS
victor. By the old grammarians he is commonly ("AAX-ýs, or 'AANEos Kopv-v6s), emperor of Concalled a writer of the middle comedy, and frag- stantinople, was most probably born in A. D. 1048.
ments and the titles of many of his plays confirm He was the son of John Comnenus, and the
this statement. Still, for more than 30 years he nephew of the emperor Isaac Comnenus, and rewas contemporary with Philippides, Philemon, Me- ceived a careful education from his mother Anna.
nander, and Diphilus, and several fragments shew He accompanied the emperor Romanus Diogenes
that he also wrote pieces which would be classed in the war against Alp-Arslan, sultan of the Turkswith those of the new comedy. He was a re- Seljuks, and was present at the battle of Malazmarkably prolific writer. Suidas says he wrote kerd, where this emperor was made a prisoner by
245 plays, and the titles of 113 have come down the sultan. After the deposition of Romanus Dioto hs. The Meporlis, 'AytuvAiwV, 'OhAvy7rid6pos, genes in 1071, Alexis Comnenus and his elder
and lnapa'ros, in which he ridiculed Plato, were brother Isaac joined the party of the new emperor,
probably exhibited as early as the 104th Olym- Michael VII. Ducas, who employed Alexis against
piad. The 'A7^yos, in which he ridiculed Mis- the rebels who had produced great disturbances in
golas, was no doubt written while he was alive, Asia Minor. In this war Alexis distinguished himand Aeschines (c. Timarch. pp. 6 -8) in B. c. 345, self as a successful general, and shewed that extraspeaks of him as then living. The 'ASeAcpo and ordinary shrewdness which afterwards became the
r-oaT7Yiw7s, in which he satirized Demosthenes, principal feature of his character. HIe defended
were acted shortly after B. c. 343. The "IrTroS, Michael VII. against the rebel Nicephorus Botain which he alluded to the decree of Sophocles niates, but the cause of Michael having becomehopeagainst the philosophers, in B. c. 316. The less, he readily joined the victorious rebel, who beITvpavvos in B. c. 312. The 4 appawoercwX'A and came emperor under the title of Nicephorus III. in
'To@oeAiluo7 in B. c. 306. As might have been 1077. The authorityof Nicephorus III. was disobeyexpected in a person who wrote so much, the same ed by several rebels, among whom Nicephorus
passage frequtently occurred in several plays; nor Bryennius in Epeirus was the most dangerous; but
did he scruple sometimes to borrow from other Alexis defeated them one after the other, and the
poets, as, for example, from Eubulus. (Athen. i. grateful emperor conferred upon him the title of
p. 25, f.) Carystius of Pergamus (ap. Athen. vi. " Sebastos." Alexis was then considered as the first
p. 235, e.) says he was the first who invented the general of the Byzantine empire, but his military repart of the parasite. This is not quite correct, as nown made him suspected in the eyes of the emperor,
it had been introduced before him by Epicharmus; who kept him at Constantinople and tried to get
but he appears to have been the first who gave it rid of him bybase intrigues. But Alexis opposed inthe form in which it afterwards appeared upon the trigues to intrigues, and as he was not only the most
stage, and to have been very happy in his exhibi- gallant, but also the most artful among his shrewd
tion of it. His wit and elegance are praised by countrymen, he outdid the emperor, who at last
Athenaeus (ii. p. 59, f.), whose testimony is con- gave orders, that his eyes should be put out.
firmed by the extant fragments. A considerable Alexis now fled to the army on the Danube, and
list of peculiar words and forms used by him is was proclaimed emperor by the troops. Assisted
given by Meineke. His plays were frequently by his brother Isaac, who acted with great genetranslated by the Roman comic writers. (Gell. ii. rosity, Alexis marched to Constantinople, obtained
23.) The fragments we possess of his plays have possession of the city by a stratagem, deposed the
been preserved chiefly by Athenaeus and Stobaeus. emperor, and ascended the throne in 1081.
(Meineke, Fragm. Conm. vol. i. pp. 374-403; The Byzantine empire was then at the point of
Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, under the years above ruin. While Alexis carried on the war against
given; Fabricius, Bibl. Gr. vol. ii. p. 406, &c.) the rebel Nicephorus Bryennius, and afterwards
2. A writer mentioned by Athenaeus (x. p. 418) during his forced sojourn at Constantinople, and
as the author of a treatise -repi A''vapeidas. the time of his differences with Nicephorus IIL.,
3. A Samian, the author of an historical work Melek-Shah, the son of Alp-Arslan, and the
called ý'dtuoi'?pot or'Dpot i alriaicol (Samian An- greatest prince of the Seljuks, had conquered the
als), which Athenaeu1 s quotes. (xiiin p. 572, f., Byzantine part of Asia Minor, which he ceded to
ii. p. 540, d.) [C. P. M.] h Iis cousin Solimin. Thie Bulgarians threatened to
K