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  • Alexander Lysimachus (Alexandrian administrator)
    ...1st century, says that Philo’s family surpassed all others in the nobility of its lineage. His father had apparently played a prominent role in Palestine before moving to Alexandria. Philo’s brother Alexander Lysimachus, who was a general tax administrator in charge of customs in Alexandria, was the richest man in the city and indeed must have been one of the richest men in the He...
  • Alexander, Margaret (American author and poet)
    American novelist and poet who was one of the leading black woman writers of the mid-20th century....
  • Alexander, Meena (Indian poet and teacher)
    Indian poet and teacher whose works reflect her multicultural life in India, The Sudan, and the United States....
  • Alexander Nevsky (film by Eisenstein)
    Having expressed contrition for the errors of his past works, Eisenstein was able to make a film recounting the medieval epic of Alexander Nevsky, in accordance with Stalin’s policy of glorifying Russian heroes. Made in 1938, this film transfigured the actual historical events, majestically leading to a final resolution that represented the triumph of collectivism. As in medieval epi...
  • Alexander Nevsky, Saint (prince of Russia)
    prince of Novgorod (1236–52) and of Kiev (1246–52) and grand prince of Vladimir (1252–63), who halted the eastward drive of the Germans and Swedes but collaborated with the Mongols in imposing their rule on Russia. By defeating a Swedish invasion force at the confluence of the Rivers Izhora and Neva (1240), he won the name Nevsky, “of the Neva....
  • Alexander of Alexandria (bishop of Alexandria)
    ...Expelled from Alexandria for heresy, Arius sought and found sympathy at Caesarea, and, in fact, he proclaimed Eusebius as a leading supporter. Eusebius did not fully support either Arius or Alexander, bishop of Alexandria from 313 to 328, whose views appeared to tend toward Sabellianism (a heresy that taught that God was manifested in progressive modes). Eusebius wrote to Alexander,......
  • Alexander of Aphrodisias (Greek philosopher)
    philosopher who is remembered for his commentaries on Aristotle’s works and for his own studies on the soul and the mind....
  • Alexander of Battenberg (prince of Bulgaria)
    ...Consequently, much of the constitutional instability that afflicted 19th-century Serbia derived from clashes between the new royal authorities in Belgrade and local village chieftains. Likewise, Alexander of Battenberg, the first prince of Bulgaria, attempted to reconstruct Sofia’s municipal council in 1879 and was told that not even the Turks would have dared to do that....
  • Alexander of Epirus (king of Macedonia)
    Demetrius gained distinction as a boy by defeating and dethroning Alexander of Epirus, thus saving Macedonia (c. 263). On his accession he was faced by an Aetolian and Achaean coalition, later joined by an Epirote League. Thus threatened, he was drawn northward by a Dardanian invasion, and after a defeat there he died. His failure seriously weakened both kingdom and monarchy. ...
  • Alexander of Hales (French theologian and philosopher)
    theologian and philosopher whose doctrines influenced the teachings of such thinkers as St. Bonaventure and John of La Rochelle. The Summa theologica, for centuries ascribed to him, is largely the work of followers....
  • Alexander of Macedonia (king of Macedonia)
    king of Macedonia (336–323 bc). He overthrew the Persian Empire, carried Macedonian arms to India, and laid the foundations for the Hellenistic world of territorial kingdoms. Already in his lifetime the subject of fabulous stories, he later became the hero of a full-scale legend bearing only the sketchiest resemblance to his historical car...
  • Alexander of Pherae (Greek ruler)
    despot of Pherae in Thessaly, Greece, from 369 to 358, whose tyranny caused the intervention of a number of city-states in Thessalian affairs. The other Thessalian cities, refusing to recognize Alexander as tagos, or head magistrate, appealed to the Thebans, who sent Pelopidas to their assistance. Alexander imprisoned Pelopidas, and the Thebans had to send a large army to...
  • Alexander of Tunis, Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl (British general)
    prominent British field marshal in World War II noted for his North African campaigns against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and for his later commands in Italy and western Europe....
  • Alexander of Tunis, Viscount (British general)
    prominent British field marshal in World War II noted for his North African campaigns against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and for his later commands in Italy and western Europe....
  • Alexander Philhellene (king of Macedonia)
    10th king of ancient Macedonia, who succeeded his father, Amyntas I, about 500 bc. More than a decade earlier, Macedonia had become a vassal state of Persia; and in 480 Alexander was obliged to accompany Xerxes I in a campaign through Greece, though he secretly aided the Greek allies. With Xerxes’ apparent acquiescence, Alexander seized the Greek colony of Pydna and advanced h...
  • Alexander Polyhistor (Roman philosopher, geographer, and historian)
    philosopher, geographer, and historian whose fragmentary writings provide valuable information on antiquarian and Jewish subjects....
  • Alexander polynomial (mathematics)
    ...of the usual sphere, shows that the topology of three-dimensional space is very different from two-dimensional space. In 1928 Alexander discovered an invariant polynomial, now known as the Alexander polynomial, for distinguishing various knots regardless of how they are stretched or twisted. This was an important first step in providing an algebraic way of distinguishing knots (and......
  • Alexander romance (literature)
    any of a body of legends about the career of Alexander the Great, told and retold with varying emphasis and purpose by succeeding ages and civilizations....
  • Alexander, Samuel (British philosopher)
    philosopher who developed a metaphysics of emergent evolution involving time, space, matter, mind, and deity....
  • Alexander, Shana (American journalist and author)
    American journalist and author (b. Oct. 6, 1925, New York, N.Y.—d. June 23, 2005, Hermosa Beach, Calif.), battled conservative columnist James Kilpatrick in “Point-Counterpoint,” a political debate segment featured during the 1970s on the television program 60 Minutes. Alexander’s parents were prominent members of Manhattan’s arts community but were emotio...
  • Alexander, Shaun (American athlete)
    American professional gridiron football player who was one of the most prolific touchdown scorers in National Football League (NFL) history....
  • Alexander, Sir Harold (British general)
    prominent British field marshal in World War II noted for his North African campaigns against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and for his later commands in Italy and western Europe....
  • Alexander, Sir William (British statesman)
    Scottish courtier, statesman, and poet who founded and colonized the region of Nova Scotia in Canada....
  • Alexander the Great (king of Macedonia)
    king of Macedonia (336–323 bc). He overthrew the Persian Empire, carried Macedonian arms to India, and laid the foundations for the Hellenistic world of territorial kingdoms. Already in his lifetime the subject of fabulous stories, he later became the hero of a full-scale legend bearing only the sketchiest resemblance to his historical car...
  • Alexander the Great (play by Racine)
    ...himself. He could never be sure either of actors or authors. In 1664 he put on the first play of Jean Racine, La Thébaïde, but the next year Racine transferred his second play, Alexandre le Grand, to a longer established theatre while Molière’s actors were actually performing it. He was constantly harassed by the authorities. These setbacks may have bee...
  • Alexander the Paphlagonian (ancient religious charlatan)
    celebrated impostor and worker of false oracles. The only account of his career occurs in an exposé by Lucian, whose investigations of Alexander’s frauds led to a serious attempt on the writer’s life....
  • Alexander the Wealthy (king of Macedonia)
    10th king of ancient Macedonia, who succeeded his father, Amyntas I, about 500 bc. More than a decade earlier, Macedonia had become a vassal state of Persia; and in 480 Alexander was obliged to accompany Xerxes I in a campaign through Greece, though he secretly aided the Greek allies. With Xerxes’ apparent acquiescence, Alexander seized the Greek colony of Pydna and advanced h...
  • Alexander V (antipope)
    antipope from 1409 to 1410....
  • Alexander VI (pope)
    corrupt, worldly, and ambitious pope (1492–1503), whose neglect of the spiritual inheritance of the church contributed to the development of the Protestant Reformation....
  • Alexander VII (pope)
    pope from 1655 to 1667....
  • Alexander VIII (pope)
    pope from 1689 to 1691....
  • Alexander Visiting the Tomb of Achilles (painting by Pannini)
    In 1718–19 Pannini was admitted into the Academy of St. Luke. His reception piece, “Alexander Visiting the Tomb of Achilles” (1719), is typical of his earlier easel paintings, having small figures dwarfed by an elaborate architectural construction derived from Bolognese theatrical scenography. Many of his canvases prior to 1730 feature explicit historical or religious......
  • Alexanderplatz, Berlin (work by Döblin)
    Döblin’s best-known and most Expressionistic novel, Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929; Alexanderplatz, Berlin), tells the story of Franz Biberkopf, a Berlin proletarian who tries to rehabilitate himself after his release from jail but undergoes a series of vicissitudes, many of them violent and squalid, before he can finally attain a normal life. The book combines interior......
  • Alexander’s Bridge (novel by Cather)
    Döblin’s best-known and most Expressionistic novel, Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929; Alexanderplatz, Berlin), tells the story of Franz Biberkopf, a Berlin proletarian who tries to rehabilitate himself after his release from jail but undergoes a series of vicissitudes, many of them violent and squalid, before he can finally attain a normal life. The book combines interior......
  • Alexander’s Feast (work by Dryden)
    ...as having persuaded Alexander to set fire to the Achaemenian capital of Persepolis in the course of a drunken revel. The authenticity of this anecdote, which forms the subject of John Dryden’s Alexander’s Feast (1697), is doubtful, since it is based upon the authority of Cleitarchus, one of the least trustworthy of the historians of Alexander. Persepolis was probably set af...
  • Alexander’s Gate (legend)
    One of the most important legends associated with Gog and Magog was that of Alexander’s Gate, said to have been built by Alexander the Great to imprison these uncivilized and barbaric people until the end of time. In medieval legends of Antichrist and the Last Emperor, Gog and Magog were allied with the armies of Satan. And in various prophetic texts, Gog and Magog participated in the......
  • Alexander’s Ragtime Band (film by King [1938])
    ...The Great WaltzArt Direction: Carl J. Weyl for The Adventures of Robin HoodOriginal Score: Erich Wolfgang Korngold for The Adventures of Robin HoodScoring: Alfred Newman for Alexander’s Ragtime BandSong: “Thanks for the Memory” from The Big Broadcast of 1938; music by Ralph Rainger, lyrics by Leo......
  • Alexanderson, Ernst F. W. (American electrical engineer)
    electrical engineer and television pioneer who developed a high-frequency alternator (a device that converts direct current into alternating current) capable of producing continuous radio waves and thereby revolutionized radio communication....
  • Alexanderson, Ernst Frederik Werner (American electrical engineer)
    electrical engineer and television pioneer who developed a high-frequency alternator (a device that converts direct current into alternating current) capable of producing continuous radio waves and thereby revolutionized radio communication....
  • Alexandhroúpolis (Greece)
    seaport, capital of the nomós (department) of Évros, western Thrace (Thráki), Greece. It is situated northwest of the Évros (Maritsa) River estuary on the Gulf of Ainos (Enez), an inlet of the Thracian Sea. Founded by the Turks as Dedeağaƈ in 1860, it began to grow with the marketing of its valonia oak after 1871 and further prospered with the arri...
  • Alexandra (New Zealand)
    town, south-central South Island, New Zealand. It lies at the junction of the Clutha and Manuherikia rivers and is surrounded by three mountain ranges. Originally known as Lower Dunstan and Manuherikia, the settlement was named Alexandra South in 1863 to commemorate the marriage of the Danish princess Alexandra to Edward, prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. The name was subs...
  • Alexandra (queen consort of Great Britain)
    queen consort of King Edward VII of Great Britain....
  • Alexandra (poem by Lycophron of Chalcis)
    Greek poet and scholar best known because of the attribution to him of the extant poem Alexandra....
  • Alexandra (empress consort of Russia)
    consort of the Russian emperor Nicholas II. Her misrule while the emperor was commanding the Russian forces during World War I precipitated the collapse of the imperial government in March 1917....
  • Alexandra (empress of Russia)
    ...in western and central Europe. On Nov. 4, 1815, at a state dinner in Berlin, Alexander I and King Frederick William III rose to announce the engagement of Nicholas and Princess Charlotte of Prussia (Alexandra, after she became Orthodox)....
  • Alexandra Caroline Mary Charlotte Louisa Julia (queen consort of Great Britain)
    queen consort of King Edward VII of Great Britain....
  • Alexandra Falls (waterfall, Northwest Territories, Canada)
    ...River (82 miles [132 km] north of the Alberta border) became a busy commercial fishing and transshipment centre. Lead and zinc are mined 35 miles (56 km) east at Pine Point. The 103-foot (32-metre) Alexandra Falls on the Hay River are 34 miles (55 km) south of the town. Pop. (2006) 3,648....
  • Alexandra Palace (conference centre, Haringey, London, United Kingdom)
    ...engineering and the manufacture of metal goods, confectioneries, furniture, clothing, and footwear. Wood Green is a centre for shopping and services and is the administrative centre of the borough. Alexandra Palace, with its surrounding park, was built in the late 19th century as an arts and entertainment complex, and it became the original home of British Broadcasting Television in 1936. After...
  • Alexandra Township (area, Johannesburg, South Africa)
    Black Africans can be found throughout the city, but the majority still live in “townships” on the urban periphery, essentially dormitory cities for blacks working in the city. Alexandra township, a 20-square-block enclave carved out of Johannesburg’s white northern suburbs, houses a population of nearly half a million. At least three times that number live in Soweto (South-We...
  • Alexandre III Bridge (bridge, Paris, France)
    The vast tree-lined Invalides Esplanade slopes gently to the Quai d’Orsay and the Alexandre III Bridge. The first stone for the bridge, which commemorates the Russian tsar Alexander III, was laid in 1897 by Alexander’s son, Tsar Nicholas II. The bridge was finished in time for the International Exposition of 1900, and it leads to two other souvenirs of that year’s fair, the Gr...
  • “Alexandre le grand” (play by Racine)
    ...himself. He could never be sure either of actors or authors. In 1664 he put on the first play of Jean Racine, La Thébaïde, but the next year Racine transferred his second play, Alexandre le Grand, to a longer established theatre while Molière’s actors were actually performing it. He was constantly harassed by the authorities. These setbacks may have bee...
  • Alexandre, Paul (art patron)
    ...Post-Impressionist paintings of Paul Cézanne. His initial important contacts were with the poets André Salmon and Max Jacob, with the artist Pablo Picasso, and—in 1907—with Paul Alexandre, a friend of many avant-garde artists and the first to become interested in Modigliani and to buy his works. In 1908 the artist exhibited five or six paintings at the Salon des......
  • Alexandreis (12th-century epic)
    ...society, practiced a robust form of satire in which much of the humour is deflected upon themselves. Grander forms of poetry are not neglected: Walter of Châtillon’s foray into epic, the Alexandreis (written c. 1180), is one of the most distinguished products of the medieval fascination with the legends of Alexander the Great, and it exercised an immense influence on...
  • Alexandreschate (ancient city, Egypt)
    The year 329 saw the final elimination of Satibarzanes and the capture of Bessus in Sogdiana, north of the Oxus River from Bactria. In Sogdiana, Alexander founded the city of Alexandreschate, “Alexandria the Farthest,” not far from the site of Cyropolis, a city of Cyrus II the Great, whom Alexander highly admired. This is a reminder that Persian urbanization in Central Asia had not.....
  • Alexandrescu, Grigore (Romanian author)
    ...and founded a periodical, Albina Românească. The outstanding literary personality among a galaxy of minor poets and translators who enriched the Romantic heritage was Grigore Alexandrescu. Alexandrescu wrote Poezii (1832, 1838, 1839) and Meditaţii (1863), fables and satires influenced mostly by French writers. A literary magazine,......
  • Alexandretta (Turkey)
    seaport and chief city of İskenderun ilçe (district), Hatay il (province), southern Turkey, located on the eastern shore of the Gulf of Iskenderun. It lies on or near the site of Alexandria ad Issum, founded to commemorate Alexander the Great’s victory over ...
  • Alexandria (Minnesota, United States)
    city, seat of Douglas county, west-central Minnesota, U.S. It is situated about 70 miles (115 km) northwest of St. Cloud in a lake-resort and dairy-farm region. Settled in 1858 on land that was once part of Ojibwa and Sioux camping grounds, Alexandria was organized as a township in 1866 and named for Alexander Kinkead, an ...
  • Alexandria (Tennessee, United States)
    city, seat (1821) of Madison county, western Tennessee, U.S. It lies about 80 miles (130 km) northeast of Memphis. The area was settled about 1819 as a port on the Forked Deer River and developed as a cotton depot and railroad junction. First called Alexandria, the community was renamed in 1822 to honour General (later President) Andrew Jackson...
  • Alexandria (Virginia, United States)
    city, adjoining Arlington and Fairfax counties, northern Virginia, U.S. It lies on the Potomac River (there bridged at the Maryland state line), 6 miles (10 km) south of the District of Columbia. A fort was built on the site in 1676 to defend the area from attacks by Susquehannock (Susquehanna) Indians. The site was settle...
  • Alexandria (Scotland, United Kingdom)
    ...and financial service industries. Dumbarton, another shipbuilding area along the Clyde, to the northwest, now depends largely on service activities and the blending and distilling of whisky, while Alexandria, near Loch Lomond, supports tourism and a variety of light manufactures. Dumbarton is the administrative centre. Area 61 square miles (159 square km). Pop. (2006 est.) 91,240....
  • Alexandria (Louisiana, United States)
    city, seat of Rapides parish, central Louisiana, U.S. The city lies along the Red River, opposite Pineville, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Baton Rouge. It was laid out (1805) at the rapids that then marked the head of river navigation and was named for the daughter of Alexander Fulton, on whose Spanish land grant the first settlement...
  • Alexandria (governorate, Egypt)
    muḥāfaẓah (governorate), Lower Egypt. The muḥāfaẓah is densely settled in the north in and around its capital, Alexandria (Al-Iskandarīyah); it includes a desert hinterland extending south more than 50 miles (80 km) into the Western De...
  • Alexandria (Romania)
    town, capital of Teleorman judeţ (county), southern Romania. It lies along the southward-flowing Vedea River in the Danube floodplain. Alexandria is a regional marketing centre for agricultural produce, mostly grain. The town also has flour mills and other food-processing plants. Manufactures include construction materials, chemicals, and rubber products. The town has a historical mu...
  • Alexandria (Egypt)
    major city and urban muḥāfaẓah (governorate) in Egypt. Once among the greatest cities of the Mediterranean world and a centre of Hellenic scholarship and science, Alexandria was the capital of Egypt from its founding by Alexander the Great in 332 bce until its surrender to the Arab force...
  • Alexandria Eschate (Tajikistan)
    city, northwestern Tajikistan. The city lies along both banks of the Syr Darya (river) at the entrance to the fertile and heavily populated Fergana Valley. One of the most ancient cities of Central Asia, it lay along the great Silk Road from China to Europe. It was captured by the Arabs in the 8th century, by Genghis Khan’s forces in the 13th century, and by the Russians in 1866. It is now ...
  • Alexandria, Library of (ancient library, Alexandria, Egypt)
    the most famous library of classical antiquity. It formed part of the research institute at Alexandria in Egypt that is known as the Museum, or the Alexandrian Museum....
  • Alexandria Municipal Museum (museum, Alexandria, Egypt)
    museum of Greek and Roman antiquities founded in 1892 and housed in Alexandria, Egypt, in a Greek Revival-style building opened in 1895....
  • Alexandria, Museum of (ancient institution, Alexandria, Egypt)
    ancient centre of classical learning at Alexandria in Egypt. A research institute that was especially noted for its scientific and literary scholarship, the Alexandrian Museum was built near the royal palace about 280 bc by Ptolemy I Soter (reigned 323–285/283 bc). The best surviving description of the museum is by the Greek geographer and historian Stra...
  • Alexandria, Orthodox Church of (religion)
    autocephalous, or ecclesiastically independent, Eastern Orthodox patriarchate, second in honorific rank after the Church of Constantinople; its patriarch is considered the successor of St. Mark the Evangelist and heads the Orthodox Church in Africa. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, as it is also known, is the continuation of the Melchite, or imperia...
  • Alexandria Protocol (1944)
    ...the war came to an end, the neighbouring Arab countries began to take a more direct interest in Palestine. In October 1944 Arab heads of state met in Alexandria, Egypt, and issued a statement, the Alexandria Protocol, setting out the Arab position. They made clear that, although they regretted the bitter fate inflicted upon European Jewry by European dictatorships, the issue of European Jewish....
  • Alexandria Quartet, The (novel by Durrell)
    Durrell wrote several books of poetry and prose before the publication of The Alexandria Quartet, composed of Justine (1957), Balthazar (1958), Mountolive (1958), and Clea (1960). The lush and sensuous tetralogy became a best-seller and won high critical esteem. The first three volumes described, from different viewpoints, a series of events in......
  • Alexandria, School of (institution, Alexandria, Egypt)
    the first Christian institution of higher learning, founded in the mid-2nd century ad in Alexandria, Egypt. Under its earliest known leaders (Pantaenus, Clement, and Origen), it became a leading centre of the allegorical method of biblical interpretation, espoused a rapprochement between Greek culture and Christian faith, and attempted to assert orthodox Christian teachings against h...
  • Alexandria, Synod of (religion)
    (ad 362), a meeting of Christian bishops held in Alexandria, Egypt, summoned by the bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius. It allowed clergy that were readmitted to communion after making common cause with Arians to return to their former ecclesiastical status, provided they had not themselves subscribed to Arianism. The synod stated explicitly that the Holy Sp...
  • Alexandria the Farthest (ancient city, Egypt)
    The year 329 saw the final elimination of Satibarzanes and the capture of Bessus in Sogdiana, north of the Oxus River from Bactria. In Sogdiana, Alexander founded the city of Alexandreschate, “Alexandria the Farthest,” not far from the site of Cyropolis, a city of Cyrus II the Great, whom Alexander highly admired. This is a reminder that Persian urbanization in Central Asia had not.....
  • Alexandria University (university, Egypt)
    ...as is the rule throughout Egypt. The state system is divided into primary, preparatory, and secondary schools, and advanced education is available in university faculties and technical institutes. Alexandria University (1942), the principal public university, lies just east of the city centre. Instruction is generally given in Arabic, although English is an important second language and is......
  • Alexandria-Kapisu (Afghanistan)
    Ivory plaques discovered at Bagrām (Begrām) in Afghanistan are closely related to the school of Mathurā. These are of great importance; for, though ivory must have been a favourite medium of sculpture, little has been preserved of the early work. Most of it is in very low engraved relief, with fluent, sweeping outlines. The figures are depicted in easy and elegant postures,......
  • Alexandrian canon (biblical literature)
    ...that were widely adopted by later scholars. Aristophanes also was responsible for arranging Plato’s dialogues in trilogies, and he is generally credited with the foundation of the so-called Alexandrian Canon, a selection in each genre of literary work that contemporaries considered to be models of excellence....
  • Alexandrian laurel (tree)
    (Calophyllum inophyllum), ornamental plant, of the family Clusiaceae, native from Madagascar to the Pacific, and cultivated as an ornamental for its handsome leathery, glossy foliage and fragrant white flowers. The plant often is grown near the ocean for its resistance to salt spray and its leaning habit. The multibranched, often gracefully crooked tree reaches 16–19 metres (50...
  • Alexandrian Museum (ancient institution, Alexandria, Egypt)
    ancient centre of classical learning at Alexandria in Egypt. A research institute that was especially noted for its scientific and literary scholarship, the Alexandrian Museum was built near the royal palace about 280 bc by Ptolemy I Soter (reigned 323–285/283 bc). The best surviving description of the museum is by the Greek geographer and historian Stra...
  • Alexandrian rite
    the system of liturgical practices and discipline in use among Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians of both the Eastern-rite Catholic and independent Christian churches....
  • Alexandrian senna (plant)
    Alexandrian senna (C. acutifolia), from Egypt, The Sudan, and Nigeria, and C. sieberana, from Senegal to Uganda, are cultivated in India for their cathartic properties. Tanner’s senna (C. auriculata), a tall shrub, is a principal native tanbark in southern India....
  • Alexandrians, Letter of Paul to the (New Testament Apocrypha)
    Among the apocryphal letters are: a 2nd-century Epistula Apostolorum (“Epistle of the Apostles”; actually apocalyptic and antiheretical), the Letter of Barnabas, a lost Letter of Paul to the Alexandrians (said to have been forged by followers of Marcion), the late-2nd-century letter called “III Corinthians” (part of the Acts of Paul and......
  • Alexandrina, Lake (lake, South Australia, Australia)
    estuarine lagoon, southeastern South Australia, 45 miles (70 km) southeast of Adelaide. Together with contiguous Lake Albert and the long, narrow lagoon called The Coorong, it forms the mouth of the Murray River. About 23 miles (37 km) long and 13 miles (21 km) wide, the lake has a total surface area of 220 square miles (570 square km). The lake was visited by sealers in 1828 an...
  • Alexandrina Victoria (queen of United Kingdom)
    queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1837–1901) and empress of India (1876–1901). She was the last of the House of Hanover and gave her name to an era, the Victorian Age. During her reign the English monarchy took on its modern ceremonial character. She and her husband, Prince Consort Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, had nine children, through whos...
  • alexandrine (prosody)
    verse form that is the leading measure in French poetry. It consists of a line of 12 syllables with major stresses on the 6th syllable (which precedes the medial caesura [pause]) and on the last syllable, and one secondary accent in each half line. Because six syllables is a normal breath group and the secondary stresses can be on any other syllables in the line, the alexandrine is a flexible for...
  • Alexandrine rat (rodent)
    ...region. A few species have spread far beyond their native range in close association with people. The brown rat, Rattus norvegicus (also called the Norway rat), and the house rat, R. rattus (also called the black rat, ship rat, or roof rat), live virtually everywhere that human populations have settled; the house rat is predominant in......
  • Alexandrine schism (Roman Catholic history)
    ...Alexandrine. The latter was caused by renewed tensions between the papacy and the emperor, Frederick I Barbarossa, who eventually yielded to the legitimate pope, Alexander III (1159–81). The Alexandrine schism led to the decision of the third Lateran Council (1179) to require a two-thirds majority vote of the cardinals to elect a pope. The papacy also faced challenges posed by the......
  • Alexandrinum opus (mosaic)
    in mosaic, type of decorative pavement work widely used in Byzantium in the 9th century. It utilized tiny, geometrically shaped pieces of coloured stone and glass paste that were arranged in intricate geometric patterns dotted with large disks of semiprecious stones....
  • Alexandrist (Italian philosophy)
    any of the Italian philosophers of the Renaissance who, in the controversy about personal immortality, followed the explanation of Aristotle’s De anima (On the Soul) given by Alexander of Aphrodisias, who held that it denied individual immortality....
  • alexandrite (gemstone)
    Alexandrite is a remarkable and valued variety that when viewed along the different crystallographic (optical) axes, changes from columbine red to orange yellow to emerald green. In addition, the stone changes from green in daylight to red in artificial light....
  • Alexandrium (algae genus)
    ...toxins that either kill fish or accumulate in shellfish and cause sickness or death in humans when ingested; more than 1,200 species described, most in the class Dinophyceae; Alexandrium, Dinophysis, Gonyaulax, Peridinium, and ......
  • Alexandroff, Pavel Sergeyevich (Soviet mathematician)
    Russian mathematician who made important contributions to topology....
  • Alexandropol (Armenia)
    city, western Armenia. It is believed to have been founded by the Greeks in 401 bc, but it did not have a continuous existence. A fortress was constructed on the site by the Russians in 1837, and in 1840 the town of Alexandropol was founded nearby. Alexandropol was a trading and administrative centre but subsequently underwent industrial development and was renamed Leninakan for the ...
  • Alexandropol, Treaty of (Turkish history)
    ...which had been their own creation. This combined attack was too much for the Armenians, who were crushed in October and November 1920; they surrendered early in November. By the treaties of Alexandropol (Dec. 3, 1920) and Moscow (March 16, 1921), the nationalists regained the eastern provinces, as well as the cities of Kars and Ardahan, and the Soviet Union became the first nation to......
  • Alexandros (Greek mythology)
    in Greek legend, son of King Priam of Troy and his wife, Hecuba. A dream regarding his birth was interpreted as an evil portent, and he was consequently expelled from his family as an infant. Left for dead, he was either nursed by a bear or found by shepherds. He was raised as a shepherd, unknown to his parents. As a young man he entered a boxing contest at a Trojan festival, in which he defeated ...
  • Alexandroúpolis (Greece)
    seaport, capital of the nomós (department) of Évros, western Thrace (Thráki), Greece. It is situated northwest of the Évros (Maritsa) River estuary on the Gulf of Ainos (Enez), an inlet of the Thracian Sea. Founded by the Turks as Dedeağaƈ in 1860, it began to grow with the marketing of its valonia oak after 1871 and further prospered with the arri...
  • Alexeïeff, Alexandre (French animator)
    Russian-born French filmmaker who invented the pinscreen method of animation with his collaborator (later his wife), the animator Claire Parker (1910–81)....
  • alexia (pathology)
    an inability or pronounced difficulty to learn to read or spell, despite otherwise normal intellectual functions. Dyslexia is a chronic neurological disorder that inhibits a person’s ability to recognize and process graphic symbols, particularly those pertaining to language. Primary symptoms include extremely poor reading skills owing to no apparent cause, a tendency to r...
  • Alexiad (work by Anna Comnena)
    ...grammatikos) to the emperor Manuel I Comnenus, whom he accompanied on campaigns in Europe and Asia Minor. Cinnamus’s history of the period 1118–76, continuing the Alexiad of Anna Comnena, covers the reigns of John II and Manuel I, down to the unsuccessful campaign against the Turks of Iconium when the Byzantines were routed (1176) at Myriocephal...
  • Alexianus Bassianus (Roman emperor)
    Roman emperor from ad 222 to 235, whose weak rule collapsed in the civil strife that engulfed the empire for the next 50 years. His maternal grandmother, Julia Maesa, was a sister-in-law of the emperor Septimius Severus (reigned 193–211)....
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