133 



ALEXEI PETROWITZ. 



ALFIERI, VITTORIO. 



131 



in renewing hostilities against the formidable Turks ; but finding his 

 expected advantages not so great as he anticipated, his zeal abated, 

 and he died before a peace with the Turks was concluded, on the 10th 

 of February, 1676, in his forty-sixth year. 



Alexei Michitilowitz did much for the improvement of Russia ; 

 agriculture and manufactures were constant objects of his solicitude : 

 he invited many foreigners to Russia, especially mechanics, artists, 

 and military men, whom he treated liberally. He ordered many 

 works, particularly on applied mathematics, military science, tactics, 

 fortification, geography, &c., to be translated into Russian ; he enlarged 

 the city of Moscow, and built two of its suburbs. He likewise com- 

 pletely reformed the Russian laws. He moreover commenced and 

 partly effected an extensive ecclesiastical reform, chiefly in matters 

 concerning the liturgy. Alexei was twice married : his first wife 

 was Maria Iljiniahna Miloslawskoy, by whom he had five sons (two of 

 whom, Feodor Alexeiewitz and Iwhu Alexeiewitz, were his successors 

 on the throne of Russia), and seven daughters. His second wife was 

 Natalia Kirillowna Narishkiu, by whom he had one son, Peter Alexeie- 

 witz (Peter the Great), and one daughter, Natalia Alexeiewna. 



ALEXEI PET11OWITZ, the eldest son of Peter the Great of 

 Russia, and of Eudoxia the first wife of that monarch. He was born 

 at .Moscow, in 1695. From his boyhood Alexis showed a headstrong 

 disposition, and an inclination for low pleasures, which, as lie grew up, 

 assumed the character of a decided aversion and opposition to that 

 reformation of the ancient manners of the country wiiich it was the 

 object of Peter's life to effect. It was in 171<i however, while the 

 Czar wa absent on his second tour through Europe, that the Prince 

 may be said to have first thrown off hia allegiance, by secretly quitting 

 Russia, and taking flight to Vienna, whence he some time after retired 

 to Naples. Peter, having returned from abroad, foresaw the confu- 

 sion and mixcli'.f which this conduct in the heir apparent might 

 eventually occasion, and went to work with his usual energy to 

 counteract and defeat a plan which threatened the destruction of 

 whatever he had done for the improvement of Russia. It was some 

 time before he succeeded in discovering his son's retreat; but having 

 at length learned where he was, he gave instructions to some noble- 

 men, who proceeded to Naples, and induced the prince to return to 

 Russia, and to solicit his father's forgiveness. The determined 

 character of Peter's extraordinary mind now displayed itself with 

 fearful sternness. As soon as he had secured the person of his son, 

 he proceeded to treat him as a criminal. Being deprived of his sword, 

 he was brought before an assembly of the clergy and nobility, and 

 there compelled to execute a formal resignation of his pretensions to 

 the crown. At the same time, effectually to crush the sedition of 

 which he was the head, bis principal partisans were all arrested, and 

 some of them put to death. His mother was shut np in a monastery. 

 But all this was not deemed enough. The prince himself was finally 

 brought to trial, and condemned to suffer death. This was in the 

 year 1718. The day after he was informed of his sentence, Alexis 

 was found dead in prison, and it was given out that he had been 

 catri"! off by some natural illness; but suspicions have been naturally 

 enough entertained that a private execution accomplished the end, 

 without incurring the risks or inconveniences of a public one. The 

 Prince, whose unhappy career was thus terminated, left a son, a child 

 of three years old, who in 1727, on the death of Catharine I., became 

 emperor under the title of Peter II. He only reigned for three years. 

 After the death of Alexis, Peter declared his second son his heir, but 

 he also died soon after, to the great grief of his father. These events 

 opened the succession to the Empress, who, on the death of her 

 illustrious husband in 1725, assumed the title of Catharine I. 



ALEXIS COMNENUS I., Emperor of Constantinople, ascended 

 the throne in 1081. The Coruneni were a family of Italian origin 

 transplanted into Asia Minor. Isaac Comneuus I., whose father 

 Manuel had served the empire with distinction, was elected Emperor 

 in 10J7 by the troops, in opposition to Michael VI. Isaac having 

 abdicated two years after, and his brother John having declined to 

 succeed him, the imperial purple was assumed by Constantino Ducas, 

 a friend of the Comneni. After several reigns interrupted by revolts, 

 Altxi.*, the third son of John Comnenus, was raised by the soldiers 

 to the throne, from which his predecessor, Nicephorus Botaniatea, 

 If a usurper, was hurled down, and forced to retire into a 

 monastery. 



Alexi* assumed the reins of the empire at a critical moment. The 

 Turks had spread from Per.'ia to the Hellespont ; the frontiers of the 

 Danube were threatened by swarms of barbarians; the Normans, who 

 were masters of Apulia ami Sicily, attacked the provinces on the 

 Adriatic; and, to crown the whole, the first crusade came with its 

 countless multitudes, threatening to sweep away the eastern empire, 

 and Constantinople itself, in their passage. " Yet, in the midst of 

 these tempest*, Alexis steered the imperial vessel with dexterity and 

 courage. At the head of his armies be was bold in action, skilful in 

 stratagem, patient of fatigue, ready to improve his advantages, and 

 rising from his defeat with inexhaustible vigour. The discipline of 

 the camp was revived, and a new generation of men and soldiers was 

 created by the example and the precepts of their leader. In a long 

 rty-scvcn years he subdued and pardoned the envy of his 

 ; the laws of public and private order were restored ; the arts 

 of wealth and science were cultivated ; the limit* of the empire were 



enlarged in Europe and Asia, and the Comueniau sceptre was trans- 

 mitted to his children of the third and fourth generation." (Gibbon's 

 ' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,' ch. xlviii.) 



The most important event of Alexis's reign is the passage of the 

 Crusaders through his dominions. His conduct ou that occasion has 

 given rise to the most conflicting statements by various historians. 

 Alexis had solicited some assistance from the western princes against 

 the invading Turks ; but he was alarmed at the approach of hundreds 

 of thousands of undiscipliued and riotous fanatics led by Peter the 

 Hermit, who ravaged the Christian countries on their way with as 

 little scruple as if they had been Mohammedan. This promiscuous 

 multitude however was safely passed by Alexis's care across the 

 Bosporus into Asia, where they were drawn by the Turks into the 

 plains of Nicea, and there destroyed in 1096. The regular part of the 

 expedition came after in several divisions, under the command of Godfrey 

 of Bouillon, of several French princes, and of Bohemoud and Tancred, 

 son and nephew to Robert Guiscard, the Norman conqueror of Sicily. 

 After a long and painful march the Crusaders encamped under tho 

 walls of Constantinople. Alexis supplied them with provisions, but 

 carefully guarded the city against any surprise on thi-ir part. Fre- 

 quent affrays however took place between the Franks and the Greeks, 

 who looked upon their unwelcome guests with as much fear and 

 aversion as they did on the Turks. The leaders of the crusaders were 

 admitted to the imperial presence, where they paid homage to Alexis, 

 who found means to tame and to conciliate the rude chiefs by gifts, and 

 by promises of assistance in their expedition to the Holy Laud, while 

 he induced them one after the other to pass quietly over to Asia. This 

 being accomplished, Alexis assisted them in the capture of Nicea from 

 the Turks, which conquest however he kept for himself. In the same 

 manner he profited by the progress of the Crusaders, following as it 

 were hi their wake, and reconquering from the Turks all tho coasts of 

 Asia Minor and the neighbouring islands, and driving the Turkish 

 sultans into the interior to the foot of Mount Taurus. While intent 

 upon this, Alexis neglected or forgot to lend any further succour to 

 the Crusaders, who were fighting on their own account in Syria and 

 Palestine. The Latin historians therefore accuse him of bad faith, 

 whilst his daughter, Anna Comneua, who wrote her father's life, extols 

 his wise policy, dwelling with haughty indignation on the insolence 

 and rapacity of the western barbarians. The Byzantine Greeks were 

 a refined, but effeminate and corrupt race ; cunning, suspicion, and 

 dissimulation were their principal weapons of defence against the 

 headlong violence of the feudal semi-barbarous Franks. Alexis died 

 in 1118, and was succeeded by his son John Comnenus, a good and 

 wise prince. His other son, Isaac, was the father of another John, 

 who apostatised to the Turks, and married their sultan's daughter, 

 ami through whom, apparently, Mahomet II., centuries after, boasted 

 of his Comnenian descent; and of the famous Audronicus, who, after 

 a most adventurous career, usurped the throne in 1183, causing his 

 relative, the youthful heir Alexis Conmenus II., to be strangled, 

 together .with his mother Maria, the Emperor Manuel's widow. 

 Andronicus was himself overthrown and put to a cruel djath three 

 years after, and in him ended the Imperial line of the Comneni on the 

 throne of Constantinople. Andronicus's posterity reigned afterwards 

 over the province of Trebizond, with the pompous title of Emperor. 



(See the various tfittoriet of the Crusades, and the collection of tho 

 Byzantine llistoriant ; and particularly the History of Anna Cumnena.) 

 [ANNA COM.NEMA.] 



ALFENUS VARUS, one of the Roman jurists whose Excerpts arc 

 contained in the 'Digest.' He was one of the most distinguished 

 pupils of the great jurist Servins Sulpicius, the friend of Cicero. 

 Pomponius (' Dig." i. tit. 2) states that he became consul, and it h 

 generally assumed that he is the P. Alphinius who was consul A.D. 2, 

 and the same person as the P. Alfinius, or Alfenus Varus, of Dion 

 Cassius (lib. Iv. Index). But as Sulpicius, the master of Varus, was 

 born B.C. 106 and died B.C. 43, it is not probable that Alfenus the 

 jurist could be consul so late as A.D. 2. 



Acron, the scholiast (Horatius, 'Sat.,' i. 3., v. 130), has a story that 

 Alfenus was a shoemaker at Cremona, who came to Rome, where he 

 became the pupil of Servius Sulpicius, and attained such distiuctiou 

 for his legal knowledge that he was made consul and had a public 

 funeral. The passage of Horace and the remark of the schuliast 

 have occasioned much discussion. (Wioland, 'Horazens Satiron ubcr- 

 setzt,' note on ' Sat.,' i. 3., v. 130 ; Heindorf, 'Des. Q. Horatius Satirun 

 crkliirt.') It is very difficult to form any conclusion from the passage 

 of Horace, though it may perhaps be assumed that he does refer to 

 tlie jurist Alt'cnus ; but this will not determine whether the story of 

 his early life as given by Acron and alluded to by Horace is true, 



Alfenus wrote a work entitled 'Digesta,' in forty books. He is 

 often cited by other jurists. The Excerpts in the ' Digest' show that 

 his style was clear. 



ALFIERI, VITTORIO, was born at Asti, in Piedmont, Jan. 17, 

 1749, of a noble and wealthy family. He lost his father when a child, 

 and his mother having married again, young Vittorio and his sister 

 Julia were placed under the guardianship of their uncle, Pellegrino 

 Alfieri. Vittorio at 9 years of age was sent as a boarder to the 

 Academia, or College of tho Nobles, at Turin. At tho age of 13 ho 

 was admitted to study philosophy in the university of Turin. At 

 tho age of 14, by the laws of Piedmont, he was master of his own 



