96 



ALER ALEXANDKU THK GREAT. 



produces chiefly wheat, barley, cotton, in.i:i;.i. sesa- 

 imim, &.<'., and, i" the mountains, mull>crry, olive, 

 and li-trees. llalep, a seat of a pasha of three 

 tails a (irct k patriarch, an Armenian, a Jacobite, 

 and a Maronite bishop, is, witln'a Uie walls, about 

 tlin-c and a half miles in circumference ; including 

 the suburbs, however, about seven or eight. It 

 contains 1 4, 1 Iff houses, 200,000 inhabitants (s!4,000 

 of whom are ( hristians), 100 mosques, three Catholic 

 churches, one Protestant church, a synagogue, many 

 manufactories of silk, cotton, &c. It carries on con- 

 >id. nlile trade, forming the centre of the intercourse 

 between the Persian gulf and the Mediterranean 

 sea. Most of the inhabitants are Mahommedans, 

 the rest Jews, oriental Christians, and Europeans. 

 The city lost two-thirds of its houses, and 8000 in- 

 habitants, by the earthquakes in 1822 and 1823. 

 Lon. 37 10' EL; laL 36 11' N. 



ALKR, Paul, a French Jesuit, known as the author 

 of the " Gradus ad Parnassum," which lias been so 

 long in established use in the schools of Europe. 

 He was a native of Luxemburg, and died in 1727. 



ALRS, or ALESSE, Alexander, a theologian of the 

 i nil century, bom at Edinburgh, 1500. He 

 was first canon in the cathedral of St Andrews, but, 

 becoming sceptical of the Catholic creed, was obliged 

 to retire to Germany, and eventually he became pro- 

 fessor of divinity at Frankfort, and afterwards at 

 Leipsic. He died in 1 565. The most esteemed of 

 his works is one entitled, " De Sancta Trinitate, cum 

 confutatione erroris Valentini." 



AuasiA, the capital of the Mandubii, a Gallic 

 people, who dwelt in what is now Burgundy, was an 

 important fortress, the siege and taking of which 

 was, undoubtedly, the greatest military exploit of 

 Caesar. All Gaul had risen against the Romans, 

 even the .<Edui, the old allies of the oppressors ; but 

 Cesar conquered them under Vercingetorix, and 

 besieged them in Alesia. 80,000 men were shut up 

 in the town ; Caesar, with 60,000 troops, lay before 

 it. He erected immediately a line of contravalla- 

 tion, extending four leagues, in order to reduce the 

 place by famine, since its situation on a hill, 1500 

 feet high, and on all sides abrupt, between the rivers 

 Ope and Operain, rendered an attack impossible. 

 Vercingetorix, after making several furious but un- 

 successful sallies, called all the Gauls to arms, and 

 in a short time, 250,000 men appeared before the 

 place. Caesar had, in the meantime, completed his 

 line of circumvallation, protecting himself against 

 any attack from without by a breast-work, a ditch 

 with palisadoes, and several rows of pit-falls. These 

 defences enabled him to repel the desperate attack 

 of 330,000 Gauls against the 60,000 Romans under 

 his command, though he was assailed both in front 

 and rear. The Gauls were unable to force his lines 

 at any point. Vercingetorix, reduced to extremity 

 by hunger, was compelled to surrender, without hav- 

 ing carried into execution his design of murdering 

 all the persons in the town who were unqualified for 

 battle. But the whole tribe of the Mandubii, which 

 had been expelled from the city by the Gauls, and 

 were not allowed by the Romans to pass into the 

 open country, died of famine between the two camps. 

 Afterwards, A. rose again to a flourishing condition, 

 until it was destroyed, in 864, by the Normans. 

 Vestiges of wells, aqueducts, broken tiles, coins, and 

 the like, found in the fields where A. once stood, 

 prove the former existence of the city. At the foot 

 of the ancient citadel (now mount Auxois), is a vil- 

 lage called Alite (depart. Cote d' Or), with several 

 hundred inhabitant?. 



ALEUTIAN ISLANDS ; a group belonging to Rus- 

 sia, and separating the sea of Kamtschatka from the 

 northern part of the Pacific ocean, extending nearly 



700 miles fro,,, K. t( , \v., from Ion. 109 to 183 1 E.; 

 lat. ;">:!" N. They form a chain connecting Asia 

 and America, and include what have generally been 

 ailed, in Knlish geographical works, the I'n.v 

 ix/niti/s. It, 'I, r///i''.v ami Cnj>/-r islands, and the group 

 formerly divided into the .1/,-iitinn and Andremir'mn 

 isles, altogether above 100, comprising about 10,000 

 square miles, all rocky, some containing volcanoes 

 and hoi springs. The most known ami largest arc 

 the Oonalashka, Helmut's, island, and Kodiak. The 

 principal place is Alexandria, the seat of the gover- 

 nor, and the chief emporium. No tree grows on 

 these islands, and no domestic animal thrives there ; 

 but they afford an abundance of \aluahle fir and of 

 fish. The inhabitants belong to the sime stock with 

 the natives of Kamtschatka ; they are a harmless 

 race of hunters and fishers. Their numbers has I,, in 

 reduced by the small-pox and the venereal disease to 

 1000. The Russians to whom they pay tribute, 

 visit these inhospitable islands only for the sake of 

 fur. The officers of the Russian- American company 

 treat the inhabitants so cruelly, that Kniseiistt rn 

 made a report about it to the Russian government. 

 Muller's Sammlung Russischer Geschichte, vol. iii. ; 

 Coxe's Account of the Russian Discoveries ; Tooke's 

 View of the Russian Empire ; Krusenstern's Voy- 

 age round the world ; Cooke, &c. 



ALEXANDER THE GREAT, son of Philip of Mace- 

 don, was born in Pella, B. C. 356. His mother was 

 Olympias, the daughter of Neoptolemus of Epirns. 

 In his early youth, he showed the marks of a great 

 character. When he heard of the victories of Pnilip, 

 he exclaimed, " My father will not leave any thing 

 for me to do." Philip confided the charge of his 

 education first to Leonidas, a relation of his mother, 

 and to Lysiinachus ; afterwards to Aristotle. At a 

 distance from the court, this great philosopher in- 

 structed him in all the branches of human knowledge, 

 especially those necessary for a ruler, and wrote for 

 his benefit a work on the art of government, which is 

 unfortunately lost. As Macedonwas surrounded by 

 dangerous neighbours, Aristotfe sought to cultivate 

 in his pupil the talents and virtues ot a military com- 

 mander. With this view he recommended to him 

 the reading of the Iliad, and revised this poem him- 

 self. The copy revised by Aristotle was the favour- 

 ite book of A., who never lay down without having 

 read some pages in it. At the same time he formed 

 his body by gymnastic exercises. When very young, 

 as every body knows, he tamed the horse Bucepha- 

 lus, which no one else dared to mount. When he 

 was sixteen years old, Philip, setting out on an ex- 

 pedition against Byzantium, delegated the govern- 

 ment to him during his absence. He performed 

 prodigies of valour, two years later (338), in the bat- 

 tle at Clueronea, where he obtained great reputation 

 by conquering the sacred band ot the Thebans. 

 " My son," said Philip, after the battle, embracing 

 him, " seek another empire, for that which I shall 

 leave you is not worthy of you." The father and 

 son, however, quarrelled when Philip repudiated 

 Olympias. A., who took the part of his mother, 

 was obliged to flee to Epirus, to escape the vengeance 

 of his fauier ; but he soon obtained pardon, and re- 

 turned. He afterwards accompanied Philip on an 

 expedition against the Triballi, and saved his life in 

 a battle. Philip, having been elected chief com- 

 mander of the Greeks, was preparing for a war 

 against Persia, when he was assassinated, B. C. 326. 

 A., not yet twenty years of age, ascended the throne, 

 punished the murderer, went into the Peloponnesus, 

 and received, in the general assembly of the Greeks, 

 the chief command in the war against Persia. After 

 his return, he found the Illyri and Triballi in arms, 

 went to meet them, forced a passage through Thrace, 



