101 



ALEXANDRIA. 



rally styled, through courtesy, lord SHrli/if.', in con- 

 sequence of being considered by many as tl.e right- 

 ful heir to tin- title and estates of nn earldom in Scot- 

 land, from which country his father came, though the 

 government refused to acknowledge the son's cluim, 

 when he repaired to Great Britain in pursuit of this 

 inheritance. He was enrly remarkable for his fond- 

 ness for mathematics and astronomy, in which sci- 

 ences he made considerable progress. Throughout 

 the revolution, he acted an important part, and dis- 

 tinguished himself particularly in the battles of Long 

 Island, Gennantown, and Monmouth. In the first, 

 he was taken prisoner, after having, by a bold attack 

 upon a corps commanded by Cornwallis, effected the 

 escape of a large part of his detachment. In the se- 

 cond, his division, with the brigades of generals Nash 

 and Maxwell, formed the corps de reserve; and, in 

 the last, he commanded the left wing of the Ameri- 

 can army. He was always warmly attached to ge- 

 neral Washington, and the cause which he had 

 espoused. He died at Albany, Jan. 15, 1783, aged 

 fifty-seven years, leaving behind him the reputation 

 of a brave, discerning, and intrepid officer, and an 

 honest and learned man. 



ALEXANDRIA (in Turkish, Scanileria) ; the capi- 

 tal of Lower Egypt, and the ancient residence of the 

 Ptolemies, built 332 B. C., by Alexander the Great, 

 who destined it to be the capital of his empire, and 

 the centre of the commerce of the world. Its na- 

 tural situation is strong, and it has five harbours. 

 The Ptolemies, especially P. Soter, or Lagus, and 

 P. Philadelphus, improved it much, and made it the 

 seat of learning. (See Alexandrian School.) The 

 first inhabitants of Alexandria were a mixture of 

 Egyptians and Greeks, to whom must be added nu- 

 merous colonies of Jews, transplanted thither in 336, 

 320 and 312 B. C., to increase the population of the 

 city and country, who, becoming familiar with the 

 (i reek language and learning, were called Hellen- 

 ists, (q. v.) It was they who made the well-known 

 ('.reek translation of the Old Testament, under the 

 name of the Septvagtnta. (q. v.) The most beauti- 

 ful part of the city, near the great harbour, where 

 stood the royal palaces, magnificently built, was 

 called Bnictinn. There was the large and splendid 

 edifice, belonging to the academy and museum, 

 where the greater portion of the royal library 

 (400,000 volumes) was placed ; the rest, amounting 

 to 300,000, was in the Serapion, the temple of Jupi- 

 ter Serapis. The larger portion was burned during 

 the siege of Alexandria by Julius Caesar, but was 

 afterwards replaced by the library of Pergamus, 

 which A ntony presented to Cleopatra. The museum, 

 .vhere many scholars lived and were supported, eat 

 together, studied and instructed others, remained un- 

 hurt till the reign of Aurelian, when it was destroy- 

 ed in a period of civil commotion. The library in the 

 Serapion was preserved to the time of Theodosius the 

 Great. He caused all the heathen temples, through- 

 out the Roman empire to be destroyed ; and even 

 tli3 splendid temple of Jupiter Serapis was not spar- 

 ed. A crowd of fanatic Christians, headed by their 

 archbishop, Theodosius, stormed and destroyed it 

 At that time, the library, it is said, was partly burn- 

 ed, partly dispersed ; and the historian Orosius, to- 

 wards the close of the 4th century, saw only the 

 m pty shelves. Christian barbarians, therefore, and 

 not Arabs under Omar, as is usually asserted, were 

 the cause of this irreparable loss to science. The Al- 

 exandrian library, called, by Livy, Elegantia; regum 

 eureeqru; egreginm opus, embraced the whole Greek 

 and I^atin literature, of which we possess but single 

 fragments. In the division of the Roman dominions, 

 Alexandria, with the rest of Egypt, was compre- 

 hended -in the Eastern Empire. The Arabs pos- 



ses-cd themselves of it in 640; the caliph MoUiwiv- 

 kel, in 845, restored the library and academy ; but 

 the Turks took the city in 868, and it declined more 

 and more, retaining, however, a flourishing com. 

 merce, until the Portuguese, at the end of the 15th 

 century, diwo\t it d a way to the East Indies by sea, 

 The modern A., situated N. Lit. 31 11', E. Ion. 

 30 16', does not occupy the place of the old town, 

 of which nothing remains except a portico in the 

 vicinity of the gate leading to Kosetui, the south- 

 western amphitheatre, the obelisk, or needle, of 

 Cleopatra (presented to the king of England by the 

 pacha but a mass of 400,000 pounds' is too heavy 

 to be transported), and Pompcy's pillar, eighty-eight 

 feet six inches high, which, according to an EogQafa 

 traveller (Memoirs relating to Europe and Asiatic 

 Turkey, by Robert Walpole, 1817), was erected by 

 a governor of Egypt, named Pompey, in honour of 

 the emperor Diocletian. The equestrian statue, on 

 the top is no longer standing. The town has now 

 two citadels and harbours, of which the western, 

 which is the best, is closed against Christian ships 

 Before both harbours are the peninsula Farillon and 

 the island Pharos, with the ruins of the lighthouse 

 of Ptolemy. (See Pharos.) The population, for- 

 merly amounting to 300,000, is now 12,600; the 

 houses, 3132. A. is the seat of a patriarch. The 

 canal of Ramanieh, from Cairo to Alexandria, forty 

 miles, was restored by the viceroy, Mohammed All 

 Pacha, and first navigated 26th Jan., 1820. In 

 consequence of this, the commerce of Alexandria lias 

 been much improved. In the year 1824, 1290 ships, 

 among them 606 Austrian, arrived, and 1199 de- 

 parted. A peculiarity of modern A. is the great 

 number of dogs, which here, as well as in Cairo and 

 Constantinople, run about in a very wild state. Ac- 

 cording to the latest accounts, the trading pacha of 

 Egypthas appointed an Italian renegade, to collect 

 all the remains of ancient art, which are capable of 

 transportation, in his dominions, in order to sell them, 

 in a bazar to be built for this purpose in A., to the 

 Europeans. 



ALEXANDRIA, with the surname della Paglia; a 

 considerable town and fortress in Piedmont, situated 

 in a marshy country, near the junction of the Bor- 

 mida and the Tanaro. It was built in 1178, by the 

 Cremonese and Milanese, and at first called Ceesa- 

 rea ; afterwards, in honour of the pope Alexander 

 III., who established there a bishopric, Alessandria. 

 Its magnitude and opulence increased from century 

 to century ; it now contains 30,000 inhabitants, and 

 may be considered flourishing, since it is the capital 

 of the province of the same name, and has two fairs 

 annually, which are much frequented. Intended, 

 originally, for a fortress to guard the passage over 

 the Tanaro and Bormida, and constantly Kept in 

 good order, as the point where several roads meet, 

 Alexandria has frequently been the object of long 

 contention. It was taken and plundered, in 1522 ; 

 by duke Sforza ; besieged, without success, by the 

 French, under prince Conti, in 1 657 ; and taken, 

 after an obstinate defence, by prince Eugene, in 

 1707. On the 16th of June, 1800, after the battle 

 of Marengo, the Austrian general, Melas, agreed 

 upon an armistice with Bonaparte, at Alexandria, 

 by which he ceded to the latter Upper Italy, as far 

 as the Mincio^and twelve fortresses. The fortifica- 

 tions of A. consist now of a surrounding wall and 

 bastions, a strong citadel, formed by six bastions and 

 many out-works, on the left bank of the Tanaro, and 

 a redoubt, protecting the bridge on the right bank ot 

 the Bormida. A bridge of stone connects the town 

 and citadel. For an account of the revolt of the 

 garrison of A., see Piedmont, Revolution of. 



ALEXANDRIA ; a city and port of entry, in the 



