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The winter residence in Bactra had been marked by new executions. A conspiracy was formed among the royal pages to murder the king, but, being discovered in time, Hermolaus and his young associates suffered the punishment of death by stoning, after having first been put to the torture. Callisthenes, a pupil of Aristotle, was implicated in the charge; he was first tortured and then hanged. There seems no doubt about the existence of a conspiracy, and as little doubt that it was provoked by the intemperate conduct of Alexander. (See Arrian, iv., 13, 14.)

The progress of the army from Alexandria to the passage of the Indus is difficult to trace, though we can have no doubt that it followed, in part at least, the line of an existing commercial road, and would be pretty near the same route that would be followed now. In his march Alexander crossed the Choes or Choaspes, (the river of Caubul?) and the Gyræus, both of them then considerable streams; he took the important town of Massaga, (Massagour,) and once more assailed one of those mountain fortresses, by name Aornos, which seems, from the peculiar difficulties which it offered, to have had additional charms for the adventurous spirit of Alexander. The place was captured in spite of a vigorous resistance; and the army advanced, by a road which they were obliged to construct for themselves, to the bridge of boats over the Indus which Ptolemy and Hephaestion had been sent forward to make. Neither Aristobulus nor Ptolemy have informed us, says Arrian, how the bridge across the Indus was constructed: he conjectures, however, that it was made by boats, fastened together with planks laid across them, and the whole kept steady by baskets full of stones let down from the prow. Such a bridge of boats there is now at Attock on the Indus, a little north of which is probably the place where Alexander crossed. The river here is above 1000 feet wide, and very deep. It is only from November to April that such a bridge can be thrown over the river, for this is the period when it is not flooded. Alexander, who had spent the winter between the Caubul and the Indus, must have entered India early in the year B.C. 326. His route was the same as that of Timour and Nadir Shah, the object of whose plunder was the city of Delhi.

The region which the Macedonian conqueror now entered is watered by numerous large streams, whence it receives the Persian name of PENJ-AB, or the five rivers. The waters of the Penj-âb unite in one stream, and fall into the Indus on the left bank in 28° 55' N. lat. Taxila was the first Indian town he came to, and here the army enjoyed a little repose after its toils. Taxilas, the king, had saved himself by previous submission; and it seems not unlikely that the dissensions among the Indian rulers of this country materially facilitated the operations of the Macedonian army. Alexander's progress was towards the Hydaspes, (now the Behut, or Bedusta, also called by the natives the Jylum,) a large river swollen by the solstitial rains. His boats that had been constructed on the Indus had been taken in pieces, and brought across the country to the bank of the river; but a more formidable enemy than the swollen Hydaspes presented itself on the opposite bank. Porus, an Indian king, one of the great rulers of the Penj-âb, was stationed there with a formidable army, and a train of elephants that rendered all attempts at landing too dangerous to be hazarded. By a manoeuvre, Alexander, with part of his troops, and his formidable companion cavalry crossed the river in another place before he was discovered. The troops of Porus were upon this drawn up in order of battle in the plain, with a line of elephants in front; the rest of the dispositions of the Indian prince were such as showed him a master of the art of war as practised at that day in India. Unlike the timid monarch of Persia, Porus made a gallant defence; but the Macedonian cavalry, and the compact mass of the infantry bristling with their spears directed by the courage and skill of Alexander, were a force that no Indian army could resist. The whole loss of the enemy was, according to Arrian, about 23,000, while the number that fell on the side of the conqueror is stated so disproportionately small, as to lead us to doubt the accuracy of Arrian's authorities. Two sons of Porus fell in the battle; and the gallant father at last yielded to Alexander, who treated him with the respect due to his rank and courage, and restored to him his kingdom with extended limits. In this battle a number of elephants fell into the hands of the Greeks; and from this time we may date the use of that animal in European warfare.

We are told that Alexander founded two cities, or pro

bably military posts, one on each bank of the Hydaspes. One city was called Nicæa, to commemorate his victory; the other Bucephala, in honour of Alexander's horse Bucephalus, which, after carrying his rider safe through so many battles, died in the last encounter, worn out by old age and fatigue.

From the Hydaspes the army advanced to the great Acesines cr Chin-ab, which Ptolemy describes as fifteen stadia, or considerably above a mile in breadth. This estimate, which may be true of some parts in the rainy season, when Alexander crossed it, far exceeds the ordinary limits of the river. It was crossed in boats, and on skins; the latter mode, which is still common on the Chin-ab, was found the safer conveyance. The country between the Chin-ab and the Hydraotes, (Ravee, or Iraoty,) to which Alexander was now advancing, is said to be a sheet of hard clay without a blade of grass, except on the banks of the rivers. Over this tract he marched and crossed the Hydraotes to attack a new enemy. A second Porus, who was king of the country between the Acesines and Hydraotes, had fled as the enemy approached, and hence received the name of Coward. The recurrence of the name Porus, added to other reasons, proves that this was not a proper name of an individual, but of a family or tribe. The dominions of the runaway Porus were given to the true man. But all the Indians east of the Hydraotes were not cowards: the Cathæi, a warlike tribe, were determined to oppose the invader. Three days' march brought the Greeks to Sangala, where the Cathæi were stationed on an eminence with a triple line of waggons around it. Such mounds or eminences, surrounded by a brick wall higher on the outside than the inside, are found in the Penj-âb. The city was captured with the usual slaughter, and the power of the brave Cathæi was for the time broken. A pastoral tribe, a robust and manly race, bearing the name of Kattia or Jun, still exists in the countries between the Chin-ab and the Ravee, and is conjectured by a late explorer of those regions (Burnes) to be the Cathæi of Arrian. The name and the locality are certainly in favour of this hypothesis. The king was still eager to press forward beyond the Hyphasis, a river which under the name of Garra joins the Chin-ab (29° 30′ N. lat.,) and is formed of the united streams of the Sutledge and the Beeah. The latter name is a contraction of Bypasa, which retains some traces of the Greek name Hyphasis. Report magnified the wealth of the countries east of the Hyphasis, and the adventurous conqueror probably thought to make the Ganges the boundary of this progress. But his Greek troops exhausted with fatigue, disappointed in finding a country poor, and full of vigorous enemies, and seeing themselves now only a handful of strangers in a foreign land, could not be induced either by threats or persuasions to cross this river. The Hyphasis was, therefore, the boundary of Alexander's conquests and of that victorious progress, to which no other history offers a parallel. The Macedonians, a race hitherto looked on with contempt by many of the southern Greeks, furnished the officers for this bold undertaking; the Republics, whose names and exploits form the subject of all previous Grecian history, had no representative in the glories of the Indian conquest. It appears further when we consider the small number of Macedonians, Thessalians, and soldiers from southern Greece who formed the original army, or were afterwards added to it, that Alexander's army must have been constantly recruited from the nations among whom he came, and must have presented at this period a strange and motley aspect of Asiatic and European troops officered by Macedonians. Our limits compel us to pass briefly over the remaining events of Alexander's life. The army retraced its steps to the Hydaspes, where a fleet was constructed of the timber which this river still abundantly supplies from the upper parts of its course. On descending the river to its confluence with the Acesines, the fleet experienced, at the junction of these streams, the dangerous rapids which are said only to exist in July and August. The long ships of war suffered severely, but the round boats, as Arrian calls them, which probably resembled the native boats still used on the river, passed the dangerous spot in safety. A late traveller (Burnes) finds but a faint resemblance between the description of Arrian and the realities at the junction of these two great rivers. (vi. 4.)

The Malli, a powerful Indian tribe, who seem to have chiefly occupied the lower course of the Hydraotes (Ravee), were next attacked, We are inclined to look in the modern

Multan, or Malli-than, which stands on a mass of ruins, on the left bank of the Chin-ab, for the capital of the Malli which was taken by Alexander; but it is impossible to reconcile the description of Arrian, which is certainly very vague, with the position of Multan. We can hardly doubt, however, that Multan is on the site of one of the conquered cities. In this campaign, Alexander, like some of the modern heroes of the Penj-âb, swam across the Ravee, at the head of his cavalry, to attack the enemy, who were drawn up on the opposite bank.

The Oxydraca, who were also obliged to surrender, may possibly have their name preserved in the name of Ouch, a town with a considerable population on the left bank of the Chin-ab, five miles below the junction of the Garra, which takes place in 29° 30′ N. lat.

The troops moved downwards (B.C. 325) to the confluence of the Indus and the Chin-ab at Mittun (28° 55′ N. lat.), where Alexander gave orders to found a city at the confluence of the two mighty streams, and to build dock-yards. Here he left Philip as satrap, with all the Thracians that belonged to the army, and a sufficient number of soldiers of the line to ensure the military occupation of the country. With his fleet increased, Alexander sailed down the Indus, placing Craterus and the elephants on the east bank, with orders to advance. He visited, in his voyage downwards, the royal city of the Sogdi, doubtless a corrupted name, and established there a dock-yard. Musicanus, an Indian prince, who lived lower down the stream, surrendered, and his city received a foreign garrison. Oxycanus, another prince, resisted, but in vain: his two chief cities were taken, and himself made a prisoner. The next acquisition was Sindomana, the capital of Sambus, which is probably the modern Sehwan (26° 22′ N. lat.), where there is a large mound sixty feet in height, surrounded by a wall of burnt brick, and which now encloses only a heap of ruins. Musicanus, in the mean time, revolted,-induced by the Brachmans, that is, the ruling caste. His second career was, however, short: he was caught and hanged, together with the leaders of the

movement.

The narrative of Arrian is here obscure and corrupt (compare vi. 15, 9, and 17, 6): it appears, however, that part of the army was sent from the banks of the Indus by land, towards the country of the Arachoti and Drangæ (through Candahar), by a route now well known to exist; from Candahar they were ordered to proceed to Carmania. The fact of this line of road being known to Alexander, is a confirmation of his having been on the site of Candahar before he entered India, and it also adds to the probability of this being the Alexandria above alluded to. Shikarpoor on the Indus must be about the point of departure.

At Pattala (Tatta?), the apex of the great delta of the Indus, and about sixty-five miles from the sea, Alexander established a naval station, and laid the foundation of a city, which he no doubt anticipated would prove the centre of an extended commerce; and such it might be in the hands of a politic and powerful governor. The enterprising monarch himself explored the two great arms that embrace the delta of the Indus. In the western, called the Buggaur, he experienced the dangers of this rapid and destructive stream, swollen to increased fury by a strong wind from the sea; while the rapid ebb and flow of the tides, which at full moon rise about nine feet, left his boats suddenly on dry land, and as suddenly returned to surprise them. At last he reached the mouth of the stream, and beheld the great Indian Ocean: he floated onwards till he was fairly in the open sea, with the view of ascertaining, as he said, if he could spy any land. His historian conjectures that he wished to be able to say that he had navigated the Indian Ocean. He next explored the eastern branch, which he found more practicable, and opening into a wide æstuary. It may be doubted whether he sailed down the Sata, or present eastern arm of the Delta. It is possible that he navigated the Koree, which has the widest embouchure of all, though now no longer an outlet of the Indus. Alexander appears to have had views somewhat beyond those of an ordinary commander: he evidently possessed a spirit of geographical discovery. With a few horsemen,' says Arrian, he followed the outline of the Delta along the margin of the ocean, to see what kind of a country it was, and he ordered wells to be dug for the benefit of those who might navigate this coast. He also established a naval station on the wide estuary, and left a garrison to keep the country in order. Nearchus, the commander of Alexander's fleet, received

orders to set out on his voyage along the coast towards the Persian gulf, as soon as the change of the monsoons would allow him. The narrative of this voyage, the earliest of which any account is extant, will be given under the head of NEARCHUS. Alexander himself set out from Pattala with his army somewhat earlier, about September, B. C. 325. The route froin the Delta of the Indus to Bunder Abbas (Gombroon) on the shore of the Persian Gulf is practicable for elephants, and also for an army when attended by a fleet with supplies. This line differs very little from that which Alexander would follow in his sixty days' march from the western limits of the Orite to Pura (Fureg?) Scarcity of water drove the army on one occasion to seek it by digging on the sandy beach of the ocean, the coast of which they followed for seven days. But the sufferings of the soldiers in this arid desert, if we follow the accounts of Arrian and Strabo, were almost beyond description, owing, perhaps, as much to the want of supplies for so large a number of men, as to the barrenness of the country itself. We have no doubt that the difficulties of this desert were exaggerated by the Alexdrine historians. The sufferings of an ill-provided army in a country unable to furnish sufficient supplies, added to the exhaustions of so many campaigns, would doubtless all tend to make the inhospitable wastes of Gedrosia (Mekran) look more formidable than they really were. From Pura the army advanced without any difficulty to the capital of Karmania (the modern Kirman.) Here Alexander was joined by Craterus with the elephants, and the detachment already spoken of as sent through Candahar. The route of this commander was doubtless along the valley of the Helmund, from which the road to Kirman offers no serious difficulties. Nearchus also joined the king here, having conducted the fleet in safety to Harmozia, a place on the main land opposite the barren island of Hormuz, a name once celebrated in modern oriental warfare and commerce.

From Kirman, Hephaestion led the mass of the army, with the beasts of burden, and the elephants down to the coast, as the road along the Persian Gulf was more practicable in the winter season that was approaching. The king himself advanced with his lightest troops and the companion cavalry to Pasargada, (probably Murghaub,) the burial place of the great Cyrus. [See CYRUS. PASARGADE.] He found the tomb rifled by some robbers, who cared not for the honour of the great national hero who for more than 200 years had slept undisturbed. The golden coffin that contained the embalmed body of the monarch was the object of the plunderers, but after taking off the lid and throwing the corpse from its resting-place, they were unable to carry off the booty on account of its weight. Alexander ordered the mutilated body to be restored to the tomb, and Aristobulus tells us he himself received the king's commands to repair the damage that had been done, and secure the remains of the great Persian warrior from any similar insult.

From Pasargadæ, Alexander came to Persepolis, the city which he is said to have burnt at his former visit. If we may trust Arrian, the sight of the mischief he had done gave him no satisfaction. Here he named Peucestas, a Macedonian, satrap or governor of the province of Persis, in the place of the Persian governor who was hanged for his mal-administration. Peucestas forthwith followed a course of policy which Alexander well knew how to appreciate. He adopted the dress and usages of the country, and made himself a perfect master of the Persian language: the Persians, as we are informed by the historian, were naturally pleased with him. His example, to a certain extent, may serve as a pattern to modern nations who occupy a foreign land.

At Susa, on the banks of the Ulai, or Choaspes, (B.C. 324,) the army at last rested from their labours, and the interval of leisure was employed in enjoying the festivities of marriage. Alexander himself took another wife, Barsine, the eldest daughter of Darius; if we may trust Aristobulus, he married also at the same time Parysatis, the daughter of Ochus, thus sharing the honours of his Bactrian wife Roxana with two of Persian stock. Eighty of his chief officers, at e same time, received each an Asiatic wife from their royal master, who seems to have assigned the women to their respective husbands just as he would have parcelled out so many governments. Hephaestion married a daughter of Darius, it being Alexander's wish that his and his friend's children should be related by blood. The wives of Craterus, Perdiccas, Ptolemy, the future king of Egypt, Eumenes, Nearchus, and Seleucus are specially mentioned by the historian,

The marriages,' he adds, were celebrated after the Persian fashion seats were placed for the bridegrooms, and after the wine, the brides were introduced, and each sat down by her husband. The men took the females by the hard and kissed them, the king setting the example. Alexander gave a dowry with each. Every other Macedonian who chose to take an Asiatic wife was registered, and received a present on his marriage; the number who followed the king's example was above 10,000. The feastings and revelry that attended the marriage celebration were diversified by every kind of amusement that music, theatrical representations, and all the talents of the most skilful artistes of the Greek nation could supply; but in the midst of this scene of perhaps riotous festivity, we must not overlook the wise policy of Alexander, by which he endeavoured to blend the conquerors and the conquered into one nation by the strong ties of inter-marriage. It was obviously, also, a further design of Alexander, as we see from his historian, to train the natives of Asia to European arms and manoeuvres, and by incorporating them with his troops, and forming also new bodies, to render himself independent of the control of his Macedonians.

Discovery and works of utility also still engaged his attention. He sailed down the Karoon (Arrian vii. 7, says the Euleus) into the gulf, examined part of the Delta of these rivers, and ascending the Shat el Arab, went up the Tigris as far as Opis. In this voyage he removed several of those large masses of masonry, commonly called bunds, which were built across the river for the purpose of making a head of water and favouring irrigation; but they proved at the same time an impediment to the navigation, which it was the conqueror's policy to improve and extend. Various remains of such constructions exist at the present day in the rivers of Susiana.

who were sent out ventured farther than Cape Maketa (Cape Mussendom) at the entrance of the gulf. The improvement of the agriculture of the fertile Babylonian plains was another object of his policy; as a preliminary to which the numerous canals for irrigation required repair, and the great drain from the river during the season of the floods, the Pallacopas (see EUPHRATES, PALLACOPAS), was rendered more efficient. These fertile regions still retain the traces of the ancient Babylonian culture in their canals, embankments, and other contrivances for irrigation; but they wait for the presence of a wise and powerful government to secure to the labourer the produce of his industry, and to rouse him by example to attain the happiness which nature is ready to bestow.

In the midst of these undertakings, and the preparation for his Arabian expedition, Alexander died. The immediate cause of his death was a fever, probably contracted while superintending the work in the marshes round Babylon, and aggravated by a recent debauch. The daily bulletins during his illness may be seen in Arrian (vii. 25): he seems to have had no physician. This is nearly all that can with certainty be said about the circumstances of his death. He died at the early age of thirty-two years and eight months, after a reign of twelve years and eight months; during nearly the whole of which time, his sword was actively employed in diminishing the numbers of the human race. Arrian (vii. 28) has pronounced his perhaps too partial panegyric, the truth of which, however, no one should dispute till he has carefully weighed the whole evidence. Whoever,' says the historian in conclusion, vilifies Alexander, should not allege merely those events of his life which merit blame, but should collect all the facts of his life and then consider, first, who he is himself, and what has been his own fortune; and then, who Alexander was, and how great was his fortune: he should consider that Álexander was the undoubted monarch of two continents, and spread his name over the whole earth; and especially should the vilifier of Alexander bear this in mind, if he is himself a person of little importance, engaged in matters also of little importance, and not managing even these well. I think there was no nation, nor city, nor individual of that day, who had not heard of Alexander's name. It is my opinion, then, that such a man, who was like no other mortal, would never have been born without a special providence.'

Having quelled a rising mutiny among his Macedonians, and dismissed the worn-out veterans with more than their full pay, he went, about the close of the year B.C. 324, to Ecbatana, the northern capital of the empire, where Hephaestion his favourite died. The grief of Alexander, which was no doubt sincere, displayed itself in all the outward circumstances of sorrow, but from the mass of contradictory accounts, Arrian (vii. 14) found no little trouble in extracting a probable and a rational narrative. On his route towards Babylon from Ecbatana, (Hamadan,) Alexander diverted his grief by subduing the Cossæi, a mountain tribe of robbers, whom he entirely rooted out, as he Alexander is said to have had a handsome person. He thought; but they soon showed themselves again. It seems died without leaving any undisputed successor, or any disas if the temperament of Alexander required a feverish ex-tinct declaration of bis will. His wife Roxana was with citement, and that rest and inactivity would have proved child at the time of his death. more fatal to his existence than the most incessant toil. Neither the severity of winter, nor the difficulties of the country proved any obstacle to Alexander and Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, who commanded part of the army. On his approach to the ancient city of Babylon, he was met by embassies from nearly every part of the known world, who had come to pay their respects to the new lord of Asiafrom Carthage, from southern Italy, from Europe north of the Black Sea: Celts and Iberians too, it is said, paid their homage in this motley assemblage.

The priests of the temple of Belus endeavoured to per suade the king that he could not safely enter the city: the great Belus himself had given this warning. Their motives, as Arrian tells us, and as we might readily suspect, were not so disinterested as they appeared. The great temple was in ruins, and the priests had made little progress in rebuilding it according to the orders given during Alexander's first visit (Arrian iii. 16): they enjoyed, however, its ample revenues, which, like prudent economists, they had no wish to expend on a useless building. The king despised the warning of Belus and his priests, and entered the city.

In Babylon Alexander proposed to fix the seat of his empire, and to live in a style of splendor unknown even to the monarchs of the East. His projects were grand and characteristic. He sent Heraclides to build vessels on the Caspian, and to explore these unknown waters, which Herodotus a century before had declared to be an inland sea, but other opinions connected with the Euxine, or the Great Ocean. He excavated a basin at Babylon to hold the vessels that should navigate the Persian gulf and the Euphrates, while he spared no pains to induce skilful seamen to repair to his new capital. The circumnavigation of the Arabian peninsula, and the subjection of its predatory hordes, were also part of his plan, but no commander of those

His body was embalmed probably after the manner in use among the Persians, and finally deposited at Alexandria in Egypt, though all the circumstances attending its transport are exceedingly contradictory and uncertain. A sarcophagus in the British Museum, brought from the church of St. Athanasius at Alexandria, (No. 6 in the catalogue,) has been named without any reason the Sarcophagus of Alexander.

In this imperfect sketch many events are omitted which it is impossible to crowd into a limited space, and many parts of the narrative thus become obscure and perhaps incorrect. The following authorities may be consulted for more minute particulars, and by those who take pleasure in reconciling contradictions: Arrian's Anabasis. Strabo. Quintus Curtius. Plutarch's Life of Alexander. Diodorus, Book 17. Justin. These are the chief, but not the only antient authorities. The reader may also consult Examen Critique des Anciens Historiens d'Alexandre le Grand. Mitford's Greece. Williams Life of Alexander. Burnes' Memoir on the Indus. Journal of the Lond. Geog. Soc. 1833. Lassen's Pentapotamia Indica.

To comprehend the political events that followed the death of Alexander, the reader may turn to the articles ANTIGONUS, ANTIPATER, DEMETRIUS, EUMENES, LYSIMACHUS, PERDICCAS, PTOLEMY, SELEUCUS; and also for other parts of his life, but briefly treated here, to ALEXANDRIA, AMMONIUM, ARISTOTLE, BABYLON, ECBATANA, EUPHRATES, INDUS, SUSA, PASAGARDE, PERSEPOLIS, NEARCHUS, PARMENION.

ALEXANDER I., son of Amyntas I., said to be the tenth king of Macedon, was alive at the time of the great Persian invasion of Greece, B. C. 480. His history, as far as it is known, and his share in the troubles of the Persian wars, are contained in the last five books of Herodotus.

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[Alexander Balas.]

ALEXANDER I., surnamed BALAS, or Baλλns, reigned as king of Syria from 150 to 145 B.C. According to some authorities, Alexander took his surname from his mother Bala, or Balle. The following is the account given of the origin of this adventurer. His predecessor, Demetrius I., occasioned by his bad government a rebellion, which was supported by the kings of Egypt, Cappadocia, and Pergamus. The governor of Babylon, Heraclides, being exiled to Rhodes by Demetrius, induced a certain Alexander Balas, of low birth, to feign himself a son of Antiochus Epiphanes, and to claim as such the right of succeeding him. The Roman senate acknowledged this pretender on his appearing at Rome, in order to revenge themselves on Demetrius I. Polybius, who was at that time at Rome, states that the whole city was surprised at the edict, by which the senate recommended the cause of the adventurer Balas to the support of the confederate nations. This edict had, however, the effect, that Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, Ptolemy, and Attalus II., king of Pergamus, sent troops to Alexander Balas to assist him after his return from Rome against Demetrius. Many discontented Syrians joined this army. This civil war in Syria relieved the Maccabees, who were almost subdued before this diversion took place. Demetrius I., as well as Alexander Balas, endeavoured to obtain the support of Jonathan, the Maccabee, who headed at that time the Jewish patriots. Jonathan embraced the party of Alexander Balas, who conferred upon him the high priesthood, styled him friend of the king, and presented him with a purple robe and a diadem. Alexander Balas having been defeated in the first battle, 152 B.C., received reinforcements and gained a decisive victory in the year 150. Demetrius I., who was wounded by an arrow, perished in a swamp. Alexander Balas then mounted the throne of Syria, and married at Ptolemais, Cleopatra, a daughter of Ptolemæus Philometor. On this occasion Jonathan, the Maccabee, was treated with great distinction by Alexander and Ptolemæus, was again presented with a purple robe, and appointed commander, or Meridarch of Judæa. When Balas considered his government sufficiently established, he left the cares of administration to his favourite Ammonius, in order to enjoy without restraint a luxurious life. Ammonius put to death those members of the royal family of the Seleucida whom he could get into his power, but there still lived in the island of Cnidus two sons of the last king, the elder of whom, Demetrius II., landed in Cilicia, whilst the governor of Colesyria, Apollonius, rebelled against Balas in the year 148 B.C. Apollonius was beaten by Jonathan, but Balas himself was obliged to march against Demetrius II. Ptolemy, who had apparently come to assist his sonin-law, suddenly embraced the cause of Demetrius, after accusing Balas of an intention to murder him. Balas, being defeated by Ptolemy, escaped into Arabia, where he was murdered by an Arabian chieftain contrary to the laws of hospitality, in the town of Abas, which was afterwards called Motho, (his death.) Demetrius II., surnamed Niketor, then ascended the throne of Syria.

The Emir who cut off the head of Balas and sent it to Ptolemy, is called by Josephus Zabel, and in Maccab. xi. 16, 17, Zabdiel. Diodorus Siculus (in Excerpt. Photii, cod. 244) calls him Diocles. Perhaps he had adopted a Greek name, like other Orientals of his time, and like the Jews of our days, who often adopt English names after their arrival in England, changing Hirsch into Harris, Aaronsohn into Harrison, Levi into Lyons, &c.

[Alexander Balas.]

on her head,-an indication of his subordination to this proud woman. Handel wrote an Oratorio entitled Alexander Balas. (Fröhlich, Annales Syriae, Nummis Illustr. tab. viii., ix. p. 61; Eckhel, Doctr., Numm. Vet. tab. iii. p. 227; Athenæus, v. c. 10; Polyb. de Legat. c. 140; Appian, Syr. c. 31; Diod. Sic. Fragm. xxxii.; Joseph. Archæol. xiii. 2; 1 Mace. x. 11; Gesenius in Ersch und Gruber; Seleucidarum Imperium sive Hist. regum Syriæ ad fidem numismatum accommodata per Foy-Vaillant.)

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ALEXANDER JANNEUS, third son of Johannes Hyrcanus, succeeded his brother Aristobulus as king of the Jews and as high-priest. from B.c. 106 or 104 to 79. Following the example of his brother, he turned the disturbances in Syria to his own profit. He attacked Ptolemais, (the present Acre,) which, like other cities, had made itself independent. The inhabitants called Ptolemæus Lathyrus, of Cyprus, to their assistance, by whom Alexander Jannæus was beaten on the banks of the Jordan, and Palestine horribly ravaged, until, by the aid of Cleopatra, the mother of Lathyrus, AlexAlexander then ander was enabled to repel his enemy. conquered Gaza, burned the city, and massacred the inhabitants who had joined the party of Lathyrus; but not without losing many of his own soldiers. Jannæus embraced the party of the Sadducees; and, of course, was hated by the Pharisees and by the people. On the Feast of Tabernacles, after being pelted by the people with lemons, and loudly insulted by their opprobrious language, he caused 6000 men to be cut down, and in future protected himself by a bodyguard of Libyans and Pisidians. Having lost his army in an unfortunate expedition against the Arabians, the Pharisees made an insurrection, and carried on for six years a civil war against the king, in which 50,000 Jews are said to have perished. The rebels, supported by the Arabians, the Moabites, and by Demetrius Eukaros, compelled Alexander to escape into the mountains. But a part of the auxiliaries coming over to the king's party, he was now enabled to crush the rebels, and to gratify his vengeance by crucifying, on one day, 800 of the most distinguished captives: their wives and children were massacred before their eyes; whilst the king dined with his wives in sight of the executed rebels. On account of this cruelty he was surnamed the Thracian.

Having intimidated his enemies, and restored public peace, he engaged in several successful wars, by which he enlarged his dominions. Being desirous to reconcile his subjects, he asked them what he should do in order to make them quite content? Die, they replied. He did die at the siege of Regaba, or Ragaba, in the territory of Gerasene Justin (xxxv. 12) states, that Balas was the original beyond the Jordan, in consequence of his gluttony, in the name by which Alexander was known during the period of twenty-seventh year of his reign. He had two sons; but his private life. He is called by Strabo Balas Alexandros; left the government to his widow. Before his death, he adwhere the word Balas appears to be used by him as synony-vised his wife Alexandra to conciliate the Pharisees, by whom

he was buried in a pompous style. His reign, like the rest of the later history of the Jews, is full of cruelty and acts of perfidy, although, in comparison with others, he has obtained the praise of moderation. (Joseph. Archæolog., xiii. c.12-15.) There is a small copper coin of Jannæus in the British Museum, but the Samaritan inscription between the rays of the stars, mentioned by others, is not discernible. (Compare Bayeri, Vindicia, Num. Hebr., plate, fig. 5.) There is a coin extant of Alexander Jannæus, having on one side an anchor, and the legend Aλegavopov Baoiλews, and on the other a star, between the rays of which stands in the Hebrew coin characters, 7 (Jonathan), and on others,

(King Jonathan). Barthelemy and Eckhel, Doctr. Numm. iii. p. 479, have rendered the authenticity of this coin very probable. Gesenius thinks that Jonathan was the Hebrew name by which he was known among the Jews; whilst Alexander was the Greek name which he had adopted, like other monarchs during this period, when the Jews were so fond of imitating everything Greek.

[Alexander Zebinas.]

of Metellus Scipio, and was beheaded at Antioch, in the year 49 B.C. (Joseph., Arch. xiv. 5, 6, 7; Bell. Jud., i. 8, 9.) A few variations of this account occur in nor. (Ed. To. Frid. Breithaupt. lib. iv. cap. xxiv., xxv. p. 337 to 349.) ALEXANDER SEVERUS. [See SEVERUS.] ALEXANDER POLYHISTOR. [See POLYHISTOR.] ALEXANDER I., one of the earliest bishops of Rome, succeeded Evaristus about the beginning of the second century of our æra, but the precise epoch is not well ascertained. ALEXANDER II., a Milanese, succeeded Nicholas II. in 1061. This was at the beginning of the long dispute between the See of Rome, and the Emperors of Germany, concerning the investitures, of which cardinal Hildebrand, afterwards Gregory VII., was the chief instigator. The imperial party assembled another conclave at Basle, where they elected Cadalous, Bishop of Parma, who took the name of Honorius II. After a struggle between the two competitors, Cadalous was taken prisoner and confined in the castle of Saint Angelo at Rome, and Alexander was generally acknowledged as lawful pope. He died in 1073, and was succeeded by Gregory VII.

ALEXANDER II.-Zebinas, or Zebinaeus-a pretender to the Syrian crown, reigned over a part of the kingdom of Syria, from the year 128 to 122 B.C. The inhabitants of Apamea, Antiocheia, and some other cities, disgusted with the tyranny of Demetrius II., requested Ptolemæus Physcon to appoint another king. Ptolemy sent them a young Egyptian, the son of a broker Protarchos of Alexandria, whom he represented as having been adopted by Antiochus Sidetes. The pretender took the name Alexander; but the people called him, in derision, Zebina, that is, the bought one. Demetrius being defeated near Damascus, fled to Tyre, where he was murdered. Zebinas, thinking his kingdom firmly established, refused the annual tribute to Ptolemæus Physcon, who now encouraged Antiochus VIII., the son of Demetrius II. Zebinas was in his turn defeated by the Egyptian army, and retreated to Antioch; where, being unable to pay his troops, he permitted them to pillage the temple of Victory, and took for himself the golden statue of Jupiter. Expelled by the people of Antioch from their city, and deserted by his troops, he endeavoured to escape on board a small vessel into Greece, but was taken by a pirate, and delivered into the hands of Ptolemy, who put him to death. Twenty-two coins of Zebinas are to be seen in Fröhlich, Annales Syriæ, tab. xii. (Compare p. 84, Eckhel, Doctr. Numm. Vet. iii. p. 237; Justin, xxxix. 1, 2; Joseph., xiii. 9, 10; Athenæus, v. 17; Gesenius, in Ersch und Gruber; Foy-Vaillant, Syria Hist. ad fidem numismatum accommodata.) The British Museum contains twenty-six silver and copper coins of Alexander Zebinas.

ALEXANDER III., Cardinal Rolando of Siena, succeeded Adrian IV. in 1159. His long pontificate of 21 years was agitated by wars against the Emperor Frederic I., and by a schism in the church, during which three successive antipopes were raised in opposition to Alexander. The latter took part with the Lombard Cities in their struggle against Frederick. [See FREDERIC BARBAROSSA.] At last peace was made, and the pope and the emperor became reconciled at an interview they had at Venice in 1177, and Alexander was universally acknowledged as legitimate pope. He held a great council in the Lateran palace in 1180, when, among other regulations, a decretal was passed, that two-thirds of the cardinals should be requisite to make an election valid. He died at Rome in 1181, and was succeeded by Lucius II. The famous Thomas à Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury during Alexander's pontificate. The latter took part with the English prelate in his contest with King Henry II., and canonized him after he had been murdered.

ALEXANDER, a son of King Aristobulus II., and grandson of Jannæus, was taken captive in Judæa by Pompey, who intended to exhibit him with his father and brother in his triumph at Rome. Alexander escaped on the journey, and returned to Judea, where he raised an army of 10,000 foot and 1500 horse to attack Hyrcanus, who had been appointed by Pompey to govern Judea. Alexander took several castles in the mountains; but Hyrcanus imploring the assistance of the Romans, Marcus Antonius, who was sent by Gabinius, governor of Syria, defeated Alexander near Jerusalem, B.C. 57, and besieged him in Alexandrion, a small town with a fine castle about six miles south of Tyre, where he capitulated. After his father Aristobulus had escaped from Rome to Judæa, and had been again defeated and put into prison, Alexander once more took up arms, conquered Judæa, put many Romans to death, and besieged the rest in Garizin. But his army of 30,000 men was finally defeated by Gabinius, in a battle near Mount Tabor, in which 10,000 Jews perished. Alexander at last fell into the hands

ALEXANDER IV., of Anagni, succeeded Innocent IV. in 1254. He inherited the ambition, but not the talents of his predecessor. He manifested the same inveterate hostility against the house of Suabia, and its representative Manfred, King of the two Sicilies, but did not succeed in his attempt at overthrowing the latter, which became the work of his two immediate successors. Alexander died in 1261, and was succeeded by Urban IV.

ALEXANDER V., a native of Candia, and monk of the Franciscan order, was elected in 1409, and died the following year. He was succeeded by John XXIII.

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ALEXANDER VI. Roderic Borgia of Valencia in Spain, a man of great personal wealth and of some ability, but of loose conduct. He had been made a cardinal by his uncle Calixtus III., and was elected pope in 1492, after the death of Innocent VIII. At the time of his election, he had four children by his mistress Vanozia; and (during his reign) he made no scruple at employing every means in his power to confer on them honour and riches. The most notorious of his sons was Cesar, first cardinal, and afterwards made Duke of Valentinois in Dauphiny by King Louis XII.,

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