ALEMAN`NI, a confederacy of tribes which appeared on the banks of the Rhine in the 3rd cent., and for long gave no small trouble to Rome, but whose incursions were arrested, first by Maximinus, and finally by Clovis in 496, who made them subject to the Franks, hence the modern names in French for Germany and the Germans.

ALEMTE`JO (369), a southern province of Portugal; soil fertile to the east.

ALENCON (17), a town in the dep. of Orne, 105 m.  W. of Paris, once famous for its lace.

ALENCON, COUNTS AND DUKES OF, a title borne by several members of the house of Valois—­e. g.  CHARLES OF VALOIS, who fell at Crecy (1346); JEAN IV., who fell at Agincourt (1415).

ALEP`PO (130), a city in Northern Syria, one of the finest in the East, once one of the greatest trading centres in the world.

ALE`SIA, a strong place in the E. of Gaul, which, as situated on a hill and garrisoned by 80,000 Gauls, cost Caesar no small trouble to take.

ALESIUS, or ALANE, a noted Reformer, born in Edinburgh, converted to Protestantism by Patrick Hamilton; was driven first from Scotland and then from England, till he settled as a theological professor in Germany, and took an active part in the Reformation there (1500-1563).

ALESSANDRIA (78), a strongly fortified and stirring town on the Tenaro, in Northern Italy, the centre of 8 railways, 55 m.  SE. of Turin.

ALESSI, architect, born at Perugia, architect of the monastery and church of the ESCURIAL, q. v. (1500-1572).

ALETSCH GLACIER, THE, the largest of the glaciers of the Alps, which descends round the south of the Jungfrau into the valley of the Upper Rhone.

ALEU`TIAN ISLANDS (2) a chain of volcanic islands, 150 in number, stretching over the N. Pacific from Alaska in N. America, to Kamchatka, in Asia.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, the king of Macedonia, son of Philip by Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, king of Epirus; born at Pella, 356 B.C.; had the philosopher Aristotle for tutor, and being instructed by him in all kinds of serviceable knowledge, ascended the throne on the death of his father, at the age of 20; after subduing Greece, had himself proclaimed generalissimo of the Greeks against the Persians, and in 2 years after his accession crossed the Hellespont, followed by 30,000 foot and 5000 horse; with these conquered the army of Darius the Persian at Granicus in 334 and at Issus in 333; subdued the principal cities of Syria, overran Egypt, and crossing the Euphrates and Tigris, routed the Persians at Arbela; hurrying on farther, he swept everything before him, till the Macedonians refusing to advance, he returned to Babylon, when he suddenly fell ill of fever, and in eleven days died at the early age of 32.  He is said to have slept every night with his Homer and his sword under his pillow, and the inspiring idea of his life, all unconsciously to himself belike, is defined to have been the right of Greek intelligence to override and rule the merely glittering barbarity of the East.