ALEXANDER III., emperor of Russia, son of the preceding, followed in the footsteps of his father, and showed a marked disposition to live on terms of peace with the other Powers; his reign not distinguished by any very remarkable event.  The present Czar is his son and successor (1845-1894).

ALEXANDER I., king of Servia, b. 1876.

ALEXANDER NEVSKY, grand-duke of Russia, conquered the Swedes, the Danes, and the Teutonic Knights on the banks of the Neva, freed Russia from tribute to the Mongols, is one of the saints of the Russian Church.

ALEXANDER OF HALES, the Doctor irrefragabilis of the Schools, an English ecclesiastic, a member of the Franciscan order, who in his “Summa Universae Theologiae” formulated, by severe rigour of Aristotelian logic, the theological principles and ecclesiastical rites of the Romish Church; d. in 1222.

ALEXANDER OF PARIS, a Norman poet of the 16th century, who wrote a poem on Alexander the Great in twelve-syllabled lines, called after him Alexandrines.

ALEXANDER OF THE NORTH, Charles XII. of Sweden.

ALEXANDER SEVE`RUS, a Roman emperor, a wise, virtuous, and pious prince, conquered Artaxerxes, king of Persia, in an expedition against him, but setting out against the Germans, who were causing trouble on the frontiers of the empire, fell a victim, along with his mother, to an insurrection among his troops not far from Mainz (205-235).

ALEXAN`DRIA (230), a world-famous city, the chief port of Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C., at one time a great centre of learning, and in possession of the largest library of antique literature in the world, which was burned by the Caliph Omar in 640; at one time a place of great commerce, but that has very materially decayed since the opening of the Suez Canal.  Alexandria, from its intimate connection with both East and West, gave birth in early times to a speculative philosophy which drew its principles from eastern as well as western sources, which was at its height on the first encounter of these elements.

ALEXANDRIA (14), a town on the Potomac, 7 m.  S. of Washington, accessible to vessels of the largest size; also a thriving town (7) on the river Leven, 3 m.  N. of Dumbarton.

ALEXANDRIAN CODEX, an MS. on parchment of the Septuagint Scriptures in Greek in uncial letters, which belonged to the library of the patriarchs of Alexandra.

ALEXANDRIAN LIBRARY, the library burned by the Caliph Omar in 642, said to have contained 700,000 volumes.

ALEXANDRI`NA LAKE, a lake in Australia into which the river Murray flows.

ALEXANDRINE PHILOSOPHY, a Gnostic philosophy, combining eastern with western forms of thought.

ALEXANDRINES.  See ALEXANDER OF PARIS.

ALEXAN`DROPOL (22), the largest town in the Erivan district of
Russian Armenia, and a fortress of great strength.

ALEXIS, ST., the patron saint of beggars and pilgrims, represented in art with a staff and in a pilgrim’s habit; sometimes lying on a mat, with a letter in his hand, dying.