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Alexander III ... Alexis II
Alexander III
king of Scotland from 1249 to 1286, the last major ruler of the dynasty of kings descended from Malcolm III Canmore (reigned 1058-93), who consolidated royal power in Scotland. Alexander left his kingdom independent, united, and prosperous, and his reign was viewed as a golden age by Scots caught up ...
Alexander Island
large island in the Bellingshausen Sea, separated from the Antarctica mainland by the George VI Sound. An extremely rugged region with peaks up to 9,800 feet (2,987 m) above sea level, it is 270 miles (435 km) long and up to 125 miles (200 km) wide and has an area ...
Alexander IV
pope from 1254 to 1261.
Alexander Nevsky, Saint
prince of Novgorod (1236-52) and of Kiev (1246-52) and grand prince of Vladimir (1252-63), who halted the eastward drive of the Germans and Swedes but collaborated with the Mongols in imposing their rule on Russia. By defeating a Swedish invasion force at the confluence of the Rivers Izhora and Neva ...
Alexander Of Aphrodisias
philosopher who is remembered for his commentaries on Aristotle's works and for his own studies on the soul and the mind.
Alexander Of Hales
theologian and philosopher whose doctrines influenced the teachings of such thinkers as St. Bonaventure and John of La Rochelle. The Summa theologica, for centuries ascribed to him, is largely the work of followers.
Alexander Of Pherae
despot of Pherae in Thessaly, Greece, from 369 to 358, whose tyranny caused the intervention of a number of city-states in Thessalian affairs. The other Thessalian cities, refusing to recognize Alexander as tagos, or head magistrate, appealed to the Thebans, who sent Pelopidas to their assistance. Alexander imprisoned Pelopidas, and ...
Alexander Of Tralles
(c. 525-c. 605), Byzantine physician who practiced and taught in Rome, best known for his treatise on pathology and therapy (in 12 books), which served as a basis for instruction long after his death. It was translated into Arabic and Latin (Libri duodecim de re medica) and was printed in ...
Alexander Polyhistor
philosopher, geographer, and historian whose fragmentary writings provide valuable information on antiquarian and Jewish subjects.
Alexander romance
any of a body of legends about the career of Alexander the Great, told and retold with varying emphasis and purpose by succeeding ages and civilizations.
Alexander the Great
king of Macedonia (336-323 BC). He overthrew the Persian Empire, carried Macedonian arms to India, and laid the foundations for the Hellenistic world of territorial kingdoms. Already in his lifetime the subject of fabulous stories, he later became the hero of a full-scale legend bearing only the sketchiest resemblance to ...
Alexander The Paphlagonian
celebrated impostor and worker of false oracles. The only account of his career occurs in an expose by Lucian, whose investigations of Alexander's frauds led to a serious attempt on the writer's life.
Alexander VI
corrupt, worldly, and ambitious pope, whose neglect of the spiritual inheritance of the church contributed to the development of the Protestant Reformation.
Alexander VII
pope from 1655 to 1667.
Alexander VIII
pope from 1689 to 1691.
Alexander, Dorothy
American ballet dancer and choreographer, founder of the Atlanta Ballet, and pioneer of the regional ballet movement.
Alexander, Francesca
American expatriate illustrator and author, remembered for her collections of Tuscan folk songs, tales, and lore.
Alexander, Franz
physician and psychoanalyst sometimes referred to as the father of psychosomatic medicine because of his leading role in identifying emotional tension as a significant cause of physical illness.
Alexander, Grover Cleveland
professional baseball player, one of the finest right-handed pitchers in the history of the game, frequently considered the greatest master of control. From 1911 to 1930 he won 373 or 374 major league games (authorities differ) and lost 208. In his first season he won 28 games. For three consecutive ...
Alexander, Harold Alexander, 1st Earl
prominent British field marshal in World War II noted for his North African campaigns against Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and for his later commands in Italy and western Europe.
Alexander, Hattie Elizabeth
American pediatrician and microbiologist whose groundbreaking work on influenzal meningitis significantly reduced infant death rates and advanced the field of microbiological genetics.
Alexander, James Waddell, II
American mathematician and a founder of the branch of mathematics originally known as analysis situs, now called topology.
Alexander, Jane
American actress who, in addition to achieving a successful performance career, became the first actor to chair the National Endowment for the Arts.
Alexander, Meena
Indian poet and teacher whose works reflect her multicultural life in India, The Sudan, and the United States.
Alexander, Samuel
philosopher who developed a metaphysics of emergent evolution involving time, space, matter, mind, and deity.
Alexanderson, Ernst F.W.
electrical engineer and television pioneer who developed a high-frequency alternator (a device that converts direct current into alternating current) capable of producing continuous radio waves and thereby revolutionized radio communication.
Alexandra
town, Central Otago local government region, south-central South Island, New Zealand. It lies at the junction of the Clutha and Manuherikia rivers and is surrounded by three mountain ranges. Originally known as Lower Dunstan and Manuherikia, the settlement was named Alexandra South in 1863 to commemorate the marriage of the ...
Alexandra
queen consort of King Edward VII of Great Britain.
Alexandra
consort of the Russian emperor Nicholas II. Her misrule while the emperor was commanding the Russian forces during World War I precipitated the collapse of the imperial government in March 1917.
Alexandria
city, adjoining Arlington and Fairfax counties, northern Virginia, U.S. It lies on the Potomac River (there bridged at the Maryland state line), 6 miles (10 km) south of the District of Columbia. A fort was built on the site in 1676 to defend the area from attacks by Susquehanna (Susquehannock) ...
Alexandria
town, capital of Teleorman judet (county), southern Romania. It lies along the southward-flowing Vedea River in the Danube floodplain. Alexandria is a regional marketing centre for agricultural produce, mostly grain. The town also has flour mills and other food-processing plants. Manufactures include construction materials, chemicals, and rubber products. The town ...
Alexandria
city, seat of Douglas county, west-central Minnesota, U.S. It is situated about 70 miles (115 km) northwest of St. Cloud in a lake-resort and dairy-farm region. Settled in 1858 on land that was once part of Ojibwa and Sioux camping grounds, Alexandria was organized as a township in 1866 and ...
Alexandria
city, seat of Rapides parish, central Louisiana, U.S. The city lies along the Red River, opposite Pineville, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Baton Rouge. It was laid out (1805) at the rapids that then marked the head of river navigation and was named for the daughter of Alexander ...
Alexandria
city and urban muhafazah (governorate), Lower Egypt. Once the greatest city of the ancient world and a centre of Hellenic scholarship and science, Alexandria was the capital of Egypt from its founding by Alexander the Great in 332 BC to AD 642, when it was subdued by the Arabs. It ...
Alexandria Municipal Museum
museum of Greek and Roman antiquities founded in 1892 and housed in Alexandria, Egypt, in a Greek Revival-style building opened in 1895.
Alexandria, Library of
the most famous library of classical antiquity. It formed part of the research institute at Alexandria in Egypt that is known as the Museum, or the Alexandrian Museum.
Alexandria, School of
the first Christian institution of higher learning, founded in the mid-2nd century AD in Alexandria, Egypt. Under its earliest known leaders (Pantaenus, Clement, and Origen), it became a leading centre of the allegorical method of biblical interpretation, espoused a rapprochement between Greek culture and Christian faith, and attempted to assert ...
Alexandria, Synod of
(AD 362), a meeting of Christian bishops held in Alexandria, Egypt, summoned by the bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius. It allowed clergy that were readmitted to communion after making common cause with Arians to return to their former ecclesiastical status, provided they had not themselves subscribed to Arianism. The synod stated ...
Alexandrian Museum
ancient centre of classical learning at Alexandria in Egypt. A research institute that was especially noted for its scientific and literary scholarship, the Alexandrian Museum was built near the royal palace about 280 BC by Ptolemy I Soter (reigned 323-285/283 BC). The best surviving description of the museum is by ...
Alexandrian rite
the system of liturgical practices and discipline found among Egyptians and Ethiopians of both the Eastern-rite Catholic and independent Christian churches.
Alexandrina, Lake
estuarine lagoon, southeastern South Australia, 45 miles (70 km) southeast of Adelaide. Together with contiguous Lake Albert and the long, narrow lagoon called The Coorong, it forms the mouth of the Murray River. About 23 miles (37 km) long and 13 miles (21 km) wide, the lake has a total ...
alexandrine
verse form that is the leading measure in French poetry. It consists of a line of 12 syllables with major stresses on the 6th syllable (which precedes the medial caesura [pause]) and on the last syllable, and one secondary accent in each half line. Because six syllables is a normal ...
Alexandrist
any of the Italian philosophers of the Renaissance who, in the controversy about personal immortality, followed the explanation of Aristotle's De anima (On the Soul) given by Alexander of Aphrodisias, who held that it denied individual immortality.
Alexandroupolis
seaport, capital of the nomos (department) of Evros, western Thrace (Thraki), Greece. It is situated northwest of the Evros (Maritsa) River estuary on the Gulf of Ainos (Enez), an inlet of the Thracian Sea. Founded by the Turks as Dedeagac in 1860, it began to grow with the marketing of ...
Alexeieff, Alexandre
Russian-born French filmmaker who invented the pinscreen method of animation with his collaborator (later his wife), the animator Claire Parker (1910-81).
Alexis
only son of Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia, and the tsarina Alexandra. He was the first male heir born to a reigning tsar since the 17th century.
Alexis
heir to the throne of Russia, who was accused of trying to overthrow his father, Peter I the Great.
Alexis
one of the foremost writers of Middle and New Comedy at Athens, a low form of comedy that succeeded the Old Comedy of Aristophanes.
Alexis
tsar of Russia from 1645 to 1676.
Alexis I
Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (1945-70) whose allegiance to the Soviet government helped him strengthen the structure of the church within an officially atheistic country.
Alexis II
Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia from 1990.