BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

VOL. II.

COMMITTEE.

Chairman – LORD BROUGHAM, F.R.S., Mem. of the Nat. Inst. of France.

Vice-Chairman EARL SPENCER.

Treasurer -JOHN WOOD, Esq.
W. Allen, Esq. F.R. and R.A.S.

Professor Key, A.M.
Captain Beaufort, R.N., F.R. and R.A.S. Sir Denis Le Marchant, Bart.
George Burrows, M.D.

Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., M.P.
Lord Campbell.

George C. Lewis, Esq., A.M.
Professor Carey, A.M.

James Loch. Esq., M.P., F.G.S.
John Conolly, M.D.

Professor Long, A.M.
William Coulson, Esq.

The Rt. Hon. Stephen Lushington, D.C.L.
The Bishop of St. David's.

Professor Malden, A.M.
J. F. Davis, Esq., F.R.S.

A. T. Malkin, Esq., A.M.
Sir Henry De la Beche, F.R.S.

Mr. Serjeant Manning.
Professor De Morgan, F.R.A.S.

R. I. Murchison, Esq. F.R.S. F.G.S.
Lord Denman.

Lord Nugent.
Samuel Duckworth, Esq.

W. Smith O'Brien, Esq., M.P.
The Bishop of Durham.

John Lewis Prevost, Esq.
T. F. Ellis, Esq. A.M, F.R.A.S.

Professor Quain.
John Elliotson, M.D. F.R.S.

P. M. Roget, M.D., Sec. R.S., F.R. A.S.
Thomas Falconer, Esq.

R. W. Rothman, Esq., A.M.
John Forbes, M.D. and F.R.S.

Sir Martin A. Shee, P.R. A., F.R.S.
Sir I. L. Goldsmid, Bart., F.R. and R. A.S. Sir G. T. Staunton, Bart , M.P.
Francis Henry
Goldsmid, Esq.

John Taylor, Esq., F.R.S.
B. Gompertz, Esq., F.R. and R.A.S.

Professor A. T. Thomson, M.D.
Professor Graves, A.M., F.R.S.

Thomas Vardon, Esq.
G. B. Greenough, Esq., F.R. and L. S. Jacob Waley, Esq., B. A.
Sir Edmund Head, Bart., A.M.

James Walker, Esq., F.R.S., Pr. Inst. Civ.
M. D. Hill, Esq., Q.C.

Eng.
Rowland Hill, Esq., F.R.A.S.

Henry Waymouth, Esq.
The Rt. Hon. Sir J. C. Hobhouse, Bart., M.P. Thomas Webster, Esq., A. M.
Thomas Hodgkin, M.D.

Lord Wrottesley, A.M., F.R.A.S.
David Jardine, Esq., A.M.

J. A. Yates, Esq.
Henry B. Ker, Esq.

THOMAS COATES, Esq., Secretary, 42. Bedford Square.

THE

BIOGRAPHICAL

DICTIONARY

OF THE

SOCIETY FOR THE DIFFUSION OF

USEFUL KNOWLEDGE

VOLUME II.

TRANSFERRED TO
U OF W LIBRARY

LONDON:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

2

THE

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY

OF THE

SOCIETY for the DIFFUSION of USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

ALEXANDER OF SELEUCI'A, a Greek city, and the nephew of the celebrated Philo, rhetorician who lived in the reign of Marcus some of whose writings are still extant. He Aurelius, and enjoyed great reputation, espe- was originally a Jew, but abandoned the relicially on account of his rhetorical contests gion of his fathers, and subsequently rose to with Herodes. [HERODES.] He taught his high offices in the Roman state. His father art in the schools of Antioch, Athens, and was probably a Roman citizen, but Tiberius other places, None of his works are extant. himself belonged to the equestrian order. His son Alexander, surnamed Peloplaton, He succeeded Fadus as procurator of Judæa, distinguished himself in the same profes- B.C. 46, but remained in the government only sion as his father. (Westermann, Geschichte a short time. Though he must have been obder Griech. Beredtsamkeit, § 94. n. 9. and 10.) noxious to the Jews as an apostate, there

L.S.

were no disturbances during his administraALEXANDER SEVE'RUS. [SEVERUS.] tion. An attempt was made by James and

(

Simon, the sons of Judas the Galilæan, to dis73"pD'D), a German rabbi, the son of seminate the doctrines of their father, but it R. Samuel of Metz (Metensis), was at was soon suppressed by Alexander, who orLeyden in the year 1708, where he wrote, at dered James and Simon to be crucified. He the request of the Reverend Philip Ouseel, was afterwards appointed by Nero, procurawho was afterwards professor of divinity at tor of Egypt, which office he held for many Frankfort on the Oder, a Hebrew work on years. During his government Alexandria the Cabbala in quarto, called “ Reshith Choc- was frequently disturbed by the dissensions moh” (“ The Beginning of Wisdom”) (Prov. between the Greeks and Jews, and on one vi. 7.). In this work he treats on the ten occasion upwards of 50,000 Jews were killed Sephiroth, [CORDOVERO, R. Moses,] and by the Roman soldiers, whom Alexander had gives the doctrines of the greatest of the cab- let loose against them, and the quarter of the balistical writers thereon; after which, in city in which they resided was set on fire. twenty-two chapters, he follows out the sub- He was probably appointed procurator of ject of the Jewish mystical theology, and Egypt shortly after he returned from Armenia, gives an account of all the principal writers whither he had accompanied Corbulo in B. C. on the subject. He begins, in Chap. I., with 63, when he went into the camp of Tiridates the unity of God. Chap. II. Of the image as a hostage for the safety of the latter. He and similitude of God, and so forth. The was the first Roman governor who declared manuscript was in the collection of Ouseel, in favour of the Emperor Vespasian, and he for whom it was written. He is also the seems in consequence to have been held in author of a Hebrew grammar called “ Derec the highest honour by the Flavian family, Hakodesh” (“ The Holy Way”), which He commanded the troops under Titus at the treated more especially on the Hebrew ac- siege of Jerusalem, and was present at the cents. It was printed at Köthen, by Israel taking of the city. Of his history from that ben Abraham, A. M. 5478 (A. D. 1718). (Wol- time nothing more is known, (Josephus, fius, Biblioth. Hebr. ii, 119.) C. P. H. Antiq. xx. 4. § 2., Jewish War, ii. 15. § 1. ii.

ALEXANDER, TIBE'RIUS, was the 18. § 7, 8. iv. 10. § 6. vi. 4. § 3. ; Tacitus, son of Alexander, alabarch of Alexandria, a Annal. xv. 28., Hist. i. 11. ii. 74. 79. ; Sueperson of considerable rank and wealth in the tonius, Vesp. 6.)

P.S.