Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/149

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ALEXIUS. ALEXIS or ALE'XIUS IV. A'NGELUS f AAe^is or 'AKi^ios 'AyyeAos), was the son of the emperor Isaac II. Anselus. It is mentioned under Alkxjs III. that, after the deposition of this em- peror, he and his father were placed on the throne by the Crusiidors. Alexis IV. was crowned toge- ther with Isaac II. on the 29th of July, 1203, and, to secure himself on the throne, engaged the Crusaders to continue at Constantinople. He had promised them to put an end to the schism of the Greek Church, but did not do anything for that purpose, nor did he fulfil his other engagements towards tlie Crusaders. At the same time, he did not understand how to mainUiin liis dignity among the turbulent and haughty barons of Italy, France, and Flanders, who were assembled in his capital. Serious differences consequently arose between him and his deliverers. Alexis Duciis, sumamed Mur- zuphlus, an ambitious and enterprising man, took advantage of these troubles, and suddenly seized the crown. By his order Alexis IV. was put to death on the 28th of January, 1204 ; Isaac II. died of grief. (Nicetas, Isaacius Angelus^ iii. c. 8, &c.; Isaacius et Alexis 0. ; Villehardouin, Ibid. c. 51, 56, 60, &c., I02-i07.) [W. P.] ALEXIS or ALE'XIUS V. DUCAS CAAe|is or 'AAe^tos Aoma), surnamed "Murzuphlus," on account of the close junction of his shaggy eye- brows, was crowned emperor of Constantinople on the 8th of Februarj% 1204, after having been pre- sent at the murder of Alexis IV., who was put to death by his order. His earlier life is almost un- known. Nicetas, however, states, that he had always been rapacious and voluptuous ; on the other hand, he was a man of great courage and energy. Immediately after he had usurped the throne, the Crusaders, who were still assembled under the walls of Constantinople, laid siege to this city. Alexia V. disdained to conclude peace with them on dishonourable conditions, and prepared for resistance, in which he was vigorously assisted by Theodore Lascaris. However, courage suddenly abandoned him, and he fled to the deposed em- peror Alexis III., whose daughter Eudoxia Angela- Comnena he had just married. Constantinople was taken by storm by the Crusaders (12th of April, 1204), who, after having committed those horrors, of which Nicetas, an eye-witness, gives such an emphatical description, chose Baldwin, count of Flanders, emperor of Constantinople, but leaving him only the fourth part of the empire. After being deprived of sight by his father-in-law, Alexis V. fled to the Morea, but was arrested and carried to Constantinople, where the Crusaders put him to death by casting him from the top of the Theodosian column. (1204.) C^icetas, MurzupJdus; Inaacius A nyelus et A lex. fil. c. 4, 5 ; Gcsta Fran- corum, c. 94 ; Villehardouin, Ibid. c. 51, 56., 60, &c. 98, 106, 113—115, 127, &c.) [W. P.] ALE'XIUS ARISTE'NUS ('AXe'^'os 'Apio-Tih vSs), Oeconomus of the Great Church at Constan- tinople, flourished a. d. 1166, in which year lie was present at the Council of Constantinople. He edited a Spiopsis Canonum with scholia, which is given by Bishop Beveridge in his Pandcctae Cano- num., Oxon. 1672, fol. vol. ii. post pag. 188, and vol. i. p. 1, &c. Other works bv him are quoted. See Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. xi. p. 280. [A. J. C] ALE'XIUS ('AAe'^ios), Patriarch of Constan- tinople, a member of the monastery of Studius (founded a. d. 460), succeeded Eustathius as Pa- ALIMENTUS. 131 triarch A. d. 1025. In a. d. 1034 he crowned Michael IV. the favourite of Zoo, who, to make way for him, procured the death of her husband, the Emperor Romanus. He thwarted the attempts of John (the emperor's brother) to gain the patri- archal see (a. d. 1036), and died A. D. 1043. De- crees of his are extant, 'ap. Jus Gr. Rom, vol. i. lib. iv. p. 250, Lcunclav. Francof. 1596. See Fabric. Bibl. Gr. vol. xi. p. 558. [A. J. C] ALE'XIUS('AX€|jos), Metropolitan of Nicaea, composed a Canon or Hymn on St. Demetrius the Martyr. It is uncertain when he lived. The canon is in manuscript. See Lambecius^ Biblioth. Vindobon. vol. v. p. 599, ed. Kollar. [A. J. C] ALEXON ('AAe'lwj/), an Achaean who served in the Carthaginian garrison at Lilybaeum while it was besieged by the Romans in B. c. 250. During this siege some of the Gallic mercenaries engaged in the service of the Carthaginians formed the plan of betraying the fortress into the hands of the Ra- mans. But Alexon, who had on a former occasion saved the town of Agrigentum from a similar attempt of treacherous mercenaries, now acted in the same faithful spirit, and gave information of the plot to the Carthaginian commander Himilco. He also assisted him in inducing the mercenaries to remain faithful and resist the temptations offered by their comrades. (Polyb. i. 43, ii. 7.) [L. S.] ALEXON MYNDIUS. [Alexander Myn- DIUS.] ALFE'NUS VARUS. [Varus.] A'LFIUS FLAVUS. [Flavus.] ALGOS (AA70S), is used by Hesiod {Theog. 227) in the plural, as the personification of sorrows and griefs, which are there represented as the daughters of Eris. [L. S.] ALIACMON. [Palaestinus.] L. ALIE'NUS, plebeian aedile b. c. 454, ac- cused Veturius, the consul of the former year, on account of selling the booty which had been gained in war, and placing the amount in the aerarium. (Liv. iii. 31.) ALIE'NUS CAECI'NA. [Caeoina.] ALIMENTUS, L. CI'NCIUS, a celebrated Roman annalist, antiquary, and jurist, who was praetor in Sicily, B. c. 209, with the command of two legions. He wrote an account of his im- prisonment in the second Punic war, and a history of Gorgias Leontinus ; but these works probably fonned part of his Annales. (Liv. xxi. 38.) He is frequently cited by Festus, and the fragments which have been thus preserved were collected by Wasse, and may be found appended to Corte's Sallust. Niebuhr (i. p. 272) praises Alimentus as a really critical investigator of antiquity, who threw light on the history of his country by researches among its ancient monuments. That he possessed eminent personal qualities, such as strike a great man, is clear, inasmuch as Hannibal, who used to treat his Roman prisoners very roughly, made a distinction in his behalf, and gave him an account of his passage through Gaul and over the Alps, which Alimentus afterwards incorporated in his histon,'. It is only in his fragments that we find a distinct statement of the earlier relation between Rome and Latium, which in all the annals has been misrepresented by national pride. The point, however, upon which Niebuhr lays most stress, is the remarkable difference between Alimentus and all other chronologers in dating the building of the city about the fourth year of the 1 2th Olympiad.