and an Aphrodite “of the Gardens” were conspicuous. Pausanias says (v. 10. 8) that he was the author of one of the pediments of the temple of Zeus at Olympia (see Greek Art), but this seems a chronological and stylistic impossibility. At Pergamum there was discovered in 1903 a copy of the head of the Hermes “Propylaeus” of Alcamenes (Athenische Mittheilungen, 1904, p. 180). As, however, the deity is represented in an archaistic and conventional character, this copy cannot be relied on as giving us much information as to the usual style of Alcamenes, who was almost certainly a progressive and original artist. It is safer to judge him by the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon, in which he must almost certainly have taken a share under the direction of Pheidias.
ALCAMO, a town of Sicily, in the province of Trapani, 24 m. W.S.W. of Palermo direct (5112 m. by rail). Pop. (1881) 37,497; (1901) 51,809. It was founded in A.D. 828 by the Saracenic chief Al-Kamuk, who erected the castle (which still stands, though considerably altered), but was christianized by the emperor Frederick II. in 1233, who removed the site lower down. It possesses some medieval buildings of interest. The surrounding district is very fertile and the trade in agricultural products is considerable.
ALCANTARA, a small seaport of Brazil, in the state of Maranhão, on the W. shore of the bay of São Marcos, 16 m. from the city of Maranhão by water. It has a fairly good harbour, and excellent cotton and rice are grown in the vicinity and shipped thence.
ALCÁNTARA, a town of western Spain, in the province of Cáceres, situated on a rocky height on the left bank of the river Tagus, 7 m. from the Portuguese frontier. Pop. (1900) 3248. Alcántara (in Arab. “the bridge”) owes its name to the magnificent Roman bridge which spans the Tagus on the north-west. This was originally built about A.D. 105, in honour of the Roman emperor Trajan and at the cost of eleven Lusitanian communities. It is entirely constructed of granite blocks, without cement, and consists of six arches of various sizes, with a total length of 616 feet and a height of about 190 ft. in the middle piers, which are surmounted by a fortified gateway. One of the arches was broken down in 1213 and rebuilt in 1553; another was blown up by the British troops in 1809, and, though temporarily reconstructed, was again destroyed in 1836, to prevent the passage of the Carlist forces. But in 1860 the whole was restored. A small Roman temple, dedicated to Trajan and other deified emperors, stood on the left bank, adjoining the bridge. It is doubtful, however, if Alcántara marks the site of any Roman town, though archaeologists have sometimes identified it either with Norba Caesarea or with Interamnium. It first became famous about 1215 as the stronghold of the knightly Order of Alcántara. Many of the grand masters of this order lie buried in the 13th-century Gothic church. The town possesses another interesting church built in 1506.
See Antiguedades y santos de la muy noble villa de Alcántara, by J. Arias de Quintanadueñas (Madrid, 1661); and Retrato politico de Alcántara, by L. Santibañez (Madrid, 1779).
ALCAVALA (Spanish, from Arab. al-quabalah, “tax,” quabala, “to receive”; cf. Fr. gabelle), a duty formerly charged in Spain and its colonies on all transfers of property, whether public or private. Originally imposed in 1341 by Alphonso XI. to secure freedom from the Moors, it was an ad valorem tax of 10, increased afterwards to 14%, on the selling price of all commodities, whether raw or manufactured, chargeable as often as they were sold or exchanged. It subjected every farmer, manufacturer, merchant and shopkeeper to the continual visits and examination of the tax-gatherers, whose number was necessarily very great. This monstrous impost was permitted to ruin the industry and commerce of the greater part of the kingdom up to the time of the invasion of Napoleon. Catalonia and Aragon purchased from Philip V. an exemption from the alcavala, and, though still burdened with other heavy taxes, were in consequence in a comparatively flourishing state.
ALCÁZAR DE SAN JUAN, or Alcázar, a town of Spain, in the province of Ciudad Real, in the plain of La Mancha, at the junction of the Madrid-Manzanares and Madrid-Albacete railways. Pop. (1900) 11,499. Owing to its position on two important railways, Alcázar has a flourishing transit-trade in the wines of Estremadura and Andalusia; the soda and alkali of La Mancha are used in the manufacture of soap; and gunpowder, chocolate and inlaid daggers are also made here. Alcázar is sometimes identified with the Roman Alce, captured by Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus in 180 B.C. It derives its existing name from its medieval Moorish castle (al-kasr), which was afterwards garrisoned by the knights of St John. The townsfolk contend that the great Cervantes was a native of Alcázar; and, although this claim must be disallowed, much of the action of his masterpiece, Don Quixote, takes place in the neighbourhood. El Toboso, for instance, a village 12 m. E.N.E. [pop. (1900) 1895], was the home of the Lady Dulcinea del Toboso; Argamasilla de Alba (3505), 22 m. S.E., is declared by tradition to be the birthplace of Don Quixote himself. Local antiquaries even identify the knight with Don Rodrigo de Pacheco, whose portrait adorns the parish church; and the same authorities hold that part of the romance was written while Cervantes was a prisoner in their town. An edition of Don Quixote was published at Argamasilla in 1864.
ALCESTER, FREDERICK BEAUCHAMP PAGET SEYMOUR, Baron (1821–1895), British admiral, son of Colonel Sir Horace Beauchamp Seymour and cousin of Francis George Hugh Seymour, 5th marquess of Hertford, was born on the 12th of April 1821. Entering the navy in 1834, he served in the Mediterranean and the Pacific, was for three years flag-lieutenant to his uncle Sir George Seymour, and was promoted to be commander in 1847. He served in Burma as a volunteer in 1852, was made a captain in 1854, took the “Meteor” ironclad battery out to the Black Sea and home again in 1856, was captain of the “Pelorus” on the Australian station from 1857 to 1863, and commanded the naval brigade in New Zealand during the Maori War, 1860–61, for which he was made a C.B. He became a rear-admiral in 1870; in 1871–1872 he commanded the flying squadron, was a lord of the admiralty in 1872–1874, and commanded the Channel fleet, 1874–1876. On the 31st of December 1876 he was made a vice-admiral, a K.C.B. on the 2nd of June 1877. In 1880–1883 he was commander-in-chief of the fleet in the Mediterranean, and in 1880 had also the chief command of the European squadron sent to the coast of Albania as a demonstration to compel the Porte to cede Dulcigno to Montenegro. On the 24th of May 1881 he was made a G.C.B., and on the 6th of May 1882 was promoted to the rank of admiral. In July 1882 he commanded at the bombardment of Alexandria and in the subsequent operations on the coast of Egypt, for which service he was raised to the peerage as Baron Alcester of Alcester in the county of Warwick, received a parliamentary grant of £25,000, the freedom of the city of London and a sword of honour. On his return from the Mediterranean he was for a couple of years again at the admiralty, and in 1886 he was placed on the retired list. For the next nine years he lived chiefly in London, but latterly his health was much broken, and he died on the 30th of March 1895. He was unmarried and the peerage became extinct.
ALCESTER [pronounced Auster ], a market-town in the Stratford-on-Avon parliamentary division of Warwickshire, England, 16 m. W.S.W. from Warwick by the Great Western railway, served also by the Birmingham-Evesham branch of the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 2303. It is pleasantly situated among low wooded hills at the junction of the small stream Alne with the Arrow, a northern tributary of the Avon. The church of St Nicholas, with the exception of the Decorated tower, is a reconstruction of 1734; among several monuments is a fine example of Chantrey’s work, to the 2nd marquess of Hertford (d. 1822). There are a picturesque town hall (1641), raised on stone columns, and a free grammar school. The manufacture of needles is less important than formerly, having been absorbed into the centre of the industry at Redditch in the neighbouring county of Worcestershire. There are implement works and cycle works, and brewing is prosecuted.
