ted in a lake region which is popular as a summer resort, is the centre of a productive wheat-growing district, and manufactures flour, furniture, wagons, sleighs, plows, cutlery, beer, etc. The most notable building is the county court-house. Pop.. 1890, 2118; 1900, 2681.
ALEXANDRIA BAY. A village in Jefferson Co., New York, on the St. Lawrence River, 30 miles north of Watertown, reached by steamer from Clayton, on the Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburg Railroad. It is the principal resort among the Thousand Islands, which lie opposite and below the village in the St. Lawrence. Many of these islands are occupied by private owners, who have elegant villas and cottages, and the whole series, not long ago almost unvisited, forms a grand natural, though, to an extent, also artificially improved, park. Alexandria Bay was settled about 1830, and was incorporated first in 1879. Pop., 1890, 1123; 1900, 1511.
AL'EXAN'DRIAN AGE. With the loss of
political liberty in Greece under Macedonian
domination, creative power declined also, and
Athens ceased to occupy the preeminent position
in literature which she had so long held. During
the third century B.C., Alexandria became the cen-
tre of science and literature under the direction
of the Ptolemies, who used their wealth to at-
tract poets, scholars, and artists to their capital.
Ptolemy Soter invited to his court the learned
Peripatetic philosopher, Demetrius of Phalerum,
under whose advice he laid the foundations of
the later collections and libraries. His son,
Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-247), however, by
his large expenditures, became the actual foun-
der of the museum and libraries; his successor,
Ptolemy Euergetes (247-222), fostered espe-
cially mathematical and geographical investiga-
tions; and the succeeding rulers continued the
support of learning in varying degrees. The cen-
tre of intellectual life was the library in con-
nection with the museum. This was enriched in
every possible way; the total number of books
about 250 B.C. is put by Tzetzes at upward of
530,000. The museum had porticoes, lecture
halls, and rooms in which scholars lived free of
cost; some of the most eminent among these
received large annuities from the royal purse.
The school thus established resembled in many
ways a university. The highest honor attain-
able was the position of librarian; this was held
between 285 and 150 B.C. successively by Zenod-
otus, Callimachus, Eratosthenes, Apollonius,
Aristophanes, and Aristarchus. The chief ac-
tivity of these grammarians was directed to es-
tablishing standard editions of authors and the
publication of explanatory comments on them.
Lists of the best authors (Canons) were also
drawn up, as of the five tragedians, the nine
lyric poets, and the ten orators. Intellectual
curiosity and the cosmopolitan character of the
population led to translation into Greek of
works in the Semitic tongues; the so-called
Septuagint version of the Old Testament was
made under Ptolemy Philadelphus.
Creative poetic impulse was now nearly dead, although bucolic poetry, epigram, and elegy still show originality. Most of the poets, however, were imitators who depended on art and not on genius. The most important names are Theocritus, Apollonius Rhodius, Callimachus, Aratus, Nicander, Euphorion, and Lycophron. At this time mathematics and astronomy also flourished. The most important names in the pre-Christian period are Euclid, Apollonius, Eratosthenes, Aristarchus, Hipparchus, and Hero, with whom must be reckoned also Archimedes, although his life w.as spent at Syracuse. Of the later scholars, Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemæus) (second century A.D.) is famous for his geographical and astronomical works. Even after the fall of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the museum, libraries, and schools continued to make Alexandria a great intellectual centre for many centuries; the schools of philosophy in particular enjoyed great prosperity, but literary activity had centred in Rome. Under Cæsar a large part of the collection of books was burned; but the loss was repaired in some measure by the removal of the Pergamene library to Alexandria and by acquisitions elsewhere. During the fourth century A.D. the city suffered severely from the struggles between Greeks and Christians, and finally occidental learning ceased with the conquest by the Arabs in 641.
Alexandrian Philosophy. The Alexandrian philosophy is characterized by a blending of the philosophies of the East and of the West, and by a general tendency to eclecticism, as it is called, or an endeavor to patch together, without really reconciling, conflicting systems of specu- lation, by bringing together what seemed prefer- able in each. Not that the Alexandrian philos- ophers were without their sects; the most fa- mous of these were the Neo-Platonists (q.v.). Uniting the religious notions of the East with Greek dialectics, they represent the struggle of ancient civilization with Christianity; and thus their system was not without infiuence on the form that Christian dogmas took in Egypt. The amalgamation of Eastern with Christian ideas gave rise to the system of the Gnostics (q.v.), which was elaborated chiefly in Alexandria.
On the museum and libraries, consult: Ritschl, Die alexandrinischen Bihliotheken (Breslau, 1838) and Couat, "Le Musée d'Alexandrie," in Annales de Bordeaux (Paris, 1879); also, in general matters, Simon, Histoire de l'école d'Alexandrie (second edition, Paris, 1845); Saint-Hilaire, De l'école d'Alexandrie (Paris, 1844-45), and Vacherot, Histoire critique de l'école d'Alexandrie (Paris, 1846-51).
Alexandrian Art. The style of art inaugurated in the time of Alexander, centring in the city of Alexandria. It prevailed throughout the Græco-Oriental States up to the time of the Roman conquest, and even then continued to exercise great influence on the formation of Roman art. Its characteristics were: (1) Regularity of plan in laying out cities; (2) love of the colossal, exaggerated, and picturesque in architecture and sculpture; (3) invasion of the element of color and pictorial effect in all arts; (4) love of the comic and the obscene; (5) rise of portraiture and genre. The old Hellenic poise had departed and the art was one of extremes; it sought its models in everyday life and did not care for types of gods or men. The art of Pompeii shows how this art permeated Roman civilization at the beginning of the Empire. Consult: G. Schreiber, Die hellenistischen Relief-bilder (Leipzig, 1894): Collignon, Histoire de la sculpture grecque (Paris, 1892-97): Gardner, Handbook of Greek Sculpture (London, 1896-97); Mitchell, A History of Ancient Sculpture
