ALEXANDRIA, in Ancient Geography, a city of Arachosia, called also Alexandropolis, on the river Arachotus (Stephanus, Isidorus Characenus).—Another Alexandria in Gedrosia, built by Leonnatus by order of Alexander (Pliny).—A third Alexandria in Aria, situated at the lake Arias (Ptolemy); but, according to Pliny, built by Alexander on the river Arius.—A fourth in Bactriana (Pliny).—A fifth Alexandria, an inland town of Caramania (Pliny, Ptolemy, Ammian).—A sixth Alexandria, or Alexandropolis, in Sogdiana (Isidorus Characenus).—A seventh in India, at the confluence of the Acesines and Indus (Arrian).—An eighth, called also Alexandretta, near the Sinus Issicus, on the confines of Syria and Cilicia, now Scanderoon, the port town to Aleppo.—A ninth Alexandria of Margiana, which being demolished by the barbarians, was rebuilt by Antiochus the son of Seleucus, and called Antiochia of Syria (Pliny); watered by the river Margus, which is divided into several channels, for the purpose of watering the country which was called Zotale. The city was seventy stadia in circuit, according to Pliny; who adds, that after the defeat of Crassus, the captives were conveyed to this place by Orodes, the king of the Parthians.—A tenth, of the Oxiana, built on the Oxus by Alexander, on the confines of Bactria (Pliny).—An eleventh,
built by Alexander at the foot of Mount Paropamisus, which was called Caucanus (Pliny, Arrian).—A twelfth Alexandria in Troas, called also Troas and Antigonia (Pliny).—A thirteenth on the Jaxartes, the boundary of Alexander's victories towards Scythia, and the last that he built on that side.
ALEXANDRIAN MS., Codex Alexandrinus, the appellation given to a manuscript of the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments now in the British Museum. This venerable Greek MS. was presented to our Charles I., through the hands of his ambassador to the Porte, Sir Thomas Rowe, by Cyrillus Lucaris, patriarch of Constantinople, in 1628. The donor had then recently brought it from Alexandria, whence its name. It remained in the royal library of our sovereigns, until transferred to the Museum in 1753. It is contained in four small folio volumes, written on vellum in double columns; the first three containing the Old Testament, the last the New Testament. The Old, however, is more perfect than the New: for the beginning of the Gospel of St Matthew is lost, the MS. commencing with the 6th verse of chapter xxv. There are several lacunæ in the Gospel of St John, as vi. 50, viii. 52; and a still larger one in 2d Epistle to Corinthians, from chap. iv. 13. to xii. 6. (See Woide's Prolegomena.) Occasionally too, single letters have disappeared, from the operations of the bookbinder. The characters are uneal, well rounded, and carefully written. There are no inter-spaces dividing words, no aspirates, nor accents, few contractions; and no instances of Stichometry, or division into lines to be read without pauses, an improvement introduced by Euthalius, about the year 462; from which last circumstance Woide and many other critics believe this MS. to be at least older than that period. An Arabic inscription on the reverse of the leaf containing a list of the books of both Testaments, states that it was written by the martyred THEKLA. Whether this be true or not, the manuscript bears marks of an Egyptian origin, from Egyptian orthography, the confusion of vowels with nearly similar sounds, and Alexandrian forms of inflection of some tenses, as of the 2d Aorist. That the MS. is very ancient is undoubted, though able critics are divided whether it ought to be referred to the early part of the fourth or beginning of the sixth century; but it seems most probably written before the middle of the fifth. Besides the books of the Old Testament which we regard as canonical, it contains the Apocryphal books, with the exception of the story of Susannah, and of Bel and the Dragon; but it contains the 3d and 4th books of Maccabees. These books are somewhat differently arranged from that of our version, or of the Vulgate of St Jerome. The psalms are divided into 151, with 15 hymns. As an introduction to them, the MS. contains the Epistle of Athanasius to Marcellinus, contained in 1277 lines; with the hypothesis of Eusebius on the Psalms. These three volumes, with very valuable prolegomena and notes, have been printed in fac-simile of the MS. at the expense of the British Museum, by the Rev. H. H. Baber, lately librarian to that institution. Half of the third volume is occupied with Baber's most valuable notes. The fac-simile of the New Testament published by Woide, in 1786, contains very excellent prolegomena and critical remarks on the MS., the general accuracy of which are admitted, though his deductions as to the age of the transcript have been much canvassed. This publication renders a collation of the MS. of the New Testament unnecessary; and his volume is now considered as completing this important work. In the 4th volume of the MS. we have the books of the New Testament in nearly the order usually adopted; except that the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews immediately follows 2d Thessalonians; and that the Epistle of James, the two of
Peter, the three of John, and that of Jude, are included under the Catholicæ placed between the Acts and the Epistles of Paul. The MS. contains also the whole of the 1st and part of the 2d Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, which follow the Apocalypse, and are succeeded by the 8 Psalms of Solomon. We may remark that the well-known verses about the three witnesses in the 5th chapter of the 1st Epistle of St John, are not in this MS., nor indeed in almost any of the very ancient Codices; whence its genuineness is doubted by most critics. See Burnet's Travels, Letter I.
To those who desire a more minute account of the Alexandrian manuscript, we must refer them to the prolegomena and notes of Baber and Woide, while we shall add the table of contents of the four volumes (as given in the first volume), with the corresponding designations in the English Bible.
Note H. H. Baber fill 264 pages, or about half this volume.
(T. S. T.)