Alexandra (A\t%av£na, fern, of Alexander), the name of several women in Josephus.
1. Surnamed (or rather, perhaps, originally named) Salome, first married to Aristobulus, and afterward the wife of Alexander Janna3us, his brother. In the account of the latter prince we have noticed the ad- vice which he gave upon his death-lied to Alexandra, with a view to conciliate the Pharisees and establish herself in the kingdom. Alexandra followed his coun- sel, and secured the object of her wishes. The Phar- isees, won by the marks of respect which she paid to them, exerted their influence over the people, and Al- exander Jannseus was buried with great pomp and splendor, and Alexandra ruled during the space of nine years. Under her government the country enjoyed external peace, but was distracted by internal strife. The Pharisees, having obtained an ascendency over the mind of the queen, proceeded to exact from her many important advantages for themselves and friends, and then to obtain the punishment and persecution of
all those who had been opposed to them during the king's reign. Many of the Sadducees, therefore, were put to death ; and their vindictiveness proceeded to such acts of cruelty and injustice that none of Alexan- der's friends could be secure of their lives. Many of the principal persons who had served in the late king's armies, with Aristobulus at their head, entreat- ed permission to quit their country-, or to be placed in some of the distant fortresses, where the}' might be sheltered from the persecution of their enemies. Aft- er some deliberation, she adopted the expedient of dis- tributing them among the different garrisons of the kingdom, excepting those, however, in which she had deposited her most valuable property. In the mean time her son Aristobulus was devising the means of seizing upon the throne, and all opportunity at length presented itself for carrying his project into effect. The queen being seized with a dangerous illness, Aris- tobulus at once made himself master of those fortresses in which his friends had been placed, and, before the necessary measures could be taken to stay his prog- ress, he was placed at the head of a large number of troops. Alexandra left the crown to Hyrcanus, her eldest son ; but he, being opposed by Aristobulus, re- tired to private life. Alexandra died B.C. 69, aged seventy-three 3-ears (Josephus, A nt. xiii, 16, 1-5 ; Mid- ler, De Alexandra, Altd. 1711 ; Zeltner, id. ib. eod.).
2. The daughter of Hyrcanus, wife of Alexander (son of Aristobulus and brother of Hyrcanus), and mother of another Aristobulus and of Mariamne (q. v.), whose death, in consequence of her husband's (Herod the Great's) suspicions, she perfidiously connived at ; but she was afterward herself put to death by Herod's order (Josephus, Ant. xv, 2, 5-7, 8).
3. A daughter of Phasaelus by Salampsio : she mar- ried Timius of Cyprus, but had no children (Josephus, Ant. xviii, 5, 4).
Alexail'dria (properly A lexandri'a, 'AXet,dvcpeia, 3 Mace, iii, 20; iv, 11; occurs in the N. T. only in the derivatives 'AXeZavSptvc, an Alexandrian, Acts vi, 9; xviii, 24; and 'AXs£avfipiv6g, Alexandrine, Acts xxvii, 6 ; xxviii, 11), the chief maritime city and long the metropolis of Lower Egypt, so called from its founder, Alexander the Great, was in many ways most importantly connected with the later history of the Jews — as well from the relations which subsisted be- tween them and the Ptolemies, who reigned in that city, as from the vast number of Jews who were set- tled there, with whom a constant intercourse was maintained by the Jews of Palestine. It is situated on the Mediterranean, twelve miles west of the Cano- pic mouth of the Nile, in 31° 13' N. lat. and 25° 53' E. long. It owes its origin to the comprehensive pol- icy of Alexander, who traced himself the ground-plan of the city (Plut. Alex. 26), perceiving that the usual channels of commerce might be advantageously al- tered ; and that a city occupying this site could not fail to become the common emporium for the traffic of the Eastern and Western world, by means of the river Nile and the two adjacent seas, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. See Alexander the Great. For a long period Alexandria was the greatest of known cities, for Nineveh and "Babylon had fallen, and Rome had not yet risen to pre-eminence; and even when Rome became the mistress of the world, and Alexandria only the metropolis of a province, the latter was second only to the former in wealth, extent, and importance, and was honored with the magnificent titles of the second metropolis of the world, the city of cities, the Queen of the East, a second Rome (Diod. Sic. xvii; Strab. xvii ; Ammian. Marcell. xxii; Ile- gesipp. iv, 27 ; Josephus, War, iv, 11, 5). It is not mentioned at all in the Old Testament [see No], and only incidentally in the New* (Acts vi, 9 ; xviii, 24 ; xxvii, 6).
Alexandria was founded B.C. 332, upon the site of the small village of Rhacotis (Strabo, xvii, c. i, 6), and
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opposite to the little island of Pharos, which, even be- fore the time of Homer, had given shelter to the Greek traders on the coast. Alexander selected this spot for the Greek colony which he proposed to found, from the capability of forming the deep water between Khacotis and the isle of Pharos into a harbor that might become the port of all Egypt. He accordingly ordered Di- nocrates, the architect who rebuilt the temple of Diana at Ephesus, to improve the harbor, and to lay down the plan of the new city ; and he further appointed Cleomenes of Naucratis, in Egypt, to act as superin- tendent. The light-house upon the isle of Pharos was to be named after his friend Hephaestion, and all con- tracts between merchants in the port were to com- mence "In the name of Hephrestion." The great market which had hitherto existed at Canopus was speedily removed to the new city, which thus at once rose to commercial importance. After the death of Alexander, the building of the city was carried on briskly by his successor, Ptolemy Lagus, or Soter, but many of the public works were not completed till the