The N. T. portion of this Codex was published by Woide, from facsimile letters cast expressly for the purpose, under the title 'Woo, Test. Grcec. e Cod. Alex- andr." (Lond. 1786, fob); revised by Cowper (Lond. 1860). The O. T. part was printed from the same characters by Baber (4 vols, fob Lond. 1*16-28). On its critical value, see Sender, De estate Cod. Alexandr. (Hal. 1759); Woide, Notitia Cod. Alexandr. curavit Spohn (Lips. 1788). Comp. Michaelis, Orient. Bill. ix, 166 sq. ; Cramer, Beiir. iii, 101-146; Tregelles, in Home's Introd. ed. 1846, iv, 152 sq., 678; Princeton Rev. Jan. 1861 ; Am: Theol Rev. July, 1861 ; Chr. Re- membrancer, Apr. 1861; Dietelmaier, Antiquitas Cod. Alex, vindicate ( Hal. 1739) ; Jorke, De estate Cod. Alex. (Hal. 1759); Spohn, Notitii Cod. Alex. (Lpz. 17*9); Stroth, De Cod. Alex. (Hal.1771). See Manuscripts, Biblical.
ALEXANDKIAN SCHOOLS, a term usually ap- plied to the various systems of philosophy and relig- ious belief that have characterized or originated among the citizens of Alexandria at different periods in its history. See Alexandria.
I. Pagan. — When Alexander the Great built the ! city of Alexandria, with a determination to make it i the seat of his empire, he also opened a new mart of J philosophy, which emulated the fame of Athens itself. A general indulgence was granted to Egyptians, Gre-
cians, Jews, or others, to profess their respective sys- tems of philosophy without molestation. The conse- quence was that Egypt was soon filled with religious and philosophical sectaries of every kind, and particu- larly that almost every Grecian sect found an advo- cate and professor in Alexandria. The family of the Ptolemies, who, after Alexander, obtained the govern- ment of Egypt, from motives of policy encouraged this new establishment. Ptolemy Lagus, who had obtained the crown of Egypt by usurpation, was particularly careful to secure the interest of the Greeks in his favor, and with this view invited people from every part of Greece to settle in Egypt, and removed the schools of Athens to Alexandria. Under the patron- age, first of the Egyptian princes and afterward of the Roman emperors, Alexandria long continued to enjoy great celebrit}- as the seat of learning, and to send forth eminent philosophers of every sect to distant countries. Philosophy during this period suffered a ( rievous corruption from the attempt which was made by philosophers of different sects and countries, Gre- I cian, Egyptian, and Oriental, to frame from their dif- ferent tenets one general system of opinions. The respect which had long been universal]}' paid to the schools of Greece, and the honors with which they were now adorned by the Egyptian princes, induced ] other wise men, and even the Egyptian priests and philosophers themselves, to submit to this innovation. See Philosophy.
Naturalby enough, therefore, the philosophy which seems to have obtained most at Alexandria was an eclectic teaching, aiming at bringing together the best features of even* school, and combining them into one harmonious aggregate. Antiochus is the best repre- sentative of that movement : the fundamental idea of his metaphysics consists in asserting that the writings of Plato, connected with those of Orpheus and of Py- thagoras, form a code of doctrine, a species of revela- tion, given by heaven, and superior to all the attempts of human speculation. The eclecticism taught by Antiochus was exclusively confined to the doctrines of the Greek school. The celebrated Philo (q. v.), who flourished from A.D. 40 to 60, borrowing from the works of Plato a great number of ideas and views, endeavored to amalgamate them with the truth con- tained in the Old Testament, the traditions of the Cabala, and the Essenian philosophy. Philo may be said to have spiritual! zul Judaism by the means of Platonism; and in turning the mind of his country- men away from mere verbal criticism, and from the minutiae of legal observances, he prepared them, to some degree, for the reception of the Gospel. But the philosopher whose name is chiefly connected with the history of Alexandria is Ammonius Saccas (q. v.), sur- named QeoSiSanroe, on account of the beauty of his teaching, who was a mystic thcosophist, but a theoso- phist who blended his views with polytheism, and en- grafted them there, not on Christianity. Seeing how fast the old convictions were vanishing away before ideas, feelings, and hopes of a totally different origin, he endeavored to renovate philosophy by showing that on the most important points Plato and Aristotle agree. This was the ruling axiom of his theories, which he completed in systematizing the Greek dasmonology by the help of elements derived from Egyptian and East- ern sources. As soon as the Christian religion became the creed of the state, the pagan school of Alexandria fell to the ground. It had to maintain, single-handed, a desperate struggle against the united forces of Gno6- tic philosophers and of the new religion, which, after having originated in an obscure corner of the Roman empire, was advancing with rapid strides to the con- t quest of society. The best accounts of the literary history of Alexandria, its pagan schools, libraries, philosophy, etc., may be found in M. Matter's Histoire t/i VecoL '/' M< randrie (Paris, 2d cd. 3 vols. 8vo) and in Simon's Histoire de Vecole a" Alexandria (Paris, 1845,
ALEXANDRIAN
157
ALEXANDRIAN
2 vols. 8vo). A rapid and vigorous, but not very trustworthy sketch is given in Kingsley's Alexandria and her Schools (Cambridge, 1854, 12mo).