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See also:ALEXANDER THE -PAPHLAGONIAN, a celebrated impostor and worker of false oracles, was See also:born at Abonouteichos (see See also:INEBOLI) in See also:Paphlagonia in the See also:early See also:part of the 2nd See also:century A.D. The vivid narrative of his career given by See also:Lucian might be taken as fictitious but for the corroboration of certain coins of the emperors See also:Lucius See also:Venus and See also:Marcus Aurelius (J. H. See also:Eckhel, Doctrina Nummorum veterum, ii. pp. 383, 384) and of a-statue of Alexander, said by See also:Athenagoras (See also:Apology, c. 26) to have stood in the See also:forum of Parium. After a See also:period of instruction in See also:medicine by a See also:doctor who also, according. to Lucian, was an impostor, he succeeded in establishing an See also:oracle of See also:Aesculapius at his native See also:town. Having circulated a prophecy that the son of See also:Apollo was to be born again, he contrived that there should be found in the See also:foundations of the See also:temple to Aesculapius, then in course of construction at Abonouteichos, an See also:egg in which a small live snake had been placed. In an See also:age of superstition no See also:people had so See also:great a reputation for credulity as the Paphlagonians, and Alexander had little difficulty in convincing them of the second coming of the See also:god under the name of Glycon. A large tame snake with a false human See also:head, See also:wound See also:round Alexander's See also:body as he sat in a See also:shrine in the temple, gave " autophones
or oracles unasked, but the usual methods practised were those of the numerous oracle-mongers of the See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time, of which Lucian gives a• detailed See also:account, the opening of sealed inquiries by heated needles, a neat See also:plan of See also:forging broken See also:seals, and the giving of vague or meaningless replies to difficult questions, coupled with a lucrative blackmailing of those whose inquiries were compromising. The reputation of the oracle, which was in origin medical, spread, and with it See also:grew Alexander's skilled plans of organized deception. He set up an " intelligence See also:bureau" in See also:Rome, instituted mysteries like those of See also:Eleusis, from which his particular enemies the Christians and Epicureans were alike excluded as " profane," and celebrated a mystic See also:marriage between himself and the See also:- MOON (a common Teutonic word, cf. Ger. Mond, Du. maan, Dan. maane, &c., and cognate with such Indo-Germanic forms as Gr. µlip, Sans. ma's, Irish mi, &c.; Lat. uses luna, i.e. lucna, the shining one, lucere, to shine, for the moon, but preserves the word i
- MOON, SIR RICHARD, 1ST BARONET (1814-1899)
moon. During the See also:plague of A.D. 166 a See also:verse from the oracle was used as an See also:amulet and was inscribed over' the doors of houses as a See also:protection, and an oracle was sent, at Marcus Aurelius' See also:request, by Alexander to the See also:Roman See also:army on the See also:Danube during the See also:war with the See also:Marcomanni, declaring that victory would follow on the throwing of two lions alive into the See also:river. The result was a great disaster, and Alexander had recourse to the old quibble of the Delphic oracle to See also:Croesus for an explanation. Lucian's own See also:close investigations into Alexander's methods of See also:fraud led to a serious See also:attempt on his See also:life. The whole account gives a graphic description of the inner working of one among the many new oracles that were springing up at this period. Alexander had remarkable beauty and the striking See also:personality of the successful See also:charlatan, and must have been a See also:man of considerable intellectual abilities and See also:power of organization. His income is said by Lucian - to have reached an enormous figure. He died of See also:gangrene of the See also:leg in his seventieth See also:year.
See Lucian, 'AaefavSpos it il/sv56navres; See also:Samuel See also:Dill, Roman Society from See also:Nero to Marcus Aurelius (1904) ; and F. See also:Gregorovius, The See also:Emperor See also:Hadrian, trans. by M. E. See also:- ROBINSON, EDWARD (1794–1863)
- ROBINSON, HENRY CRABB (1777–1867)
- ROBINSON, JOHN (1575–1625)
- ROBINSON, JOHN (1650-1723)
- ROBINSON, JOHN THOMAS ROMNEY (1792–1882)
- ROBINSON, MARY [" Perdita "] (1758–1800)
- ROBINSON, SIR JOHN BEVERLEY, BART
- ROBINSON, SIR JOSEPH BENJAMIN (1845– )
- ROBINSON, THEODORE (1852-1896)
Robinson (1898).
End of Article: ALEXANDER THE
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