ALEXANDER POLYHISTOR,

in full Lucius Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor born , Miletus, in Asia Minor died c. 35 BC, , Laurentum, near Rome philosopher, geographer, and historian whose fragmentary writings provide valuable information on antiquarian and Jewish subjects. Imprisoned by the Romans in the war of the Roman general Sulla against King Mithradates of Pontus, Alexander was sold as a slave to a patrician and taken to Rome to educate his master's children. After Alexander's release he continued to live in Italy as a Roman citizen. Alexander's most important work, of which only fragments exist, consists of 42 books of historical and geographical accounts of nearly all the countries of the ancient world. His other notable treatise is about the Jews; it reproduces in paraphrase relevant excerpts from Jewish, Samaritan, and Gentile writers and is valuable for preserving the substance of Hellenistic Jewish authors of whom otherwise nothing would be known.