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Alexander Cornelius

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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Greek grammarian, surnamed Polyhistor from his great learning, born at Miletus or Myndus in Caria, flourished about 70 B.C. He was taken prisoner in the Mithridatic war by Sulla, from whom (or from Cornelius Lentulus) he received his freedom and assumed the name Cornelius. He accompanied Crassus on his Parthian campaigns, and perished at the destruction by fire of his house at Laurentum. He is said to have written "books without number," chiefly on historical and geographical subjects. Of the extant fragments (Muller, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum, iii.) those relating to the Jews are important as containing quotations from lost Jewish authors.