Alexarchus of Macedon

For other persons with this name, see Alexarchus.

Alexarchus or Alexarch (Greek: Ἀλέξαρχος) was an Ancient Macedonian scholar and officer, son of Antipater and brother of Cassander.^[1] He lived around 350 to 290 BC. He is mentioned as the founder of a utopian town called Ouranopolis, in Chalcidice. Here he is said to have introduced a number of neologisms, which, though very expressive, appear to have been regarded slang or pedantic.^[2]^[3]

Glossary

ἀπύτης aputes <caller> for keryx herald (Attic ἠπύω êpuô , Doric and Arcadian apuô ,call to)

ἀργυρὶς argyris <silver cup> for drachma

βροτοκέρτης brotokertes <mortal-shaver> for koureus barber

ἡμεροτροφὶς hemerotrophis <daily-food> for choinix dry measure

ὀρθροβόας orthroboas <morning-shouter> for alektor,alektryon rooster

References

^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867). "Alexarchus (1)". In William Smith. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. pp. 128. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;idno=acl3129.0001.001;q1=demosthenes;size=l;frm=frameset;seq=143.
^ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae iii. p. 98
^ Gera, Deborah Levine (2003). Ancient Greek ideas on speech, language, and civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 33. ISBN 0-19-925616-0. http://books.google.com/books?id=h5tKJvApybsC.

Sources

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology by William Smith (1870).