A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἀλέξανδρος Κορνήλιος), surnamed POLYHISTOR (Πολυΐστωρ), a Greek writer and contemporary of Sulla. According to Suidas he was a native of Ephesus and a pupil of Crates, and during the war of Sulla in Greece was made prisoner and sold as a slave to Cornelius Lentulus, who took him to Rome and made him the paedagogus of his children. Afterwards Lentulus restored him to freedom. From Suidas it would seem as if he had received the gentile name Cornelius from Lentulus, while Servius (Serv. ad Aen. 10.388) says, that he received the Roman franchise from L. Cornelius Sulla. He died at Laurentumin a fire which consumed his house, and as soon as his wife heard of the calamity, she hung herself. The statement of Suidas that he was a native of Ephesus is contradicted by Stephanus Byzantius (s. v. Κοτιάεον), who says that he was a native of Cotiaeum in Lesser Phrygia, and a son of Asclepiades, and who is borne out by the Etymologicum Magnum (s. vv. δέδοικα and τεριρρηδής), where Alexander is called Κοτιαεύς.

[L.S]