(Ἀλέξανδρος) , king of EPIRUS, was the son of Neoptolemus and brother of Olympias, the mother
of Alexander the Great. He came at an early age to the court of Philip of Macedonia, and after
the Grecian fashion became the object of his attachment. Philip in requital made him king of
Epirus, after dethroning his cousin Aeacides. When Olympias was repudiated by her husband, she
went to her brother, and endeavoured to induce him to make war on Philip. Philip, however,
declined the contest, and formed a second alliance with him by giving him his daughter
Cleopatra in marriage. (B. C. 336.) At the wedding Philip was
assassinated by Pausanias. In B. C. 332, Alexander, at the request
of the Tarentines, crossed over into Italy, to aid them against the Lucanians and Bruttii.
After a victory over the Samnites and Lucanians near Paestum he made a treaty with the Romans.
Success still followed his arms. He took Heraclea and Consentia from the Lucanians, and Terina
and Sipontum from the Bruttii. But in B. C. 326, through the
treachery of some Lucanian exiles, he was compelled to engage under unfavourable circumstances
near Pandosia, on the banks of the Acheron, and fell by the hand of one of the exiles, as he
was crossing the river; thus accomplishing the prophecy of the oracle of Dodona, which had
bidden him beware of Pandosia and the Acheron. He left a son, Neoptolemus, and a daughter,
Cadmea. (Justin, 8.6, 9.6, 7, 12.2, 17.3,
18.1, 23.1 ; Liv.
8.3, 17, 24; Diod. 16.72.) The head on the annexed coin of Alexander I. represents
that of Jupiter.