ALECTO ALEMBERT 271 nuncio in Germany, and afterward in Venice, and in 1538 he was made cardinal. Of his nu- merous writings none were published but a Greek-Latin lexicon, an abridged Greek gram- mar, and a short Latin poem. ALECTO, in Greek mythology, one of the Eu- menides or Furies. (See EUMENIDES.) ALEGAMBE, Philippe, a Belgian Jesuit, born in Brussels, Jan. 22, 1592, died in Rome, Sept. 6, 1652. He taught philosophy at the college of Gratz, but finally settled at Rome, where he became superior of the house of the Jesuits, and secretary to the general of the order. Alegambe continued and improved the Biblio- theca Scriptorum Societatis Jesu, begun by Ri- badeneira and completed by Nathaniel Sotwell. He also wrote two biographical works on Jesuit martyrs to their faith and to their zeal in works of charity, and a life of Cardan. ALEMAN, Blateo, a Spanish novelist, born in Seville about the middle of the 16th century, died probably in Mexico. In 1568 he was com- missioner of finance in his native land, but be- ing falsely accused of maladministration, he was removed from public service, and suffered a long imprisonment. He then betook himself to literature. The first volume of a humorous romance, entitled La, vida y hecJios del picaro Guzman de Alfarache, which he published in 1599, passed through 26 editions within the following six years, besides being translated into the French and Italian. A continuation appeared in 1603, which Aleman repudiated; and the genuine second part was published in Valencia in 1605, but the work was never com- pleted. Aleman afterward went to Mexico, but of his subsequent career nothing is known. ALEMAMI, or Alamanni (Ger., all men), a confederacy of warlike German tribes, with whom the Romans first came into collision in the reign of Caracalla. They then dwelt on the Main, and subsequently spread toward the Danube, the Helvetian Alps, and across the Rhine into eastern Gaul. The Tencteri and Usipetes, who previously inhabited the terri- tories of modern Westphalia, are supposed to have formed the nucleus of the confederation. Caracalla made an unsuccessful campaign against the Alemanni in 214, and boastfully assumed the surname Alemannicus. Alex- ander Severus and Maximin also fought against them, without impairing their growing power. During the joint reign of Valerian and his son Gallienus they crossed the Rhaetian Alps, in- vaded Cisalpine Gaul, and advanced as far as Ravenna, but were repulsed, and subsequently suffered greater defeats at the hands of the em- perors Aurelian and Probus. In the 4th century they made constant inroads into Gaul, but were chastised by Constantius Chlprus, Julian, Va- lentinian I., and Gratian; in spite of which, however, their power continued to increase. They were at that period united with the Suevi, a kindred nation, with whom they grad- ually became more and more confounded, until both nations were subdued by the Franks under Clovis. The northern portions of the Aleman- nic territories remained a domain of the Frank- ish kings ; the rest was afterward formed into a Germanic duchy of Alemannia, between the Alps, the Jura, the Vosges, the Neckar, and the Lech, the eastern part of which finally as- sumed the name of Swabia (Suevia). The Swabian dialect of the German language is known as the Alemannic. ALEMBERT, Jean le Rond d>, a French mathe- matician and man of letters, born in Paris, Nov. 16, 1717, died there, Oct. 29, 1783. He was the illegitimate child of the poet Des- touches, commissary of artillery, and Madame de Tencin, a court lady, more celebrated for wit and beauty than for virtue. The infant, exposed on the steps of the church of St. Jean le Rond, was picked up by the police, and given to a glazier's wife, to whose affection the great philosopher responded throughout his life. He lived with her for 40 years, and when in the days of his tame Madame de Tencin came forward and avowed her relationship, he re- pudiated her, alleging that she was but a step- mother, and the glazier's wife his real parent. Soon after his discovery his father acknowledged him and settled upon him a pension of 1,200 francs, which was sufficient to provide for his education. In 1721 he was sent to a boarding school. At the age of 12 he was transferred to the Mazarin college of Paris. His philosophi- cal studies here were eminently successful. He was for some time restrained from the study of mathematics, and applied himself to law, which he soon abandoned for medicine; but the irrepressible bent of his mind overcame all obstacles, and he at last betook himself with renewed ardor to his favorite employ- ments. A memoir and some remarks on the Analyse demontree of Reyneau procured him the membership of the academy of sciences in 1741. His celebrated Traite de dynamique appeared in 1743, and created a new branch of science. In 1744 he published his Traite de Vequilibre et du mouvement des fluides. In 1746, the Berlin academy of sciences having proposed the general causes of the winds aa the subject for the prize essay, .D'Alembert's treatise gained him the prize and the member- ship of the academy ; in this he attributed the currents to the combined influence of the sun and moon in creating an action resembling the flux and reflux of the tides. In 1754 he be- came a member of the French academy, and in 1772 its perpetual secretary, and within the next three years wrote historical eulogies upon 70 members deceased since 1700, which were published in 6 vols. 12mo. He was early con- nected with the freethinkers of his age in the preparation of the Encyclopedic, and his Dis- cours preliminaire was designated by his associ- ate editor Condorcet as a production of which only one or two men in a century could be found capable. The progress of the work was interrupted by the government at the end of the second volume, at which time
