Alexandrians

Not an individual but a collective addressee: the citizens of Alexandria in Egypt, the great Hellenistic metropolis and intellectual capital of the eastern Mediterranean, home to the Library and Museum and a famously turbulent populace. In late-antique letter collections the "Alexandrians" appear as the corporate recipient of letters addressed to the city's people as a whole. The emperor Julian (r. 361-363) notably wrote to the Alexandrians, including a sharp public letter rebuking them over the lynching of the Arian bishop George of Cappadocia and another on religious affairs; bishop Basil of Caesarea's correspondence likewise touches the city amid the doctrinal struggles of the era. As a collective, no birth or death dates apply.