Alexander, a native of Aphrodisias in Caria, had come to Athens towards the end of the second century.

A student of the two Stoic, or possibly Peripatetic, philosophers Sosigenes and Herminus, and perhaps of Aristotle of Mytilene, Alexander has become head of the Peripatetic school at Athens and lectures on Peripatetic philosophy.

His dedication of On Fate to Septimius Severus and Caracalla, in gratitude for his position at Athens, indicates a date between 198 and 209.

A recently published inscription from Aphrodisias confirms that he was head of one of the Schools at Athens and gives his full name as Titus Aurelius Alexander.

His full nomenclature shows that his grandfather or other ancestor had probably been given Roman citizenship by the emperor Antoninus Pius, while proconsul of Asia.

The inscription honors his father, also called Alexander and also a philosopher.

This fact makes it plausible that some of the suspect works that form part of Alexander's corpus should be ascribed to his father.

Alexander of Aphrodisias, the most distinguished of the later Greek commentators on Aristotle, composes several commentaries on the latter’s works, in which he seeks to escape a syncretistic tendency and to recover the pure doctrines of Aristotle.

His commentaries are still extant on Prior Analytics (Book 1), Topics, Meteorology, Sense and Sensibilia, and Metaphysics (Books 1-5).

The commentary on the Sophistical Refutations is deemed spurious, as is the commentary on the final nine books of the Metaphysics.

The lost commentaries include works on the De Interpretatione, Posterior Analytics, Physics, On the Heavens, On Generation and Corruption, On the Soul, and On Memory.

Simplicius of Cilicia mentions that Alexander provided commentary on the quadrature of the lunes, and the corresponding problem of squaring the circle.

It will be eported in April 2007, itthat imaging analysis had discovered an early commentary on Aristotle's Categories in the Archimedes Palimpsest, and Robert Sharples will suggest Alexander as the most likely author.

There are also several original writings by Alexander still extant.

These include: On the Soul, Problems and Solutions, Ethical Problems, On Fate, and On Mixture and Growth.

Three works attributed to him are considered spurious: Medical Questions, Physical Problems, and On Fevers.

Additional works by Alexander are preserved in Arabic translation, these include: On the Principles of the Universe, On Providence, and Against Galen on Motion.

Alexander's commentaries on Aristotle will by the sixth century be considered so useful that he will be referred to as "the commentator".

His commentaries will be greatly esteemed among the Arabs, who will translate many of them, and he will be heavily quoted by Maimonides.

The Church Council of Paris in 1210 will issue a condemnation, probably targeting the writings of Alexander among others.

Hs doctrine of the soul's mortality will be adopted in the early Renaissance by Pietro Pomponazzi (against the Thomists and the Averroists), and by his successor Cesare Cremonini.

This school will be known as Alexandrists.

Alexander's band is named after him: an optical phenomenon associated with rainbows, it occurs due to the deviation angles of the primary and secondary rainbows.

Both bows exist due to an optical effect called the angle of minimum deviation.

The refractive index of water prevents light from being deviated at smaller angles.