Claudius Aelianus ( grc, Κλαύδιος Αἰλιανός, Greek transliteration ''Kláudios Ailianós''; c. 175c. 235 AD), commonly Aelian (), born at
Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of
rhetoric who flourished under
Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary suc ...
and probably outlived
Elagabalus, who died in 222. He spoke
Greek so fluently that he was called "honey-tongued" ( ); Roman-born, he preferred Greek authors, and wrote in a slightly archaizing Greek himself.
[ This cites:
* ''Editio princeps'' of complete works by Gesner, 1556; Hercher, 1864-1866.
* English translation of the ''Various History'' only by Fleming, 1576, and Stanley, 1665
* Translation of the ''Letters'' by Quillard (French), 1895]
His two chief works are valuable for the numerous quotations from the works of earlier authors, which are otherwise lost, and for the surprising lore, which offers unexpected glimpses into the Greco-Roman world-view. It is also the only Greco-Roman work to mention
Gilgamesh.
''De Natura Animalium''
''On the Nature of Animals'' (alternatively "On the Characteristics of Animals"; grc, Περὶ ζῴων ἰδιότητος, '; usually cited by its
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
title ''De Natura Animalium'') is a collection,
in seventeen books, of brief stories of natural history. Some are included for the moral lessons they convey; others because they are astonishing.
The
Loeb Classical Library introduction characterizes the book as "an appealing collection of facts and fables about the animal kingdom that invites the reader to ponder contrasts between human and animal behavior".
Aelian's anecdotes on animals rarely depend on direct observation: they are almost entirely taken from written sources, not only
Pliny the Elder,
Theopompus, and
Lycus of Rhegium
Lycus (Lykos, Lycos ,) may refer to:
Mythology
* Lycus (mythology), the name of numerous people in Greek mythology, including
** Lycus (brother of Nycteus), a ruler of the ancient city of Ancient Thebes
** Lycus (descendant of Lycus), son of Ly ...
, but also other authors and works now lost, to whom he is thus a valuable witness. He is more attentive to marine life than might be expected, though, and this seems to reflect first-hand personal interest; he often quotes "fishermen". At times he strikes the modern reader as thoroughly credulous, but at others he specifically states that he is merely reporting what is told by others, and even that he does not believe them. Aelian's work is one of the sources of medieval natural history and of the
bestiaries of the Middle Ages.
The surviving portions of the text are badly mangled and garbled and replete with later interpolations.
Conrad Gessner (or Gesner), the Swiss scientist and natural historian of the Renaissance, made a Latin translation of Aelian's work, to give it a wider European audience. An English translation by A. F. Scholfield has been published in the
Loeb Classical Library, 3 vols. (1958-59).
''Varia Historia''
''Various History'' (, ')—for the most part preserved only in an abridged form
—is Aelian's other well-known work, a miscellany of anecdotes and biographical sketches, lists, pithy maxims, and descriptions of natural wonders and strange local customs, in 14 books, with many surprises for the cultural historian and the
mythographer, anecdotes about the famous Greek philosophers, poets, historians, and playwrights and myths instructively retold. The emphasis is on ''various'' moralizing tales about heroes and rulers, athletes and wise men; reports about food and drink, different styles in dress or lovers, local habits in giving gifts or entertainments, or in religious beliefs and death customs; and comments on Greek painting. Aelian gives accounts of, among other things,
fly fishing using
lures of red wool and feathers,
lacquerwork, and
serpent
Serpent or The Serpent may refer to:
* Snake, a carnivorous reptile of the suborder Serpentes
Mythology and religion
* Sea serpent, a monstrous ocean creature
* Serpent (symbolism), the snake in religious rites and mythological contexts
* Serp ...
worship. Essentially, the ''Various History'' is a classical "magazine" in the original sense of that word. He is not perfectly trustworthy in details, and his writing was heavily influenced by
Stoic opinions,
perhaps so that his readers will not feel guilty, but
Jane Ellen Harrison
Jane Ellen Harrison (9 September 1850 – 15 April 1928) was a British classical scholar and linguist. Harrison is one of the founders, with Karl Kerenyi and Walter Burkert, of modern studies in Ancient Greek religion and mythology. She ...
found survivals of archaic rites mentioned by Aelian very illuminating in her ''Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion'' (1903, 1922).
''Varia Historia'' was first printed in 1545. The standard modern text is that of Mervin R. Dilts (1974).
Two English translations of the ''Various History,'' by Fleming (1576) and Stanley (1665) made Aelian's miscellany available to English readers, but after 1665 no English translation appeared, until three English translations appeared almost simultaneously: James G. DeVoto, ''Claudius Aelianus: Ποικίλης Ἱστορίας (''Varia Historia'')'' Chicago, 1995; Diane Ostrom Johnson, ''An English Translation of Claudius Aelianus' "Varia Historia"'', 1997; and N. G. Wilson, ''Aelian: Historical Miscellany'' in the
Loeb Classical Library.
Other works
Considerable fragments of two other works, ''On Providence'' and ''Divine Manifestations'', are preserved in the early medieval encyclopedia, the ''
Suda
The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; grc-x-medieval, Σοῦδα, Soûda; la, Suidae Lexicon) is a large 10th-century Byzantine encyclopedia of the ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas (Σούδας) or Souida ...
.'' Twenty "letters from a farmer" after the manner of
Alciphron
Alciphron ( grc-gre, Ἀλκίφρων) was an ancient Greek sophist, and the most eminent among the Greek epistolographers. Regarding his life or the age in which he lived we possess no direct information whatsoever.
Works
We possess under th ...
are also attributed to him.
The letters are invented compositions to a fictitious correspondent, which are a device for vignettes of agricultural and rural life, set in Attica, though mellifluous Aelian once boasted that he had never been outside Italy, never been aboard a ship (which is at variance, though, with his own statement, ''de Natura Animalium'' XI.40, that he had seen the bull
Serapis with his own eyes). Thus conclusions about actual agriculture in the ''Letters'' are as likely to evoke
Latium
Latium ( , ; ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire.
Definition
Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil ( Old Latium) on w ...
as
Attica
Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean ...
. The fragments have been edited in 1998 by D. Domingo-Foraste, but are not available in English. The ''Letters'' are available in the Loeb Classical Library, translated by Allen Rogers Benner and Francis H. Fobes (1949).
See also
*
''Historiae animalium'' by Gessner
References
Further reading
*Aelian, ''On Animals''. 3 volumes. Translated by A. F. Scholfield. 1958–9. Loeb Classical Library. , , and
*Aelian, ''Historical Miscellany''. Translated by Nigel G. Wilson. 1997. Loeb Classical Library.
*Alciphron, Aelian, and Philostratus, ''The Letters''. Translated by A. R. Benner, F. H. Fobes. 1949. Loeb Classical Library.
*Aelian, ''On the Nature of Animals''. Translated by Gregory McNamee. 2011. Trinity University Press.
*Ailianos, ''Vermischte Forschung''. Greek and German by
Kai Brodersen. 2018. Sammlung Tusculum. De Gruyter Berlin & Boston
*Ailianos, ''Tierleben''. Greek and German by
Kai Brodersen. 2018. Sammlung Tusculum. De Gruyter Berlin & Boston 2018,
*Claudius Aelianus, ''Vom Wesen der Tiere - De natura animalium''. German and Commentary by Paul-Gerhard Veh, Philipp Stahlhut. 2020. Bibliothek der Griechischen Literaur. Anton Hiersemann Verlag Stuttgart 2020, ISBN
External links
*
*
Ποικίλη ἱστορία – bibliotheca Augustana* Raw Greek OCR of Hercher's 1864 Teubner edition of Aelian's works at the Lace repository of
Mount Allison Universityvol. Ivol. 2
Various Historyat James Eason's site (excerpts in English translation)
at ''attalus.org''
(English)
The Evidence for Aelian's Katêgoria tou gunnidosregarding Aelian's presumed invective against
Elagabalus
Aelian's ''Characteristics of Animals''
Greek with English translation
Aelian on the Characteristics of Animals, Books I-V (Greek with English translation by A.F. Scholfield, 1950)Aelian on the Characteristics of Animals, Books VI-XI (Greek with English translation by A.F. Scholfield, 1950)Aelian on the Characteristics of Animals, Books XII-XVII (Greek with English translation by A.F. Scholfield, 1950)at ''attalus.org''
Latin translation
(complete Latin translation)
Greek
* ''De natura animalium libri XVII, Varia historia, Epistolae fragmenta, ex recognitione Rudolphi Hercheri'', Lipsiae, in aedibus B. G. Teubneri, 1864
vol. 1vol. 2
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aelianus, Claudius
175 births
235 deaths
People from Palestrina
Claudii
Ancient Roman rhetoricians
Ancient Greek writers
2nd-century Romans
3rd-century Romans
3rd-century writers
2nd-century Greek people
3rd-century Greek people