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Aelian (Claudius Aelianus), a Roman born ca. 170 CE at Praeneste,
was a pupil of the rhetorician Pausanias of Caesarea, and taught
and practised rhetoric. Expert in Attic Greek, he became a serious
scholar and studied history under the patronage of the Roman
empress Julia Domna. He apparently spent all his life in Italy
where he died after 230 CE.
Aelian's "On the Characteristics of Animals," in 17 books, is a
collection of facts and beliefs concerning the habits of animals
drawn from Greek authors and some personal observation. Fact,
fancy, legend, stories and gossip all play their part in a
narrative which is meant to entertain readers. If there is any
ethical motive, it is that the virtues of untaught yet reasoning
animals can be a lesson to thoughtless and selfish mankind. The
Loeb Classical Library edition of the work is in three volumes.
The "Historical Miscellany" (Loeb no. 486) is of similar nature.
In 14 books, it consists mainly of historical and biographical
anecdotes and retellings of legendary events. Some of Aelian's
material is drawn from authors whose works are lost.
Aelian's "Letters"--portraying the affairs and country ways of
a series of fictitious writers--offer engaging vignettes of rural
life. These are available in Loeb no. 383.
Aelian's "Historical Miscellany" is a pleasurable example of
light reading for Romans of the early third century. Offering
engaging anecdotes about historical figures, retellings of
legendary events, and enjoyable descriptive pieces, Aelian's
collection of nuggets and narratives appealed to a wide reading
public.
Here then are anecdotes about the famous Greek philosophers,
poets, historians, and playwrights; myths instructively retold;
moralizing tales about heroes and rulers, athletes and wise men;
reports about food and drink, different styles in dress, lovers,
gift giving, entertainments, religious beliefs, and death customs;
and comments on Greek painting. Some of the information is not
preserved in any other source. Underlying it all are Aelian's Stoic
ideals as well as this Roman's great admiration for the culture of
the Greeks (whose language he borrowed for his writings).
Aelian (Claudius Aelianus), a Roman born ca. 170 CE at Praeneste,
was a pupil of the rhetorician Pausanias of Caesarea, and taught
and practised rhetoric. Expert in Attic Greek, he became a serious
scholar and studied history under the patronage of the Roman
empress Julia Domna. He apparently spent all his life in Italy
where he died after 230 CE.
Aelian's "On the Characteristics of Animals," in 17 books, is a
collection of facts and beliefs concerning the habits of animals
drawn from Greek authors and some personal observation. Fact,
fancy, legend, stories and gossip all play their part in a
narrative which is meant to entertain readers. If there is any
ethical motive, it is that the virtues of untaught yet reasoning
animals can be a lesson to thoughtless and selfish mankind. The
Loeb Classical Library edition of the work is in three volumes.
The "Historical Miscellany" (Loeb no. 486) is of similar nature.
In 14 books, it consists mainly of historical and biographical
anecdotes and retellings of legendary events. Some of Aelian's
material is drawn from authors whose works are lost.
Aelian's "Letters"--portraying the affairs and country ways of
a series of fictitious writers--offer engaging vignettes of rural
life. These are available in Loeb no. 383.
Aelian (Claudius Aelianus), a Roman born ca. AD 170 at Praeneste,
was a pupil of the rhetorician Pausanias of Caesarea, and taught
and practised rhetoric. Expert in Attic Greek, he became a serious
scholar and studied history under the patronage of the Roman
empress Julia Domna. He apparently spent all his life in Italy
where he died after AD 230.
Aelian's "On the Characteristics of Animals," in 17 books, is a
collection of facts and beliefs concerning the habits of animals
drawn from Greek authors and some personal observation. Fact,
fancy, legend, stories and gossip all play their part in a
narrative which is meant to entertain readers. If there is any
ethical motive, it is that the virtues of untaught yet reasoning
animals can be a lesson to thoughtless and selfish mankind. The
Loeb Classical Library edition of the work is in three volumes.
The "Historical Miscellany" (Loeb no. 486) is of similar nature.
In 14 books, it consists mainly of historical and biographical
anecdotes and retellings of legendary events. Some of Aelian's
material is drawn from authors whose works are lost.
Aelian's "Letters"--portraying the affairs and country ways of
a series of fictitious writers--offer engaging vignettes of rural
life. These are available in Loeb no. 383.
The "Letters" of Alciphron (second century CE) constitute one of
the most attractive products of the Second Sophistic. They are
fictitious compositions based on an astonishingly wide variety of
circumstances, though the theme of erotic love is constantly
sounded. The imagination shown by the author and his convincing
realism win him a place of distinction in the early development of
romantic prose. The letters, which are highly literary, owing much
to the New Comedy of Menander, purport to give us a sketch of the
social life of Athens in the fourth century BCE. The collection is
arranged in four divisions: Letters of Fishermen; Farmers;
Parasites; Courtesans. Senders and addressees are mostly invented
characters, but in the last section Alciphron presents us with
several attempts at historical fiction, the most engaging being an
exchange of letters between Menander and Glycera.
This volume also includes twenty "Letters of Farmers" ascribed
to Aelian ("c."170-235 CE) and a collection of seventy-three
"Erotic Epistles" of Philostratus (probably Flavius of that name,
also born "c." 170 CE). In style and subject matter these resemble
those of Alciphron, by whom they may have been influenced.
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This
IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced
typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have
occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor
pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original
artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe
this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections,
have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing
commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We
appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the
preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book
may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages,
poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the
original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We
believe this work is culturally important, and despite the
imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of
our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works
worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in
the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This
IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced
typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have
occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor
pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original
artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe
this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections,
have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing
commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We
appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the
preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger
Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain
imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed
pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we
have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting,
preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger
Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and
hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger
Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain
imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed
pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we
have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting,
preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger
Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and
hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone
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