Aelian

Life & Legacy

Claudius Aelianus (Ancient Greek: Κλαύδιος Αἰλιανός, romanized: Klaúdios Ailianós; c. 175 – c. 235 AD), commonly Aelian (), born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222. He spoke Greek so fluently that he was called "honey-tongued" (μελίγλωσσος meliglossos); Roman-born, he preferred Greek authors, and wrote in a slightly archaizing Greek himself.
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. His De Natura Animalium is also the only surviving Greco-Roman work to name Gilgamesh.