Claudius Aelianus

Roman author and teacher (c.175–c.235)

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Lived 200–235, aged 35

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38 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
200–235
Aged 35

Summary

Updated 2026-05-29

Roman rhetoric teacher who became fluent enough in Greek that people called him "honey-tongued." Wrote in an archaic Greek style despite being born in Italy, making him oddly obsessed with a culture that wasn't his own.

Biography

About

Claudius Aelianus, 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" ; Roman-born, he preferred Greek authors, and wrote in a slightly archaizing Greek himself.

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