A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology
William Smith, Ed.

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Aelia'nus Ta'cticus

（Αἰλιανός Τακτικός) was most probably a Greek, but not the same as Claudius Aelianus. He lived in Rome.

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Works

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On Military Tactics

(Περὶ Στρατηγικῶν Τάξεων Ἑλληνικῶν）

Aelian wrote a work in fifty-three chapters on the Military Tactics of the Greeks (Περὶ Στρατηγικῶν Τάξεων Ἑλληνικῶν, which he dedicated to the emperor Hadrian. He also gives a brief account of the constitution of a Roman army at that time. The work arose, he says (Dedic.), from a conversation he had with the emperor Nerva at Frontinus's house at Formiae.

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Other works

Aelian promises a work on Naval Tactics also; but this, if it was written, is lost.

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Editions

The first edition of the Tactics (a very bad one) was published in 1532; the next, much better, was by Franciscus Robortellus, Venice, 1552, 4to., which contains a new Latin version by the editor, and is illustrated with many cuts. The best edition is that printed by Elzevir at Leyden, 1613. It is usually found bound up with Leo's Tactica [LEO].

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Translations

It was translated into Latin first by Theodorus of Thessalonica. This translation was published at Rome, 1487, together with Vegetius, Frontinus, and Modestus. It is printed also in Robortellus's edition, which therefore contains two Latin versions. It has been translated into English by Capt. John Bingham, Lond. 1616, fol., and by Lord Dillon, 1814, 4to.

[A.A]