ÆLIANUS, CLAUDIUS, born at Præneste, in Italy. He taught rhetoric at Rome, according to Perizonius, under the Emperor Alexander Severus. He was surnamed Μελιγλώσσος, Honey-tongued, on account of the sweetness of his style in his discourses and writings. He was likewise honoured with the title of Sophist, an appellation in his days given only to men of learning and wisdom. He loved retirement, and devoted himself to study. He greatly admired and studied Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Plutarch, Homer, Anacreon, Archilochus, &c. and, though a Roman, gives the preference to the writers of the Greek nation. His curious and entertaining work entitled Varia Historia has been frequently republished, as well as his treatise De Natura Animalium. A very useful edition of the latter was published by Schneider, at Leipzig, in 1784, in 8vo; another at Jena, in 1832, by Fr. Jacobs. The collated edition of his works, by Gesner, 1556, fol., contains his Epistola Rustica.