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AELIAN (AELIANUS TACTICUS)

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 256 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AELIAN (AELIANUS TACTICUS) , See also:Greek military writer of the 2nd See also:century A.D., See also:resident at See also:Rome. He is sometimes confused with See also:Claudius Aelianus, the See also:Roman writer referred to below. Aelian's military See also:treatise, T ascetic)) eewpfa, is dedicated to See also:Hadrian, though this is probably a See also:mistake for See also:Trajan, and the date A.D. 106 has been assigned to it. It is a handbook of Greek, i.e. Macedonian, See also:drill and See also:tactics as practised by the Hellenistic successors of See also:Alexander the See also:Great. The author claims to have consulted all the best authorities, the See also:chief of which was a lost treatise on the subject by See also:Polybius. Perhaps the chief value of Aelian's See also:work lies in his See also:critical See also:account of preceding See also:works on the See also:art of See also:war, and in the fulness of his technical details in matters of drill. Critics of the 18th century—Guichard See also:Folard and the See also:prince de Ligne—were unanimous in thinking Aelian greatly inferior to See also:Arrian, but both on his immediate successors, the Byzantines, and on the See also:Arabs, who translated the See also:text for their own use, Aelian exercised a great See also:influence. The See also:emperor See also:Leo VI. incorporated much of Aelian's text in his own work on the military art. The Arabic version of Aelian was made about 135o. In spite of its See also:academic nature, the copious details to be found in the treatise rendered it of the highest value to the See also:army organizers of the 16th century, who were engaged in fashioning a See also:regular military See also:system out of the semi-feudal systems of previous generations.

The Macedonian See also:

phalanx of Aelian had many points of resemblance to the solid masses of pikemen and the " squadrons " of See also:cavalry of the See also:Spanish and Dutch systems, and the See also:translations made in the 16th century formed the groundwork of numerous books on drill and tactics. Moreover, his works, with those of See also:Xenophon, Polybius, See also:Aeneas and Arrian, were minutely studied by every soldier of the 16th and 17th centuries who wished to be See also:master of his profession. It has been suggested that Aelian was the real author of most of Arrian's Tactica, and that the T(LKTGK?) e€wpta is a later revision of this See also:original, but the theory is not generally accepted. The first edition of the Greek text is that of Robortelli (See also:Venice, 1552) ; the See also:Elzevir text (See also:Leiden, 1613) has notes. The text in W. See also:Rustow and H. Kochly's Griechische Kriegsschriftsteller (1855) is accompanied by a See also:translation, notes and reproductions of the original illustrations. A Latin translation by See also:Theodore See also:Gaza of Thessalonica was included in the famous collection Veteres de re militari scriptores (Rome and Venice, 1487, See also:Cologne, 1528, &c.). The See also:French translation of See also:Machault, included in his Milices See also:des Grecs et Romains (See also:Paris, 1615) and entitled De la Sergenterie des Grecs, a See also:German translation f -om Theodore Gaza (Cologne, 1524), and the See also:English version of Jo. B(See also:ingham), which includes a drill See also:manual of the English troops in the Dutch service, Tacticks of Aelian (See also:London, 1616), are of importance in the military literature of the See also:period. A later French translation by Bouchard de See also:Bussy, La Milice des Grecs ou Tactique d'Elien (Paris, 1737 and 1757); Baumgartner's German translation in his incomplete Sammlung alter Kriegsschriftsteller der Griechen (See also:Mannheim and See also:Frankenthal, 1779), reproduced in 1786 as Von Schlachtordnungen, and See also:Viscount See also:Dillon's English version (London, 1814) may also be mentioned. See also R.

See also:

Forster, Studien zu den griechischen Taktikern (See also:Hermes, xii., 1877, pp. 444-449) ; F. Wi stenfeld, Das Heerwesen der Muhammedaner and See also:die arabische Uebersetzung der Taktik des Aelianus (See also:Gottingen, 188o); M. Jahns, Gesch. der Kriegswissenschaften, i. 95-97 (See also:Munich, 1889); Rustow and Kochly, Gesch. des griechischen Kriegswesens (1852) ; A. de Lort-Serignan, La Phalange (188o) ; P. Seem, Eludes sur l'histoire militaire et maritime des Grecs et des Romains (1887); K. K. See also:Muller, in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopddie (See also:Stuttgart, 1894).

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