:''For the Roman writer, see [[Claudius Aelianus]].''

'''Aelianus Tacticus''' ([[ancient Greek|Gr.]] '''{{polytonic|Αιλιανός Τακτικός}}''') was a [[Hellenistic Greece|Greek]] [[military]] writer of the [[2nd century]], resident at [[Rome]].

Aelian's military treatise in fifty-three chapters on the tactics of the Greeks ({{polytonic|Περί Στρατηγικων Τάξεων Ελληνικων}}), is dedicated to [[Hadrian]], though this is probably a mistake for [[Trajan]], and the date [[106]] has been assigned to it. It is a handbook of Greek, i.e. [[Macedon]]ian, [[parade (military)|drill]] and [[military tactics|tactics]] as practiced by the [[Hellenistic Greece|Hellenistic]] successors of [[Alexander the Great]]. The author claims to have consulted all the best authorities, the chief of which was a lost treatise on the subject by [[Polybius]]. Perhaps the chief value of Aelian's work lies in his critical account of preceding works on the art of [[war]], and in the fullness of his technical details in matters of drill.

He also gives a brief account of the constitution of a Roman army at that time. The work arose, he says, from a conversation he had with the emperor [[Nerva]] at [[Frontinus]]'s house at [[Formiae]]. He promises a work on Naval Tactics also; but this, if it was written, is lost.<ref name="dgrbm">{{Citation
| last = Allen
| first = Alexander
| author-link =
| contribution = Aelianus Tacitus
| editor-last = Smith
| editor-first = William
| title = [[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]]
| volume = 1
| pages = 29
| publisher =
| place = Boston
| year = 1867
| contribution-url = http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0038.html }}</ref>

Critics of the [[18th century]] &mdash; [[Guichard Folard]] and the [[Prince de Ligne]] &mdash; were unanimous in thinking Aelian greatly inferior to [[Arrian]], but both on his immediate successors, the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]]s, and later on the [[Arab]]s, (who translated the text for their own use), Aelian exercised a great influence. Emperor [[Leo VI the Wise]] incorporated much of Aelian's text in his own work on the military art. The Arabic version of Aelian was made about [[1350]]. It was first translated into Latin by Theorodus of Thessalonica, published in [[1487]].<ref name="dgrbm"/>

In spite of its academic nature, the copious details to be found in the treatise rendered it of the highest value to the army organizers of the [[16th century]], who were engaged in fashioning a regular military system out of the semi-[[feudal]] systems of previous generations. The [[Macedonian phalanx]] of Aelian had many points of resemblance to the solid masses of [[pikemen]] and the [[squadrons]] of [[cavalry]] of the [[Spain|Spanish]] and [[Netherlands|Dutch]] systems, and the translations made in the 16th century formed the groundwork of numerous books on drill and tactics.

Moreover, his works, with those of [[Xenophon]], Polybius, [[Aeneas Tacticus]] and Arrian, were minutely studied by every soldier of the 16th and 17th centuries who wished to be master of his profession. It has been suggested that Aelian was the real author of most of Arrian's ''Tactica'', and that the ''Taktike Theoria'' is a later revision of this original, but the theory is not generally accepted.

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Other sources===
*{{1911}}

{{SmithDGRBM}}

[[Category:Ancient Greek writers]]
[[Category:Roman-era Greeks]]

[[de:Aelianus Tacticus]]