Aelian the Tactician was a Greek military writer under the emperors Trajan and Hadrian in the early 2nd century CE, a contemporary of the historian Arrian. He is distinguished from the later Claudius Aelianus, known as Aelian the Sophist.
His sole known work is the Tactica Theoria, also titled Tactics, a systematic treatise on Greek and Macedonian military arrays, including the Macedonian phalanx. The dedication names Trajan. The complete text travels mainly through a tenth-century manuscript.
Later writers used the book: Vegetius in the 4th century, the Byzantine emperor Leo VI in his own Tactica, and Renaissance military compilers. Aelian's role is transmission — he preserved Hellenistic tactical doctrine that would otherwise survive only in fragments.
Available Works
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