ELIA Claudius (Claudis Aelianus)

Elian Claudius, Claudis Aelianus, from Prenesty in Latium, ca. 175-OK. 235 years. n. e., Greek writer. In Preneste served as high priest. From the works of E. we have today a treatise on the nature of animals (Peri zoon idiotetos; lats. De natura animalium) in 17 books, but the colorful story (Poikile historia; lats. Varia historia) in 14 books, the beginning of which remained fully in III books exist only in fragments. Both of these works demonstrate the wealth of material from paradoksograficheskoy literature (see. Paradoksokrafy), . with a treatise on the nature of animals considering the special properties of animals, . mainly those, . that show the wisdom of nature, . manifested in the irrational creatures (elephants, . dolphins, . dogs, . snakes, . bees), checkered history include the first (except for 15 sections of the book I), anecdotes from the lives of people, . drawn in a rich literature of an earlier period, . us lost,
. A third surviving work of E. Letters are the villagers (Epistolai agroikikai), literary trifle in the number of 20, inspired by the novoatticheskoy comedy and speakers IV in BC. e. Other works have disappeared E.: edifying letters of dispensation and t. village, along the lines of stoicism, a pamphlet on the Emperor Elagabalus. Stylistically E. tried to imitate Xenophon, for example the language he takes the Attic dialect, although sometimes we find him koine, and even ionizmy Latinism.