On Animals, Volume III

Harvard University Press

On Animals, Volume IIIBooks 1217\nAuthor(s): Aelian, A. F. Scholfield\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: Harvard University Press, United States\nImprint: Harvard University Press\nISBN-13: 9780674994942, 978-0674994942\nSynopsis\nOccasionally zany zoological lore.\n\nAelian (Claudius Aelianus), a Roman born ca. AD 170 at Praeneste, was a pupil of the rhetorician Pausanias of Caesarea, and taught and practiced rhetoric. Expert in Attic Greek, he became a serious scholar and studied history under the patronage of the Roman empress Julia Domna. He apparently spent all his life in Italy where he died after AD 230.\n\nAelians On the Characteristics of Animals, in 17 books, is a collection of facts and beliefs concerning the habits of animals drawn from Greek authors and some personal observation. Fact, fancy, legend, stories, and gossip all play their part in a narrative that is meant to entertain. If there is any ethical motive, it is that the virtues of untaught yet reasoning ani.