Everything about Aelius Herodianus totally explained
Aelius Herodianus (Latin; Greek Αἴλιος Ἡρωδιανός) or
Herodian, ca.
180-
250, was one of the most celebrated grammarians of Greco-Roman antiquity. He is usually known as Herodian except when there's a danger of confusion with the historian also named
Herodian.
He was the son of
Apollonius Dyscolus and was born in
Alexandria. From there he seems to have moved to
Rome, where he gained the favour of the emperor
Marcus Aurelius, to whom he dedicated a work on
prosody. No further biographical particulars are known.
Works
He was held in very high esteem by subsequent grammarians;
Priscian describes him as
maximus auctor artis grammaticae ("the greatest creator of grammatical art"). He wrote many works, but they're mostly fragmentary and it's very difficult to compile an accurate list of them. In numerous instances it's impossible to tell whether the titles given by writers who quote from his works are distinct treatises, or only portions of larger works. In addition, there are ongoing debates over which works were written by him and which were not. Some works by lesser-known figures are known to have been reattributed to Herodian, presumably in order to increase the prestige of the works.
In total some fifty titles are known in connection with Herodian's name. The main works attached to his name (both rightly and wrongly) are as follows (the most usual way of citing each title is highlighted in bold):
- On peculiar style (περὶ μονήρους λέξεως). Probably the only complete work of Herodian's to have survived.
- Categories (ἐπιμερισμοί, Partitiones). Devoted to explanations of difficult words found in Homer; many important quotations from the Partitiones are found in the scholia on Homer.
- General prosody (ἡ καθ' ὅλου προσῳδία, or καθολικὴ προσῳδία, or μεγάλη προσῳδία; De prosodia catholica), in twenty books. Herodian dedicated this work to Marcus Aurelius. It covered prosody and etymology. An epitome and an index survive. It is possible that several other titles known to us were in fact parts of the Prosody: namely the Homeric prosody (Ὁμηρικοὶ προσῳδία); Attic prosody (Ἀττικὴ προσῳδία); and Equal prosody (ἀνόμαλος προσῳδία). A work entitled On accents (περὶ τόνων), attributed to Arcadius but compiled by a later grammarian, Theodosius of Byzantium, seems to be an extract from Herodian's Prosody.
- On figures (περὶ σχημάτων, De figuris). This work is known to be spurious, for example it's transmitted under Herodian's name but wasn't written by him. The author is referred to as "pseudo-Herodian".
- Philetaerus (φιλέταιρος). This work is also known to be spurious; it has been suggested that it was in fact by Cornelianus.
Further Information
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