Aelius Herodianus (Latin; Greek ) 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 is a danger of confusion with the historian also named
HerodianHerodian or Herodianus of Syria was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus in eight books covering the years 180 to 238. His work is not entirely reliable although his relatively unbiased account of Elagabalus is...
.
He was the son of
Apollonius DyscolusApollonius Dyscolus is considered one of the greatest of the Greek grammarians. He was born at Alexandria, son of Mnesitheus. The dates for his life are not known. His son Aelius Herodianus was born c...
and was born in
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
. From there he seems to have moved to
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
, where he gained the favour of the emperor
Marcus AureliusMarcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was Roman emperor from 161 to his death in 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Lucius' death in 169...
, to whom he dedicated a work on
prosodyProsody may refer to:* Prosody , the study of rhythm, intonation, stress, and related attributes in speech* Prosody , the study of poetic meter...
.
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Aelius Herodianus (Latin; Greek ) 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 is a danger of confusion with the historian also named
HerodianHerodian or Herodianus of Syria was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus in eight books covering the years 180 to 238. His work is not entirely reliable although his relatively unbiased account of Elagabalus is...
.
He was the son of
Apollonius DyscolusApollonius Dyscolus is considered one of the greatest of the Greek grammarians. He was born at Alexandria, son of Mnesitheus. The dates for his life are not known. His son Aelius Herodianus was born c...
and was born in
AlexandriaAlexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports...
. From there he seems to have moved to
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
, where he gained the favour of the emperor
Marcus AureliusMarcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was Roman emperor from 161 to his death in 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Lucius' death in 169...
, to whom he dedicated a work on
prosodyProsody may refer to:* Prosody , the study of rhythm, intonation, stress, and related attributes in speech* Prosody , the study of poetic meter...
. No further biographical particulars are known.
Works
He was held in very high esteem by subsequent grammarians;
PriscianPriscianus Caesariensis , commonly known as Priscian, was a Latin grammarian. He wrote the Institutiones grammaticae on the subject...
describes him as
maximus auctor artis grammaticae ("the greatest creator of grammatical art"). He wrote many works, but they are mostly fragmentary and it is very difficult to compile an accurate list of them. In numerous instances it is 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 (). Probably the only complete work of Herodian's to have survived.
- Categories . Devoted to explanations of difficult words found in Homer
Homer is a legendary ancient Greek epic poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey...
; many important quotations from the Partitiones are found in the scholia on Homer.
- General prosody , in twenty books. Herodian dedicated this work to Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was Roman emperor from 161 to his death in 180. He ruled with Lucius Verus as co-emperor from 161 until Lucius' death in 169...
. It covered prosodyProsody may refer to:* Prosody , the study of rhythm, intonation, stress, and related attributes in speech* Prosody , the study of poetic meter...
and etymologyEtymology is the study of the history of words and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages, and texts about the languages, to gather knowledge about how words were used at earlier stages, and...
. An epitomeAn epitome is a summary or miniature form; an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment....
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 ; Attic prosody ; and Equal prosody . A work entitled On accents , attributed to ArcadiusFlavius Arcadius was Byzantine Emperor in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire from 395 until his death.-History:Arcadius was born in Hispania, the elder son of Theodosius I and Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of Honorius, who would become a Western Roman Emperor...
but compiled by a later grammarian, Theodosius of Byzantium, seems to be an extract from Herodian's Prosody.
- On figures . This work is known to be spurious, i.e. it is transmitted under Herodian's name but was not written by him. The author is referred to as "pseudo-Herodian".
- Philetaerus . This work is also known to be spurious; it has been suggested that it was in fact by Cornelianus
Sulpicius Cornelianus was a Roman rhetorician. He lived in the reign of the Roman Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Verus. This puts him in the late 2nd century...
.
Editions
- General edition. August Lentz and Arthur Ludwich 1979 [1867-70], Herodiani Technici reliquiae, reprint (Hildesheim, orig. Lentz); cited by volume and page number.
- Scholia on the Iliad. Erbse, H.
Hartmut Erbse was a German classical philologist.- Life :The son of a dentist from Thüringen, Erbse studied classical philology in Hamburg, where he was well known for his lively hat-wear and received his doctorate in 1940...
1969-1988, Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem, 7 vols. (Berlin).
- De figuris (spurious). Kerstin Hajdú 1998, Ps.-Herodian, De figuris: Überlieferungsgeschichte und kritische Ausgabe (Berlin, New York). ISBN 3-11-014836-6
Earlier publications:
- Partitiones. Boissonade, J.F. 1963 [1819], Herodiani Partitiones, reprint (Amsterdam).
- De prosodia catholica. August Lentz 1965 [1867], Grammatici Graeci vol. 3.1, reprint (Hildesheim).
- Epitome of De pros. cath. Moritz Schmidt 1983 [1860], Epitome tes katholikes prosodias, reprint (Hildesheim).
- Works reconstructed from Iliad scholia. Lehrs, K.
Karl Ludwig Lehrs , was a German classical scholar.Born at Königsberg, he was of Jewish extraction, but in 1822 he converted to Christianity...
1857 [1848], Herodiani scripta tria emendatiora, 2nd ed. (Berlin).
- Philetaerus (spurious). Johann Pierson et al. 1969 [1830-31], Moeridis Atticistae Lexicon Atticum, reprint (Hildesheim); Philetaerus ed. Georg Aenotheus Koch.
- Other works. TLG Canon