Claudius Aelianus was recognized by Philostratus and the author of the Suda as a
participant in the literary and intellectual movement of the Second Sophistic. Philostratus'
biographical sketch in the Lives of the Sophists, however, makes it clear that Aelian did
not perform publicly as did the other sophists whom Philostratus described; Aelian's
retiring and scholarly nature is emphasized by Philostratus, who implies that Aelian's
choice of literature over performance followed a pattern established by Demosthenes and
Cicero.
Most scholarship on the Varia Historia during the past 150 years addresses the
question how Aelian made his collection, i.e. what sources he accessed. This directly
reflects modern use of the Varia Historia as a quarry from which to mine information
about the ancient world. Such scholarship must conclude that Aelian was not a modern
research scholar with the goals, techniques, and readership of the modern "scientific"
historian.
What then were his goals, techniques, and readership? The Varia Historia cannot
be fairly assessed without taking into account its membership in the genre of the
miscellany. The Imperial miscellanist concerns himself with a specific subset of traditional
literature: the material which supplements the standard literary education and may be
termed polymathic. The miscellanist assumes a readership with whom he shares certain
educative goals: specifically, further detailed education in literature beyond the primary
level, including further work in the encyclic artes and a general increase in detailed
information "for its own sake." Because the miscellanist adopts the stance of a mature
amateur scholar gathering data for a younger reader, he reveals a patronizing tone in his
collection. The data the miscellanist offers his reader is presented in a manner
characterized by rroiKiXia or "variety"; as such it reflects the Imperial attitude toward the
cultured person's correct use of leisure.
An analysis of passages from the Varia Historia reveals that Aelian conceives his
reader as a young person currently in the process of acquiring paideia. In his miscellany
Aelian has provided this reader with material that conveys a moral message at the same
time that it provides models of the correct way to respond to traditional literature.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/6697 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Johnson, Diane Louise |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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