Various History — for the most part preserved only in an abridged form — is Aelian's other well-known work, a miscellany of anecdotes and biographical sketches, lists, pithy maxims, and descriptions of natural wonders and strange local customs, in 14 books, with many surprises for the cultural historian and the mythographer, anecdotes about the famous Greek philosophers, poets, historians, and playwrights and myths instructively retold.

Aelian's military treatise in fifty-three chapters on the tactics of the Greeks, titled On tactical arrays of the Greeks (), is dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian, though this is probably a mistake for Trajan, and the date 106 has been assigned to it.

Perhaps the chief value of Aelian's work lies in his critical account of preceding works on the art of war, and in the fullness of his technical details in matters of drill.

Emperor Leo VI the Wise incorporated much of Aelian's text in his own work on the military art ( Τέχνη Τακτική ).

Willem Lodewijk describes drilling soldiers in a similar manner to how Aelian " countermarched " his troops ; ' I have discovered ex evolutionibus is, from Aelian's discussions of drill a method of getting the musketeers and soldiers armed with harquebuses not only to keep firing very well but to do it effectively in battle order ( that is to say, they do not skirmish or use the cover of hedges ) in the following manner: as soon as the first rank has fired together, then by the drill have learned they will march to the back.

In Aelian's De natura animalium they are mistakenly mentioned, along with scorpions, as responsible for the abandoning of a country in Ethiopia.

Literary sources are Alexander's propagandist Arrian ( Anabasis Alexandri 2. 3 ) Quintus Curtius ( 3. 1. 14 ), Justin's epitome of Pompeius Trogus ( 11. 7. 3 ), and Aelian's De Natura Animalium 13. 1.

Two English translations of the Various History, by Fleming ( 1576 ) and Stanley ( 1665 ) made Aelian's miscellany available to English readers, but after 1665 no English translation appeared, until three English translations appeared almost simultaneously: James G. DeVoto, Claudius Aelianus: Ποιϰίλης Ἱοτορίας (" Varia Historia ") Chicago, 1995 ; Diane Ostrom Johnson, An English Translation of Claudius Aelianus ' " Varia Historia ", 1997 ; and N. G. Wilson, Aelian: Historical Miscellany in the Loeb Classical Library.

* Some quotes from Aelian's natural history ( English )

In a letter to his cousin Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange dated December 8, 1594 William Louis set out ( from reading the Tactica by Aelianus Tacticus ) an argument around the use of ranks by soldiers of Imperial Rome as discussed in Aelian's Tactica.

In Aelian's natural history, written in the early third century CE, Nereus was also the father of a watery consort of Aphrodite named Nerites who was transformed into " a shellfish with a spiral shell, small in size but of surpassing beauty.

Aelian's work is one of the sources of medieval natural history and of the bestiaries of the Middle Ages ; in some ways an allegory of the moral world, an Emblem Book.

This shrine is described in Aelian's 3rd century AD work Varia Historia.

In the letter William Louis discusses the use of ranks by soldiers of Imperial Rome as discussed in Aelian's Tactica.

Conrad Gessner ( or Gesner ), the Swiss scientist and natural historian of the Renaissance, made a Latin translation of Aelian's work, to give it a wider European audience.

Gregory did not set out to write a chronological, historically anchored story of St. Benedict, but he did base his anecdotes on direct testimony.

Seneca's various works give mostly scattered anecdotes on Caligula's personality.

The anecdotes are literary, and late ; however, in the founding tales of the Greek colony of Gela, founded in the 680s on the southwest coast of Sicily, a tradition was preserved that the Greeks had seized cult images wrought by Daedalus from their local predecessors, the Sicani.

During World War I the dachshunds ' popularity in the United States plummeted because of this association and there are even anecdotes such as a Dachshund being stoned to death on the high street of Berkhamsted, England at this time because of its association with the enemy.

Similar anecdotes are corroborated by Groucho's friends, not one of whom went without being publicly embarrassed by Groucho on at least one occasion.

The main source for the life of Heraclitus is Diogenes Laërtius, although some have questioned the validity of his account as " a tissue of Hellenistic anecdotes, most of them obviously fabricated on the basis of statements in the preserved fragments.

Although there are anecdotes of unprovoked Komodo dragons attacking or preying on humans, most of these reports are either not reputable or caused by defensive bites.

* Cuisine of Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, with extensive notes on local history and personal anecdotes from the author.

While dealing with serious topics in what are now known as anthropology, sociology and psychology, he introduced a satirical approach, " based on the premise that, however serious the subject under review, it could be made more interesting and thus achieve greater effect, if only one leavened the lump of solemnity by the insertion of a few amusing anecdotes or by the throwing out of some witty or paradoxical observations.

This section features letters both written by the editors and sent in by readers often with ridiculous names, usually in the form of obviously fictitious anecdotes ( one reader claimed that by defecating on the high seas, he was able to expel a single unbroken " monster " turd ; however, nobody wanted to grant him research funds for further attempts ) or various observations, such as the " children say the funniest things " type ( one issue featured numerous variations of a reader's young son making a reference to masturbation during bathtime, such as " playing with pork sword "; in this case, when the reader entered the bathroom, she discovered her son had indeed fashioned a sword out of pork sausages ).

The book, which is primarily based on her life during her years as a child star on The Little House On The Prairie, contains behind the scenes-stories and anecdotes about the show itself, its stars, guest stars and crew members.

He appeared on Michael Parkinson's chat show on eight occasions, during which he told anecdotes from his career.

Many colorful anecdotes related by Pergolesi's early biographer, Florimo, were later revealed as fabrication, though they furnished material for two nineteenth-century operas broadly based on Pergolesi's career.

An article published on their tenth anniversary provides some anecdotes on the founding of the magazine.

Similarly, historical accounts of Hals ' propensity for drink have been largely based on embellished anecdotes of his early biographers, namely Arnold Houbraken, with no direct evidence existing documenting such.

* Two moral anecdotes from the Progymnasmata: ( in English ) on the harshness of classical Roman education and an encomium of Thersites

Although lurid anecdotes of attacks on humans abound, very few cases have been verified, and some alleged traits of the fish have been discredited as myth or superstition.

Other anecdotes involve Lang's insistence on using real fire for the climatic scene where the false Maria is burnt at the stake ( which resulted in Helm's dress catching fire ), and his ordering extras to throw themselves towards powerful jets of water when filming the flooding of the worker's city.

The main impression that historians once retained from the Historia focused on the violent anecdotes that Gregory relates.

Although academically weak, Crane's experience at Claverack gave some much-needed background ( and presumably provided some anecdotes from the Civil War veterans on the staff ) that would prove useful when he came to write The Red Badge of Courage.

He would also mention snippets of his own life, including his military career and the time he spent in Alaska, family anecdotes, and his affection for small animals, which he raised and set free.

The al-Hayawan is an encyclopedia of seven volume of anecdotes, poetic descriptions and proverbs describing over 350 varieties of animals.

They offer anecdotes, examples and metaphors, and they rarely depend on colorless generalizations or abstract ideas.

Metaphor, anecdotes, humour, imagination rarely trouble his style ; he prefers the long pedantic plod through Aristotle and Plato, St Paul, Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Pascal, Kant, Hegel, Husserl and Heidegger ”

The book is unique in that it shares personal anecdotes of recovering addicts instead of making direct recommendations.

Grayson was one of the first television comedians to suggest an openly gay persona and many of his catchphrases, gestures and anecdotes were certainly suggestive, although he never publicly discussed or made direct reference to his sexuality, and was never known to have a partner.