Claudius Aelianus, a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric, was born around 170 at Praeneste, near Rome. Aelian was an admirer and student of the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates, Plutarch, Homer, and others, and his own works preserve many excerpts from earlier writers. Aelian is chiefly remembered for his On the Nature of Animals, curious stories of birds and other animals, often in the form of a moral anecdote or fable. This work set a pattern that continued in bestiaries and medical treatises for a thousand years. His Various History relates anecdotes of men, customs and miraculous events. Fragments of other works survive. He died around 235.