Aelianus (comes)

Count Aelianus (Greek: Κόμης Αιλιανός; Latin: Aelianus Comes) (died 359 AD) was the chief Roman officer in charge of the defense of Amida during the siege of 359 by Shah Shapur II.[1]

Very little is known about his life, except that he was noted by Ammianus Marcellinus as having led new recruits into an attack on the Sassanids who were laying siege to the Roman city of Singara.[2] After the capture and sack of Amida, he was gibbeted by the victorious Sassanians along with his tribunes.[3]

He was mentioned in the earlier books of Ammianus Marcellinus (books 1-13), but these are lost.[4]

References

  1. Thompson, E.A. (1947). The historical work of Ammianus Marcellinus. Cambridge University Press. p. 9. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
  2. Ammianus Marcellinus (1982). Res Gestae. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 18.9.3.
  3. Ammianus Marcellinus (1982). Res Gestae. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 19.9.2.
  4. Matthews, John F. (1988). The Roman Empire of Ammianus. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. p. 6.
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