Publius Aelius Aelianus

Who is Publius Aelius Aelianus?

Aelianus was a senior officer in the Roman Army and an equestrian official in the mid-Third Century AD who rose from relatively lowly origins to become the prefect of a legion under the Emperor Gallienus. He was one of the earliest beneficiaries of Gallienus’s policy that effectively excluded senators from army commands in favour of career-soldiers of equestrian rank. His later life is obscure.

He was possibly procurator of Epirus in the late-260s, but the foremost authorities query this identification. However, there are stronger grounds for believing that he was appointed a praeses in Africa, most likely under the Emperor Probus.