For the grammarian, see Aelius Herodianus.

Herodian or Herodianus of Syria (c. 170-240) was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful Roman History in eight books for the years 180 to 238. His work is not entirely reliable, although his relatively unbiased account of Elagabalus is more useful than that of Dio Cassius.

Herodian's life is almost unknown to us, but we can reconstruct several elements of it from his History of the Roman Empire since Marcus Aurelius, which is a lively and accessible book that might also have been titled Crises in Rome, as it describes the Year of Five Emperors (193) and the Year of Six Emperors (238).

As his History of the Roman Empire was published after 240, he can not have been born much earlier than 180. Perhaps, his native city was Alexandria or Antiochia, and he seems to write for an eastern audience, explaining Roman customs and informing his readers that "in our part of the world" there are no mountains comparable to the Alps.

Herodian must have served the Roman government as a public servant in the capital, but his function was not extremely important, because Herodian nowhere shows deep understanding of politics or military strategy. His introduction suggests that he was an apparitor (the assistant of a a prefect or a procurator) during the reign of the emperor Maximinus (235-238), which in turn suggests that he was probably a freedman, or perhaps a Roman knight. This point must not be overstressed, but is more or less corroborated by the fact that Herodian does not share the conservative world view of a senator. He seems not to have traveled very much, although his description of the frozen Rhine may betray autopsy. Anyhow, and most importantly, he knew how to tell a good story, which is the first quality of a good historian.

The History of the Roman Empire since Marcus Aurelius is an excellent story. Roman history had never been so chaotic, fascinating, and abnormal. Herodian describes the reign of seventeen emperors: only one of them died a natural death, one of them was a very old man, another was a boy of thirteen, one of them a priest of the Syrian sun god. Civil wars, foreign enemies, plagues, fire, and earthquakes complete the colorful picture. Unfortunately, Herodian is, as a historian, not the equal of his older contemporaries Arrian of Nicomedia, Appian of Alexandria, and Cassius Dio. They understood how they had to check and select older sources; Herodian nowhere betrays understanding of the historical method. He simply wrote down what he had seen during his years as a civil servant in Rome. His descriptions of events in the capital of the Mediterranean world are far better than his accounts of foreign wars and foreign nations, which is usually second-hand.

Modern historians have long regarded his information as unreliable, and indeed, he is not as good as Cassius Dio, who has covered more or less the same subject matter. However, this criticism is not entirely fair. Herodian's lack of literary and scholarly pretensions makes him less biased than the senatorial historians. (In fact, he is -with Velleius Paterculus- one of the few non-senatorial historians of the first half of the history of the Roman empire; this in itself makes him a very important writer.) His description of the cultic reforms and religious innovations by the emperor Heliogabalus, who wanted to introduce the cult of the Syrian sun god Elagabal, is less hostile than that of Dio. Today, he is agreed to be an independent and more or less unbiased, although uncritical, author who offers useful information about events in Italy.

Herodian's influence is greater than one would have expected. The anonymous author of the Historia Augusta, the historians Eutropius, Aurelius Victor, and Ammianus Marcellinus all used the History of the Roman Empire. Byzantine scholars have recommended Herodian's style, which is indeed clear and fluent. Modern literature: Herodian is almost ignored by modern scholars. The only recent edition, with an excellent introduction but slightly disappointing commentaries, is F.L. Müller, Herodian. Geschichte des Kaisertums nach Marc Aurel: Griechisch und Deutsch (1996 Stuttgart).