Aelian or Aelianus may refer to:

• Aelianus Tacticus, 2nd-century Greek military writer in Rome
• Casperius Aelianus (13–98 AD), Praetorian Prefect, executed by Trajan
• Claudius Aelianus, Roman writer of De Natura Animalium, teacher and historian of the 3rd century, who wrote in Greek
• Lucius Aelianus or Laelian (died 269), one of the thirty tyrants under the Roman empire
• Aelianus Meccius, 2nd-century Greek physician, tutor of Galen
• Tiberius Plautius Silvanus Aelianus, adopted nephew of Plautia Urgulanilla, first wife of Claudius; consul 45 and 74 AD
• Aelian (rebel) (fl. 285), leader of the Bagaudae peasant rebels
• Aelianus (comes), leader of the Roman defensive forces at the Siege of Amida in 359