His son Aelius Herodianus, who wrote on phonology, appears to have moved to Rome at the time of Marcus Aurelius.

His monicker ho dúskolos signifying "the difficult" or "crabby/grouchy" may reflect the sour temper of someone reduced to eking out a living in extreme indigence.

[1] Various interpretations have been advanced arguing the nickname was expressive of his highly compressed, difficult style, or as illustrating his cantankerously disputatious manner, or as alluding to his habit of citing arcane words in contests with other grammarians, in order to perplex them.

[1] He was the founder of scientific syntax, and is styled by Priscian maximus auctor artis grammaticae ('the greatest authority on the science of grammar'),[3][4] and grammaticorum princeps ('prince of grammarians').

Of the twenty books named in the Suda,[6] four are extant: on syntax,[7] and three smaller treatises: on adverbs,[8] on conjunctions,[9] and on pronouns.