Historian Cassius Dio states that not long after the Bar Kokhba revolt in Judea had been quelled, in 135 AD, King Pharasmanes II of Iberia caused the Alani to invade neighbouring territories, including Cappadocia, where their advance was robustly halted by Arrian's legions.

[14][34] According to George Long, Arrian noted from Epictetus' lectures for his private use and some time later made of these, the Discourses.

[7][15][28][38][35] JB Stockdale considered that Arrian wrote eight books of which four were lost by the Middle Ages[clarification needed] and the remaining ones became the Discourses.

[14][39][40] Friendly conversations with Epictetus (Homiliai Epiktetou) is a 12 book work mentioned by Photius in his Bibliotheca, of which only fragments remain.

A lost work of seventeen books, fragments of Parthica were maintained by the Suda and Stephanus of Byzantium.

[51][52] Indica is a work on a variety of things pertaining to India, and the voyage of Nearchus in the Persian Gulf.

[63][64] This work has generally been considered in large part a panegyric to Hadrian, written for the occasion of his vīcennālia, although some scholars have argued that its second half may have had practical use.

[65][66] Cynegeticus (Κυνηγετικός),[67] translated as A treatise on hunting with hounds, On Hunting, or On Coursing,[68][35] is a work about the Celtic sport of coursing hare with sighthounds, specifically the Celtic greyhounds: in Greek (plural) ouertragoi, in Latin (plural) vertragi.

[69][70][71][72][73][74][75] The work was inspired by and designed as an addition to an earlier exposition made by Xenophon, whom Arrian recognised to be the Ancient Greek authority on the subject of hunting with scent hounds.

[76][77] Ektaxis kata Alanon (Ἔκταξις κατὰ Ἀλανῶν) is a work of a now fragmentary nature; the title is translated as Deployment against the Alani or The order of battle against the Alans or referred to simply as Alanica.

[78][79][80][54][81][82][83][84] Within the work, Arrian explicitly identified the particular means of pursuing warfare as being based on Greek methods.

A fragment describing a plan of battle against the Alani was found in Milan around the 17th century which was thought at that time to belong to the History.

[88] There were also a number of monographs or biographies, including of Dion of Syracuse, Timoleon of Corinth, and Tilliborus, a brigand or robber of Asia Minor, which are now lost.

Simplicius made a copy of the Enchiridion, which was transmitted under the name of the monastic father Nilus during the 5th century, and as a result found in every monastery library.

[97] The voyage of Nearchus and Periplus of the Erythrean Sea were translated from the Greek by the then Dean of Westminster, William Vincent, and published in 1809.