HERODES ATTICUS

(the name in full is Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes). A celebrated Greek rhetorician, born about A.D. 101, at Marathon. He belonged to a very ancient family, and received a careful education in rhetoric and philosophy from the leading teachers of his day. His talents and his eloquence won him the favour of the emperor Hadrian, who, in A.D. 125, appointed him prefect over the free towns of the Province of Asia. On his return to Athens, about 129, he attained a most exalted position, not only as a teacher of oratory, but also as the owner of immense wealth, which he had inherited from his father. This he most liberally devoted to the support of his fellow citizens, and to the erection of splendid public buildings in various parts of Greece. He had just been archon, when in 140 he was summoned to Rome by Antoninus Pius, to instruct the imperial princes, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, in Greek oratory. Amongst other marks of distinction given him for this was the consulship in 143. His old age was saddened by misunderstandings with his fellow citizens and heavy family calamities. He died at Marathon in 177. His pre-eminence as an orator was universally acknowledged by his contemporaries; he was called the king of orators, and was placed on a level with the great masters of antiquity. His reputation is hardly borne out by an unimportant rhetorical exercise (On the Constitution) calling on the Thebans to join the Peloponnesians against Archelaus, king of Macedonia. This has come down to us under his name, but its genuineness is not free from doubt. Numerous inscriptions still remain to attest his ancient renown; and out of the number of his public buildings, there is still standing at Athens the Odeum, a theatre erected in memory of his wife Regilla.