A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Ἀντίπατρος), of HIERAPOLIS, a Greek sophist and rhetorician of the time of the emperor Severus. He was a son of Zeuxidemus, and a papil of Adrianus, Pollux, and Zeno. In his orations both extempore and written, some of which are mentioned by Philostratus, Antipater was not superior to his contemporaries, but in the art of writing letters he is said to have excelled all others, and for this reason the emperor Severus made him his private secretary. The emperor had such a high opinion of him, that he raised him to the consular dignity, and afterwards made him praefect of Bithynia. But as Antipater used his sword too freely, he was deprived of his office, and retired to his native place, where he died at the age of 68, it is said of voluntary starvation. Philostratus says, that he wrote a history of the life and exploits of the emperor Severus, but not a fragment of it is extant. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. 2.24, 25.4, 26.3; Galen, De Theriac. ad Pison. ii. p. 458; Eudoc. p. 57.)

[L.S]