Herodes Atticus

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Bust of Herodes Atticus, from his villa in Kephissia. Middle of the 2nd century
Villa of Herodes Atticus with Eva Dolianon.
The Odeon of Herodes Atticus donated by Herodes Atticus

Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes , Herodes Atticus for short (* 101 ; † around 177 in Marathon ) was a Greco-Roman speaker, politician and patron .

Life

Herodes Atticus was trained in Athens and held numerous offices there, just as in the Roman Empire . Under Emperor Antoninus Pius , with whom he was related by marriage, Herod became consul in 143 . He was also one of the teachers of the future emperors Mark Aurel and Lucius Verus .

Herod inherited a large fortune from his father, Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes , which supposedly came from a treasure trove. He used it for numerous foundations, especially buildings in various locations. In Athens he built the Panathenaic Stadium in marble and built the Odeion on the southern slope of the Athens Acropolis, which is named after him ( Odeon of Herodes Atticus ). In Olympia he had a water pipe and a magnificent fountain (nymphaeum) built. He built other buildings in Corinth , Delphi , Alexandreia Troas in Asia Minor and other cities.

Herod's personal life was not happy; numerous family members and friends died early, including his wife Annia Regilla and son Regillus. Her brother Appius Annius Atilius Bradua (consul 160) accused his brother-in-law of murdering the pregnant Annia Regilla. Herodes Atticus were acquitted. Herod also got into a legal dispute with the city of Athens, which was fought before Marcus Aurelius. A son of Herod was Tiberius Claudius Bradua Atticus .

Herod worked as a teacher of rhetoric in Athens; among his students were Aulus Gellius and Aelius Aristides . He took lessons from the philosopher Tauros , a Platonist who ran a private school of philosophy and whose students included Gellius. Herod was a typical representative of the "second sophistry ". The writer Philostratus presented him as such in his collection of biographies, which is the most important source for the life of Herod. Numerous inscriptions mentioning his name have been preserved.

Herod was closely associated with the beginning of the Panhellenion . He was the first Archon of the Panhellenes and Agonothet ( judge ) of the Panhellenia of the year 137.

Herod owned a villa near Marathon in Attica . Sculptures from this villa are exhibited along with other archaeological finds in a museum in Marathon. He owned another large villa in Arcadia at today's Eva Dolianon near the Moni Loukous monastery . This villa was discovered in the late 1990s and has not yet been fully explored.

Works

Of Herod's works, apart from a few poems, only one speech “On the State” (Peri politeias) has survived in fragments; their authenticity is disputed. In addition to the speeches, Philostratus also attributes letters, diaries and an anthology to him.

Appreciations

The Athenian Odos Irodou Attikou is named after him.

literature

Overview display

  • Krystyna Stebnicka: Herodes Attikos. In: Paweł Janiszewski, Krystyna Stebnicka, Elżbieta Szabat: Prosopography of Greek Rhetors and Sophists of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-871340-1 , pp. 168-170

Investigations

Web links

Commons : Herodes Atticus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sarah B. Pomeroy: The murder of Regilla. A case of domestic violence in antiquity. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-674-02583-7 .
personal data
SURNAME Herodes Atticus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, Lucius; Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, Lucius Vibullius; Claudius Atticus Herodes, Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius; Atticus Herodes, Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greco-Roman orator, politician and patron
DATE OF BIRTH 101
DATE OF DEATH at 177
Place of death marathon