Herodes Atticus

Herodes Atticus bust, from his villa at Kephissia. mid-2nd century

Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, otherwise known as Herodes Atticus (Ἡρῴδης ὁ Ἀττικός, 101-177 was a very distinguished, rich Greek aristocrat who served as a Roman Senator and a sophist. He is notable as a proponent in the Second Sophistic by Philostratus.

Ancestry and Family

Herodes Atticus was a Greek of Athenian descent. His ancestry can be traceable to the Athenian noble woman Elpinice (a half sister of statesman Cimon and daughter of politician Miltiades the Younger). He claimed his lineage from the Athenian King Theseus; the Athenian Monarch named Cecrops; King Aeacus and the God Zeus. He had an ancestor four generations removed from him called Polycharmus. Polycharmus from 9/8 BC-22/23, could have served as an Archon of Athens. His family bore the Roman family name, Claudius. There is a possibility that a paternal ancestor of his, received Roman citizenship, from an unknown member of the Claudian gens.

Herodes Atticus was born to a distinguished and very rich family of consular rank He was born to a Roman Senator, Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes and the wealthy heiress Vibullia Alcia Agrippina. Herodes Atticus had a brother named Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodianus and a sister named Claudia Tisamenis. His maternal grandparents were Claudia Alcia and Lucius Vibullius Rufus, while his paternal grandfather was Hipparchus and his unnamed wife.

His parents were related as uncle and niece. His maternal grandmother with his father were sister and brother. His maternal uncle Lucius Vibullius Hipparchus was an Archon of Athens in the years 99-100 and his maternal cousin, Publius Aelius Vibullius Rufus was an Archon of Athens between 143-144.

Life

Herodes Atticus was born in Marathon, Greece. In his childhood years, he spent between Greece and Italy. According to Juvenal Satire III, he received an education in rhetoric and philosophy. Herodes Atticus was educated by many of the best teachers from the Greek culture and Roman culture.[9] Throughout his life, Herodes Atticus remained entirely Greek in his cultural outlook.

Roman Emperor Hadrian in 125 appointed him as Prefect of the free cities in the Roman province of Asia. He then later returned to Athens, where he became famous as a teacher. In the year 140, Herodes Atticus was elected and served as an Archon of Athens. Later in 140, the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, invited him to Rome from Athens to educate his two adopted sons, who were future Roman Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. Sometime after Herodes Atticus came to Rome from Athens, he was betrothed to an aristocratic wealthy woman called Aspasia Annia Regilla, who was a relative to the wife of Antoninus Pius, Roman Empress Faustina the Elder. When Regilla and Herodes Atticus married, Regilla was 14 years old and Herodes Atticus was 40 years old. As Herodes Atticus was in favor with the Emperor, as a mark of his friendship with the Emperor, Antoninus Pius appointed him as a consul in 143.

Herodes Atticus and Regilla controlled a large area of land around the Third Mile of the Appian Way outside of Rome, which was known as the "Triopio" (from Triopas, King of Thessaly). For his remaining years he travelled between Greece and Italy.

Sometime after his consulship, he returned to Greece with his wife and their children. Bust of Polydeukes - Altes Museum, Berlin

Herodes Atticus was the teacher of three notable students who were Achilles, Memnon and Polydeuces (Polydeukes). "The aged Herodes Atticus in a public paroxysm of despair at the death of his maybe eromenos, Polydeukes, commissioned games, inscriptions and sculptures on a lavish scale and then died, inconsolable, shortly afterwards."

Herodes Atticus had a distinguished reputation for his literary work. Most of his works are now lost.

Herodes Atticus was a philanthropist and a patron of public works. He funded a number of building projects which were:

   A Stadium - Athens

   Odeon - Athens

   A theater at Corinth

   A stadium at Delphi

   The baths at Thermopylae

   An aqueduct at Canusium in Italy

   An aqueduct at Alexandria Troas

   A nymphaeum (a monumental fountain) with his wife at Olympia

   Various benefactions to the peoples of Thessaly, Epirus Euboea, Boeotia and Peloponnesus

Throughout his life, Herodes Atticus had a stormy relationship with the citizens of Athens, and before he died, made a reconciliation with them.[9] When he died, the citizens of Athens gave Herodes Atticus an honorary burial. His funeral had taken place in the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, in which he commissioned to build. Children

Regilla bore Herodes Atticus six children, of whom three survived to adulthood. Their children were:

   Son, Claudius – born and died in 141

   Daughter, Elpinice – born as Appia Annia Claudia Atilia Regilla Elpinice Agrippina Atria Polla, 142-165

   Daughter, Athenais – born as Marcia Annia Claudia Alcia Athenais Gavidia Latiaria, 143-161

   Son, Atticus Bradua – born as Tiberius Claudius Marcus Appius Atilius Bradua Regillus Atticus, born 145

   Son, Regillus – born as Tiberius Claudius Herodes Lucius Vibullius Regillus, 150-155

   Unnamed child who died with Regilla or died even perhaps three months later in 160

After Regilla died in 160, Herodes Atticus never married again. When he died in 177, his son Atticus Bradua and his grandchildren survived him. Sometime after his wife’s death, he adopted his cousin’s first grandson Lucius Vibullius Claudius Herodes as his son.

Legacy

Herodes Atticus and Regilla from the 2nd century until present are considered great benefactors in Greece, in particular in Athens. The couple is commemorated in Herodou Attikou Street and Rēgíllēs Street and Square, in downtown Athens. In Rome, their names are also recorded on modern streets, in the Quarto Miglio suburb close to the area of the Triopio.

References

   ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pomeroy, The murder of Regilla: a case of domestic violence in antiquity

   ^ Day, J., An economic history of Athens under Roman domination p. 238

   ^ Wilson, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece p.p. 349-350

   ^ a b Wilson, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece p. 349

   ^ a b c d e f Graindor, P., Un milliardaire antique p. 29

   ^ a b Day, J., An economic history of Athens under Roman domination p. 243

   ^ a b Sleepinbuff.com

   ^ Article, Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes, Microsoft Encyclopedia 2002

   ^ a b c d e Wilson, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece p. 350

   ^ Pomeroy, The murder of Regilla: a case of domestic violence in antiquity p. 14

   ^ http://aediculaantinoi.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/polydeukion/

   ^ Lambert, Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous, p. 143.

   ^ Graindor, Un milliardaire antique p. 29

Bibliography

Primary Sources

   Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists, 2.1 (paragraphs 545-566)

   Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights

Secondary material

   Gibbon: A History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

   Day, J, An economic history of Athens under Roman domination, Ayers Company Publishers, 1973

   Graindor, P, Un milliardaire antique, Ayers Company Publishers, 1979

   Lambert, R, Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous, Viking, 1984.

   Papalas, A. J, Herodes Atticus: An essay on education in the Antonine age, History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Summer, 1981), pp. 171–188.

   Tobin, Jennifer, Herodes Attikos and the City of Athens: Patronage and Conflict Under the Antonines, J. C. Gieben, 1997.

   Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2002

   Potter, David Stone, The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 18–395, Routledge, 2004. ISBN 978-0-415-10058-8

   Wilson, N.G, Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece, Routledge 2006

   Pomeroy, S.B, The murder of Regilla: a case of domestic violence in antiquity, Harvard University Press, 2007