Aelius Antipater or Antipater of Hierapolis (Greek: Αἴλιος Ἀντίπατρος; fl. AD 200) was a Greek sophist and rhetorician. He was a son of Zeuxidemus, and a pupil 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 and tutor (ab epistulis) of his two sons Caracalla and Geta. He was promoted to the consular rank in his early 50s by Septimius Severus, who sent him to govern Bithynia and Pontus. Yet, since Antipater used his sword too freely, he was deprived of his office. As Philostratus reports, Antipater then retired to his native pl