Antonio, Diotro
was educated together with Agrippa, and their mutual friendship proved to be a permanent one.
Bibliography: The accounts of Josephus in his. Ant., and B. J. are perhaps taken from the lost works of Claudius Rufus (Momsen, in Hermes, iv. 322.
S. Kr.
ANTONIA, PRINCESS OF WÜRTEMBERG: A Christian Hebraist and cabalistic scholar, born in the first half of the seventeenth century; died 1679. One of the effects of the Reformation in Germany was an increased interest in the Hebrew langnage among Christian scholars, and royal and noble families included it sometimes even in the curriculum of their daughters' education. In the seventeenth century many German women attained to quite a considerable knowledge of Hebrew. One of the best known of them was Antonia, the daughter of Duke Eberhard III. of Würtemberg (1629-74). She acquired a remarkable mastery of Hebrew, and, according to contemporary evidence, was well versed in rabbinic and cabalistic lore. Esenwein, dean of Urach and professor at Tübingen, wrote as early as July. 16-19, to John Buxtorf at Basel that Antonia, "having been well grounded in the Hebrew language and in reading the Hebrew Bible, desires to learn also the art of reading without vowels," and three years later he wrote to Buxtorf that she had made such progress that she had "with her own hand put vowels to the greatest part of a Hebrew Bible." Philipp Jacoh Spener, another pupil of Buxtorf, during his temporary stay at Heidelberg, was on friendly terms with the princess, and they studied Cabala together. Buxtorf himself presemid her with a copy of each of his looks. There is a Manuscript extant in the Royal Library of Stuttgart, entitled Unterschiedlicher Riss zu Sephiroth," which is supposed to have been written by Autonia. It contains cabalistic diagrams, some of which are interpreted in Hebrew and German. Her praise was sung by many a Christian Hebraist, and one poem (in twenty-four stanzas with her acrostic) in honor of the celebrated Princess Antonia" has been preserved in the collection of manuscripts of John Buxtorf.
Bibliography: Steinschneider, Hebr. Bibl., xx. 67, 69; Kayserling, Jew. Quart. Rev. 1897, ix. 509 et seq.
M. B.
ANTONINUS IN THE TALMUD: A Roman
emperor, and the hero of Jewish legends that recount
wonderful things about his attitude toward Jews.
and Judaism, and more particularly concerning his
friendship with Rabbi, He is called "the son of
(
Hebrew characters)"(Severns) by the Babylonian Talmud, but
which Roman emperor is actually meant by this
name can hardly be determined. He has in turn been
identified with Marcus Aurelius (Rapoport and Bodek), Septimius Severus (Graetz, who identifies
Rabbi with Judah ha-Nasi II.), Caracalla (Jost and
N. Krochmal), Elagabalus (Cassel), and Lucius Verus (Frankel). The account in the Talmul is legendary, not historical, and no heed is given to details,
or difficulties of a chronological or psychological
nature. The traditional religions discussions between Hadrian and Joshua ben Hamaniah, between
Akiba and Tiunius Rufus, between Shabir I, and
Samnet Ỵarimai, as well as the legendary interviews
between Alexander the Great and the high priest
Simon, or between Ptolemy and the priest Eleazar,
may serve as parallels to the various Antonine legends. Jewish folk-lore loved to personify the relations of Judaisim with heathendom in the guise of
conversations between Jewish sages and heathen
potentates.
The legend of Antoninus begins with his earliest youth. The mother of Rabbi exchanged her son soon after his birth for Antoninus—the child of an intimate acquaintance. In this way she and her child managed to escape the officers of Hadrian, who were persecuting the woman because she had her son circumcised. As a consequence Antoninus imbibed with his milk a love for Jews and Judaism (Tos. 'Ab, Zarah, 10b); and it was Rabbi, the son of this vicarious mother, who served as the guide and friend of Antoninus; succeeding finally in getting him to embrace Judaism (Yer. Meg. i. 72b; B. 1. vi. 120, 130, 131)
However, Antoninus, the "king." did not positively accept Judaism in its entirety until he had, with the help of his Jewish friend, thoroughly investigated its fundamental principles. Thus he challenged the Jewish conception of punishment after death by alleging that it was very easy for both body and soul to exculpate themselves. The Antonius and Rabbi. body could say, "It is the soul that Antoninus transgresses, for just as soon as it and leaves me I am inert as a stone." The aoul on its part could reply. "The fault is in the body, for since I have separated from it I hover like a bird in the air" (Sanh. 91a' et seq.; a shorter form, Mek. Beshallah, Shirah ii.). Rabbi's answer explained the right relationship between body and soul by the parable of the blind man and the lame one ("Monatsschrift." 1873, p. 7). Rabbi also instructed Antoninus concerning the resurrection, which would take place quite differently from the usual belief which included even the intact condition of the grave-clothes (Yer. Kil. ix. 32b, Yer. Ket. xii. 35a, where the ime appears as Antolinus). Antoninus punts ques tions to Rabbi concerning the cosmos—as, for instance, what meaning there is in the sun's setting in the west (Sunl, 91b)—as well as questions conerring Judaism proper.
In like manner Antoninus could not see why the Jewish law appointed certain hours for prayer, since the latter should he offered at any time that the impulse to devotion was felt (Tan. d. Buber i. 196); Rabbi accordingly showed him by an apt illustration. But sometimes, on the other hand, it was Antoninus who instructed Rabbi, making, for instance, the statement that while the unborn child receives its vital principle at conception, the germ of mentality and its concomitant, evil inclination, are received at Birth only (Sauh. l.c.).
Legend has many details concerning the personal relations between the two. There were sumptuous banquets given in honor of each other, of which the menus have been preserved (Gen, R. xi. 4. Esther R. 1. 3). The emperor would take counsel of his friend prior to any warlike enterprise, as, for instance, concerning his intended campaign against Alexandria (this is told regardless of the absurdity of a war at that period between Rome and Egypt). He is said to live undertaken this Initmacy of Antoninus and Rabbi expedition relying upon Rabbi's assurance, based upon Ezek. xxix, 15, that he had nothing to fear from the Egypians (Mek., Beshallah, Shirl). It appears that, owing to political circumstances, the exchange of views between these friends was attended with positive danger, although it was arranged that there should be no third person present when Antoninus visited Rabbi, and that upon each occasion the emperor should slay with his own land the two servants that knew of the conference (Al. Zarah, 1b). The friends were also compelled to have recourse to a species of sign language. Thus the emperors emissary brought Rabbi the question as to what he should
