ANTERUS (ANTEROTE), POPE, saint. — His pontificate was very brief: from the end of November 235 to 3 January 236. He succeeded Pontian, who, exiled to Sardinia by the emperor Maximinus, resigned in September 235. It is not certain that A. died a martyr for the faith. The *Liber Pontificalis* (ed. Duchesne, I, p. 147) presents him as a martyr, linking his death with that of a certain priest Maximus, who is said to have been martyred as well. However, it must be noted that the text of the *Liber Pontificalis* is in a very corrupt state in the various manuscripts, so that its reconstruction remains doubtful.
The name of A. does not appear in the *Depositio Martyrum*, and the Liberian Catalogue of Popes, in speaking of his death, uses the term *dormit*, regularly employed for those popes who did not give their lives for the faith. A. was buried in the cemetery of St. Callistus, in the papal crypt. He was the first to be interred there, since only later was the body of his predecessor Pontian brought from Sardinia to Rome. The slab that closed his tomb, set into one of the walls of the crypt, was discovered by De Rossi. It bears the inscription: *ANTEPOZ* (EII) (σχοντος). The decretal attributed to him, allowing bishops to transfer from one see to another, is spurious. Also without value is the notice in the *Liber Pontificalis* that “hic gesta martyrum diligenter a notariis exquisivit et in ecclesia recondit.” He is venerated in the Latin Church as a martyr on 3 January.