ANTONIO of TAGRIT. — Jacobite theologian, known by the title of the Orator, because in 825 he wrote a treatise on rhetoric, which in Syriac literature of all ages is unique of its kind. A. was the first to use rhyme in Syriac poetry, following the example of the Arab poets. He also wrote a treatise on the Sacrament of Myron, that is, of Chrism, and other works.
BIBL.: Bar Hebraeus, Chron. etc., ed. I. B. Abbeloos and T. Lamy, I, Louvain 1872, 363, cited by Assemani, in Bibl. Orient., II, Rome 1821, p. 345; R. Duval, La littérature syriaque, Paris, 1907, pp. 300, 389-90 and 18, n. 2; id., T. Nöldeke zum siebzigsten Geburtstag, in Orientalistische Studien, I, Leipzig 1917, pp. 479-86. Pietro Sfari