ANTONIO of TAGRIT. — A Jacobite theologian, known by the title of Rhetor, because in 825 he wrote a treatise on rhetoric, which is unique of its kind in Syriac literature of all periods. 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 the Miron, that is, of Chrism, and other works.
BIBL.: Bar Ehree, Chron. eccl., ed. I. B. Abbelos 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. Nöldehe zum siebzierten Geburtstag, in Orientalistische Studien, I, Leipzig 1917, pp. 479–86. Pietro Sfair