APOLLINARE, bishop of GERAPOLI. – Presiding over the see of Gerapoli in the second half of the 2nd century, he was an authoritative opponent of emerging Montanism.
A., whose name was Claudio Apollinare or Apollinario, flourished in the time of Marcus Aurelius (161–80), to whom he also addressed an apology on behalf of the Christians; he also wrote five books To the Greeks, that is, against the pagans, two On the Truth and two Against the Jews, as well as others against the Montanists, and a treatise On the True Religion and one On Easter. None of this survives, since there is no reason to attribute to him the Cohortatio ad Graecos (PG 6, 241–312), nor can the fragments of an anti-Montanist work cited by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., V, 16–19) be his.