Hadrian of Tyre was a Greek orator and teacher of rhetoric in the 2nd century CE, during the Roman Empire. He was a leading figure of the Second Sophistic, a movement that revived and celebrated classical Greek oratory. Originally from Tyre in the eastern Mediterranean, he studied under the famous sophist Herodes Atticus, which connected him to the highest levels of imperial intellectual life.

His career followed a path of exceptional prestige. He first taught in Athens, where he succeeded his own teacher in the prestigious public chair of rhetoric. His reputation later earned him an even more distinguished appointment: a publicly funded professorship of rhetoric in Rome itself, reportedly established by Emperor Marcus Aurelius. According to historical accounts, he also later served the emperor Commodus as a secretary for Greek correspondence. He died in Rome and was granted a public funeral.

None of Hadrian’s own speeches or writings survive today. He is known entirely from biographical sources, such as Philostratus’s Lives of the Sophists, and imperial histories. Modern scholars see his life as a key example of how Greek intellectual culture was integrated into the Roman imperial system. His successful career—moving from Athens to Rome and holding official, salaried posts—demonstrates the high status that elite Greek educators could achieve and the empire’s active patronage of Greek learning as a marker of sophistication and power.