Asclepiodotus

Flavius Asclepiodotus or Asclepiades (Greek: Ασκληπιόδοτος; fl. 423–425) was a politician of the Eastern Roman Empire

Asclepiodotus was the brother-in-law of the sophist Leontius, and thus the uncle of Athenais, who in 421 married the Emperor Theodosius II taking the name of Aelia Eudocia. Eudocia favoured her family, exercising her influence over her husband to advance Asclepiodotus' career.

In 422, Asclepiodotus was comes sacrarum largitionum, while between 14 February 423 (the year in which Eudocia was appointed Augusta) to 1 February 425 he was Praetorian prefect of the East, and Consul in 423.

Evagrius Scholasticus reports an instance in which, after a wave of anti-Jewish violence in Antioch, Asclepiodotus issued a decree that any property stolen from Jews should be returned to them, and any synagogues seized and converted to churches should be restored. When Simeon Stylites heard of this, he wrote a letter to Emperor Theodosius which is recorded in the Syriac Life of Simeon:

Simeon's charge against Asclepiodotus was no doubt reinforced by the fact that his family was pagan, although Athenais had to convert to Christianity before marriage. When Theodosius received it, he revoked the edict, fired Asclepiodotus and sent a humble reply to Simeon. Theodoret, who wrote a biography of Simeon, does not explicitly mention this incident, although he praises Simeon for "defeating the insolence of the Jews". Theodor Nöldeke doubted its historicity.