Asterius Urbanus

Asterius Urbanus is named once in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History (5.16–17), in the context of anti-Montanist polemic from late-second-century Asia Minor. The patristic and modern scholarly consensus identifies him as a Montanist writer whose pro-Montanist work — probably a compilation of the oracles of Montanus, Priscilla, and Maximilla — was quoted and refuted by the anonymous author of an anti-Montanist treatise addressed to Avircius Marcellus of Hieropolis in Phrygia. An older minority view held that the phrase "according to Asterius Urbanus" was a misplaced marginal annotation identifying him as the author of the anti-Montanist treatise itself, but this interpretation is rejected by most commentators. No birthplace, death date, or further biographical information survives beyond this single reference.