Herodes Atticus paid out his father's legacy to Athens by deducting debts, gave his son only his mother's property, and the Athenians took his body from Marathon

Philostratus says Herodes's grandfather Hipparchus lost his estate on a charge of aiming at tyranny. Herodes's father Atticus found a great hoard in a house he owned near the theatre in Athens. He asked the emperor Nerva what to do, and Nerva told him to use it. Atticus's will left every Athenian citizen one mina a year. Herodes offered to settle the bequest at five minae each. When the citizens came to the banks, they were read contracts showing debts their fathers and grandfathers owed Herodes's family. Some got small sums, some nothing, and some were held as debtors. Philostratus says the Athenians never stopped hating him. His wife Regilla died in premature labour after a blow to the belly. Her brother charged that Herodes had ordered his freedman Alcimedon to beat her for a small fault, and prosecuted him for murder. The charge failed. Herodes built a music hall in Athens in her memory, which Pausanias calls unrivalled in size. Herodes thought his son Atticus foolish and slow. His will gave the son his mother's estate and "transferred his own patrimony to other heirs." He died at about 76 at Marathon, where he had told his freedmen to bury him. The Athenians carried his body into the city and buried him in the Panathenaic stadium. The epitaph read that all that remained of Herodes lay there, "but his glory is world-wide." The Odeon of Herodes Atticus stands below the Acropolis.