[5] Anterus was the son of Romulus, born in Petilia Policastro,[1] Calabria, Italy.

[7] He succeeded Pope Pontian, who had been deported from Rome to Sardinia, along with the antipope Hippolytus.

[6][9] Other scholars doubt this and believe it is more likely that he died in undramatic circumstances during the persecutions of Emperor Maximinus the Thracian.

[7] He was buried in the papal crypt of the Catacomb of Callixtus, on the Appian Way[6] in Rome.

The site of his sepulchre was discovered by Giovanni Battista de Rossi in 1854, with some broken remnants of the Greek epitaph engraved on the narrow oblong slab that closed his tomb;[9] only the Greek term for bishop was legible.