Rabbi Meir () was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishnah. He was one of the Tannaim of the fourth generation (139-163). He is the third most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah and is mentioned over 3,000 times in the Babylonian Talmud. His wife Bruriah is one of the few women cited in the Gemara. Biography He was born in Asia Minor. According to the Talmud, his father was a descendant of the Roman Emperor Nero who, it is said, escaped death at the time of his deposition and became subsequently a convert to Judaism. Twenty four thousand students of Akiva died in a plague. He found five new students, including Meir and Rabbis Judah ben Ilai, Eleazar ben Shammua, Jose ben Halafta, and Shimon bar Yochai. Meir entered the school of Rabbi Akiva, then went to the school of Rabbi Ishmael. He then returned to Akiva, who, recognizing his dialectical powers, ordained him over the heads of his other disciples. This ordination, which was considered invalid on account of Meir's youth, was confirmed by Judah ben Baba. Unlike Akiva, Meir seems to have kept aloof from the revolutionary movement of Bar Kokhba. Nevertheless, he suffered greatly from its consequences. His father-in-law, Hananiah ben Teradion, was killed in the Hadrianic persecutions, and his sister-in-law was taken to Rome and sold to a brothel. During the Hadrianic persecutions Meir lived abroad, but he returned to Judea after the repeal of the oppressive edicts, and took part in the reestablishment of the Sanhedrin in the city of Usha. Shortly afterward Simeon ben Gamaliel II was elected patriarch, and Meir became a hakham, in which office he was charged with the duty of preparing the subjects to be discussed in the Sanhedrin. In the later part of Meir's life in one day he lost two sons, who died suddenly on a Sabbath while he was at the house of study. Shortly after the death of his sons his wife died. According to a legend, she committed suicide after having been dishonored by one of her husband's pupils. The last years of Meir's life were passed in Asia Minor. He was induced to leave Judea because of the conflict that arose between him and the patriarch over the change introduced by Simeon in the ceremonial of the Sanhedrin. Custom required its members to rise when the president, the judge,