The correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto with Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Lucius Verus, Antoninus Pius, and various friends Volume 1

by Marcus Cornelius Fronto

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 ...et, quod est difficillimum, in omni genere dicendi. Nam epistulae tuae, quas adsidue scripsisti, mihi satis ostendunt quid etiam in remissioribus et tullianis facere possis. 5. Pro Polemone rhetore, quem mihi tu in epistula tua proxime exhibuisti tullianum, ego in oratione, quam in senatu recitavi,3 philosophum reddidi, nisi me opinio fallit, perantiquom.4 An quid tu dicas,5 Marce, quemadmodum tibi videtur fabula Polemonis a me descripta? Plane multum mihi facetiarum contulit istic Horatius Flaccus, memorabilis poeta mihique propter Maecenatem ac Maecenatianos hortos Ambr. 55 meos non alienus. Is namque Horatius sermonum libro secundo6 fabulam istam Polemonis inseruit, si recte memini, hisce Polemon ponas insignia morbi, Fasciolas, cubital, focalia, potus ut ille Dicitur ex collo furtim carpsisse coronas, Postquam et impransi correptus voce magistri. 1 Niebuhr. Heind. for Cod. adegeram. 3 On Aug. 13, 143. 4 Cod. peraticum. 5 Buttmann would read iudicas. 'Satires, ii. 3, 254. 1 Marcus was born April 26, 121 A.d. 2 Polemo, a tipsy gallant, bursting into the lecture room of Xenocrates, was converted by what he heard to better ways, and succeeded him as head of the Academy. 3 Augustus gave the site of the cemetery on the Esquiline though the swiftness of steeds is equally well exercised whether they run and practise at a gallop or a trot, yet the more serviceable qualities must be the more frequently put into requisition. 4. For by now I do not treat you as if I thought you were twenty-two 1 years old. At an age when I had scarcely touched any of the ancient authors you, by the grace of the gods and your own merit, have made such progress in eloquence as would bring fame to greybeards, and that, too--a far from easy task--in every branch of t...

82 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012

About the author

Fronto was born a Roman citizen in about AD 100 in the Numidian capital Cirta. Educated at Rome,he soon gained such renown as an advocate and orator as to be reckoned inferior only to Cicero. He amassed a large fortune, erected magnificent buildings and purchased the famous gardens of Maecenas. Antoninus Pius, hearing of his fame, appointed him tutor to his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.

In 142 he was consul for two months (August and September), but declined the proconsulship of Asia on the grounds of ill-health.
His latter years were embittered by the loss of all his children except one daughter.
His talents as an orator and rhetorician were greatly admired by his contemporaries, a number of whom were later regarded as forming a school called after him Frontoniani; his object in his teaching was to inculcate the exact use of the Latin language in place of the artificialities of such 1st-century authors as Seneca the Younger, and encourage the use of "unlooked-for and unexpected words", to be found by diligent reading of pre-Ciceronian authors.
He found fault with Cicero for inattention to that refinement, though admiring his letters without reserve.

He may well have died in the late 160s, as a result of the Antonine Plague that followed the Parthian War, though conclusive proof is lacking.