Letter 401.25

To Friends 1.27 [185 Hout; 2.244 Haines] Fronto to Squilla Gallicanus, greeting. 1. It has fallen out more conveniently for you, my lord brother, who were anxious for our son [Fronto plays on the affectionate honorific: Gallicanus's own son, here treated as a shared son and pupil] while present, than for me, who was anxious while absent. For your anxiety was easily settled by the outcome of the pleading; whereas I, until news was brought to me by all the housemates [contubernales: Fronto's resident pupils, who attended the case] of the success with which our orator had conducted his case, did not cease to be anxious. And you indeed took your pleasure in the joy of each separate success of the speech, as each thought [sententia] had earned its applause; but I, sitting at home, was tortured with unbroken worry, since, while I called to mind the danger to the pleader, I had no part in the praises of the pleading. Then besides this you carried off a manifold profit: for you did not only hear him, but also saw him pleading; nor did you take delight in his eloquence alone, but also in his expression and his gesture. As for me, although I know what he said, yet I do not know in what manner he said it. 2. Finally I say [...] to whom Callistus [...] tears [...] the father [...] you have attained [...] because [...] I rejoice [...] and [...] today [...] to be, if today [...] the mind [...] is the custom, but listen, while I am speaking [...] you have joined to the eloquent, for he went down into the Forum noble by birth, and he returned from the Forum more noble by eloquence than by lineage. [...]

to Squilla Gallicanus, greeting. Yours has been a happier lot, my lord brother, for you have felt nervous for your son on the spot, than mine, who have had to endure my nervousness at home. For your nervousness was easily allayed with the completion of the pleading, while I did not cease to be nervous until all my pupil housemates had brought me news of the success with which our orator had conducted the case. And you, indeed, at each separate triumph of the speech, as each sentence evoked applause, were filled with joy, while I, sitting at home, was tortured with continuous anxiety, conscious as I was of the difficulties before the pleader, yet unable to share in the praises of his pleading. Then you carried away manifold advantages besides, for you not only heard, but also saw the performer, and were delighted not by his eloquence only, but by his look and gesture. For me, though I know what he said, yet I do not know how he said it . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . He went down to the Forum noble by birth, he came back from it more noble by eloquence than by lineage . . . . Footnotes [ edit ] ↑ On the Etrurian coast, twenty-four miles from Rome. ↑ Half-way to Alsium from Rome. ↑ Probably his daughter Cornificia. ↑ According to Plutarch, Cato preferred that statues of himself should be conspicuous by their absence. ↑ Not mentioned again. He would most likely be the secretary or librarian of Marcus, possibly his anagnostes or reader. ↑ This seems a punning reference to Quintus, the praenomen of Ennius. ↑ The master of the rowers (something like our bo'sun) gave them the time by the beats of a hammer or baton. ↑ The ager Faustianus was part of the Falernian district. Felix was a title of Faustus Sulla. Fronto is sarcastic in his allusion to Seneca, whom he disliked. ↑ See Plutarch On Water Animals , xxxv. ↑ Hor. Od. ii. x. 20. ↑ So Princ. Hist. ad fin. . ↑ The choice spoils taken by a general from the general of the enemy slain in single combat. ↑ The rape of the Sabine women. ↑ So Diog. Laert. Chrys. 4. Horace ( Odes , III. xxi. 11) says the same of Fronto's hero Cato. ↑ Dio, lxxi. 6, § 1 (of Marcus), νυκτὸς ἔστιν ὄτε διάζων . ↑ cp. Lucan, Phars. vii. 7 fll ↑ Probably Cornificia. ↑ A play on the word. ↑ The Parthian war broke out soon after the death of Pius. Fronto is consoling Marcus for a disaster in Armenia, when Severianus the legatus and his legion were destroyed at Elegeia in 162 by the Parthians. See also Princ. Hist. ad fin. ↑ July 16, 390 B.C. ↑ 321 B.C. ↑ Aug. 2, 216 B.C. ↑ 138 B.C. ↑ Apparently the defeat of Albinus in 109 B.C. is meant. ↑ 52 B.C. ↑ Longinus; see Dio, lxviii. 12. ↑ Maximus; see ibid , lxviii. 30, and below, Princ. Hist. ad fin. ↑ See Dio, lxix. 14. ↑ Not recorded elsewhere; but see Spart. Vit. Hadr. 5. ↑ The Marsians were supposed to have power over snakes: see Pliny, N.H. vii. 2; xxv. 5. ↑ In this gap (Ambr. 231) there was a reference to the Parthians, as we see from a marginal note. ↑ Trajan (?). ↑ Tyrant of Samos, who died 522 B.C. ↑ Periander, the tyrant of Corinth, had a similar dream, and Artemidorus (a writer of the time of Marcus), On Dreams , 4, said it signified great honours and riches. ↑ He quotes Marcus's own phrase (see above, Ad Anton. ii. 1) in the letter from Minturnae (probably), where Marcus was trying to get a little respite from the anxieties caused by the Parthian invasion of Roman provinces and the disaster at Elegeia. ↑ Cicero quotes this work ( Brutus , 72) as meaning De ratione Latine loquendi . Caesar wrote it while crossing the Alps on his way from his winter quarters at Luca, in north Italy, to the seat of war in Gaul. ↑ Surely the Pro Lege Manilia ; but Mai refers it to a speech on the Mithridatic War. ↑ Hor. Od. iv. xi. 17. ↑ Victorinus, who married Gratia about 160. ↑ Antoninus (Geminus) and Lucius Aurelius Commodus, afterwards emperor, were born on Aug. 31, 161. The former died four years later. ↑ The daughter of Marcus. ↑ So Melito in his Apology (Eus. H.E. iv. 26, § 7) calls him εὐκταῖος . ↑ About the year 146 Marcus devoted himself more exclusively to philosophy and neglected rhetoric (see Ad Mar. iv. 13, i. p. 216). Later he eschewed it entirely; see Thoughts , i. 7; i. 17, § 4. But there was rhetoric in his writings, and Dio, lxxi. 35, § 1, says he was "practised in rhetoric." ↑ Hom. Od. vi. 106 = Verg. Aen. i. 502. ↑ About this time Consul II. and praef. urbi. For Marcus's relations with him see Thoughts , i. 17, §§ 4, 6. Soon after this letter was written he condemned Justin Martyr and his companions to death as Christians. ↑ Perhaps when he entered the Senate as quaestor , but very possibly his Caesar-speech. See i. p. 19. ↑ The letter printed first in this edition: cp. the reference to audocia . ↑ cp. De Eloqu. iii. below. ↑ This letter is not in the collection, but cp. i. p. 39. ↑ These are the technical figures of rhetoric, whether of language, such as alliteration, antithesis, eto., or of thought, such as παράλειψις (= a passing by) here. ↑ The earthquake at Cyzicus is apparently alluded to again in the De Eloquentia 1 ad fin. It has a bearing on the date of the disputed Letter to the Commune of Asia relative to the Christians (Euseb. H.E. iv. 13; Justin, Apol. i. ad fin. ). ↑ Adjoining the Forum. It was where the Romans voted by Curiae. ↑ He is referring to Cornificia's birthday. ↑ i.e. Antoninus Geminus, see last letter. ↑ See Aul. Gell xii. 1. ↑ Plautus uses it ( Rud. III. iii. 32) of supplication to Venus, and Festus defines it as opem a sacris petere . ↑ Nothing more is known of this speech. ↑ Or, "as quickly as possible." ↑ The heading and title to this letter are lost, and its attribution is not certain. It reads like a letter to Marcus. Naber, following Mai, assigns it to Verus. ↑ Hauler says this refers to detailed work and not to size. ↑ Aul. Gell. vii. 14, defines gracilis of style as combining venustas and subtilitas (= Greek ἰσχνός ), and says Varro attributed gracilitas to Lucilius. ↑ As the names go in pairs, the contrast to Sisenna must have dropped out, and longinque may belong to his vis-à-vis . ↑ For Cato's trick of using atque . . . atque see i. p. 152. ↑ Hom. Il. ii. 408. ↑ A Stoic philosopher friend of Pliny the younger. He committed suicide under Hadrian. ↑ Of Prusa, called "Golden-mouthed," orator and philosopher. He died about 117. ↑ Fronto's master. ↑ A Stoic philosopher under Nero and Vespasian. ↑ All this was surely addressed to Marcus and not Verus. ↑ Epictetus, it is said, was made lame by the cruelty of his master, Epaphroditus. ↑ See for an illustration the first two lines of § 2, and cp. last letter, § 2, verba multiiuga . ↑ The palladium was a supposed image of Pallas that fell from the sky at Troy and was carried off by the Greeks. ↑ In this mutilated passage Fronto is speaking of sapentia and eloquentia in connexion with a classification of human functions The officia , or essential functions of man are, he says, of two genera , and can be classified under three heads ( rationes or species ). The distinction of the two genera is not given in what we have. The three classes are (1) that of existence, that a man must exist and perform certain munera , e.g. eat, in order to live; (2) of quality, he must be such and such and have such and such habits and idiosyncrasies; (3) of objective or result, the two previous officia enabling him to discharge the third. This third class is concerned wholly with negotia , work done, and is self-contained. Under this comes sapientia . Since a man must live before he can be wise, a munus , like eating, is an officium of the wise man, though it has no direct connexion with his negotium , which is wisdom. Eating belongs to specis prima , which is common to all men, but wisdom to species tertia . The pursuit of eloquence comes under species secunda , which varies with every man. ↑ Probably one of Fronto's teachers, e.g. Dionysius or Athenodotus, who must have been mentioned in a lost part of the letter. ↑ Hom. Il. iii. 212. ↑ Pliny gives the story, N.H. xxxv. 36, § 12. ↑ This seems to imply that Marcus's eloquence, great as it is, still requires brushing and trimming up. ↑ cp. Marcus, Thoughts , vi. 41, etc. ↑ "The last infirmity of noble mind": see Plato ( ap. Athen. xi. 507 D), ἔσχατον τὸν τῆς δόξης χίτῶνα· ἐν τῷ θανάτῳ αὐτῷ ἀποδυόμεθα . cp. also Tac. Agr. 9.; Hist. iv. 6; Plat. An Seni , etc., 783 d; Lucian, Peregr. 38. ↑ See Capit. Vit. Mar. v. 3, and Marcus, Thoughts , v. 16; vi. 12. ↑ For this custom see Pliny, N.H. xxi. 6. ↑ This may have been followed by some such sentence as "but you will have to provide for the finances of the state and see that they are husbanded." ↑ See i. p. 94, and cp. Hor. Ep. II. i. 52, somnia Pythagorea . ↑ It is by no means clear that Marcus despised words, but he did despise dialectics; see Thoughts , i. 7; vii. 67; viii. 1. ↑ "Have you lost your horns?" If "yes," then you had horns; if "no," then you still have them. ↑ "How many grains make a heap?" Do two, or three, or what exact number? As heap is an indefinite term, the answer cannot be given in any definite number of grains. See Hor. Ep. II. i. 47, Elusus ratione ruentis acervi . ↑ "If a man says he is lying, is he lying or speaking the truth?" For these fallacies see Diog. Laert. Euclides , iv., and Zeller, Socrates , ch. xii. ↑ Lit. twisted, or intricate, and entangling. ↑ A captious disputant who made use of the horn-dilemma. Cicero mentions him with Diodorus, and speaks of his contorta sophismata . See next page. ↑ These words mean to amplify, divide, treat fully, recapitulate, hark back, make the application, introduce characters. ↑ The epitaph of Epictetus was: I Epictetus was by name | Who now lie here, | As Irus poor, a slave, and lame | And to the Immortals dear. ↑ i.e. Pericles. See Cic. De Orat. iii. 34; Orat. iv. 15. ↑ He was swallowed up by an earthquake, while trying to escape from the disastrous expedition against Thebes. There seems to be a reference to the Cyzicus earthquake in 162. ↑ The position of this sentence is not certain. Braknmn says it comes two sentences lower down. ↑ Lucr. i. 925. ↑ A great part of this letter has obviously been lost. ↑ See Aulus Gellius, i. 12. This paragraph seems rather out of place. It has much affinity with the similar passage in De Orationibus, ad. med. below. ↑ Reading luco , we must translate "of whisperers, or warblers, in the grove of eloquence." ↑ The evolution of eloquence just given. ↑ See i. p. 217, Ad M. Caes. iv. 13, and cp. Thoughts , i. 7 and 17, §4. ↑ i.e. apparently paraphrasing old writers by using synonymous but more striking expressions. ↑ The grandfather of Crassus the triumvir, called ἀγέλαστος . ↑ Probably Crassus Frugi, Spart. Vit. Hadr. 5. ↑ "New and startling thoughts." Fronto urges Marcus to aim at striking and unconventional ideas, but to be careful that they should be toned down by their setting, so as not to strike the hearers as bizarre. ↑ Professor Mackail takes this to mean the "new Latin" style introduced by Fronto. ↑ Catil. 14. ↑ Fronto is making fun of the dialectic method of teaching contrasted with the rhetorical. ↑ The dialecticians. ↑ He was called λεπτός (see Athen. xi. 7), and also ἀσκάλαφος , from a line in Homer ( Il. ii. 512) which he often quoted. ↑ Capit. ( Vit. Veri , 6) tells us that Verus, while on his way to Asia for the Parthian war, was taken ill at Canusium. It appears that he narrowly escaped having a stroke, such as caused his death in January, 169, at the age of thirty-nine. ↑ If Capit. ( Vit. Ver. 6, § 7) is to be trusted, there was much need of this exhortation. ↑ Marcus hurried to Canusium to see him; see Capit. ibid. ↑ Nothing more is certainly known of him. ↑ Cicero ( Brut. 17), following Greek precedent, separated tropes from figures. We use trope for the metaphorical use of a word. ↑ Perhaps in the speech Pro Bithynis mentioned below. ↑ Nothing is known for certain about him. He was possibly a fellow-countryman of Fronto's from Cirta. ↑ Nothing more is known of this speech beyond what Fronto tells us. ↑ A commonplace of the orators. See Cic. Tusc. ii. 7; Seneca, Ep. 66, etc. ↑ There was another letter to him in this collection (Naber, p. 172), but only the opening words remain (from the Index, as read by Hauler, Wien. Stud. 33, pt. 1, p. 175): Labris cius labra fovi , I kissed him lip to lip. ↑ Venetus may be a proper name, or = Venetianus ( i.e. a partizan of the "Blues" in the Circus), or mean a Venetian. ↑ One of the names of Julianus, who was consul under Pius and provincial legate under Marcus. ↑ Possibly the master of the emperor Pertinax (see Capit. Vit. Pert. 12). ↑ Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Verus (161–169). ↑ From the fragmentary nature of the evidence, it is not easy to understand the legal points in the case alluded to in these three letters. Matidia, the great-aunt of Marcus and Faustina, had made them her heirs, but whether they were her natural heirs is not known. The codicilli were informal documents added to the will, in which directions were given to the heir as to certain gifts to be distributed by him. These were cancelled by Matidia, but certain interested parties tried to pass them off as valid. Fronto is afraid that Marcus will, for fear of benefiting himself, let them stand, in which case they might absorb more than the three-fourths of the whole property contrary to the Falcidian law, which stipulated that the heir must receive at least one-fourth of the whole inheritance. Marcus could either refuse to act as heir, or decide against the codicils, and so bring the gifts mentioned in them into his own share as residuary legatee, or let the codicils stand in spite of the seals being broken ( cp, his own decision in Dig. xxviii. 4, 3, and Gaius, ii. 120 and 151). It is most likely that he took the second course, though he may also have carried out the cancelled provisions. ↑ See Corp. Insc. Lat. vi. 8440: T. Aurelius Egatheus Imp. Antonini Aug. Lib. a Codicillis . ↑ Possibly alluded to by Scaevola, one of the amici , in Dig. xxxv. 2, 36. ↑ cp. Sallust in Suidas s.v. Athenodotus. ↑ Lucius Verus, who had gone to the Parthian war. ↑ He chaffingly calls the letter a speech. ↑ This assaying of the gold (presumably the gold ornaments) was done by means of fire in a small flat vessel called a cupel. ↑ About £20,000. ↑ About £500. It is not clear whether these alumni were children of an alimentary foundation, such as the puellae Faustinianae . ↑ Owing to the confusion in the leaves of the Codex and their partial illegibility, it is impossible to be quite sure of the position of the various parts of this tractate, and consequently of the thread of the argument. It is obviously connected with the similar letters De Eloquentia above, being like them an appeal to Marcus not to neglect eloquence for philosophy. Little seems lost at the beginning, and Fronto enters at once on an indictment of the false eloquence of Seneca and his school, whom he accuses of trickeries and tautology, taking Lucan especially as an instance of the latter fault. He compares their mannerisms to a harpist in a cantata repeating a note again and again. He also charges such writers with meanness and slovenliness of diction, with effeminate fluency and preciosity. Turning to a speech lately delivered by Marcus, he praises him for his invention, and repeats (§ 8) what he had said in the De Eloquentia about clear and imperfect utterance. In connexion with this he refers to a treatise of Theodorus. which he had evidently used in his lessons. In § 9 an unfortunate gap obscures the trend of the argument, but we find him still discussing the Senecan style. From this he turns to the grandiloquence of a Gallic rhetor and his inappropriate use of Ennius. But the abrupt transition from Alexander to the Tiber is puzzling. In conclusion, he criticises severely an edict of Marcus and adds a warning against the debased style. ↑ See i. p. 140. ↑ The plain, austere eloquence of Cato is compared to the fruit of the wild pine (Hauler refers to Cato, R.R. xlviii. 3), as contrasted with the soft, feverish style of Seneca. ↑ Sergius Flavius, who, says Quintilian ( Inst. viii. 3), formed many new words, some very harsh. ↑ Dryden, in his Essay on Dramatic Poetry , quotes the proverb aurum ex stercore colligere . ↑ i.e. ready to aid men; see Cic. De Legg. ii. 11, §28. ↑ Lucan's Pharsalia , Book I. 2 ff. ↑ Glories of heroes,—who by the Pontic strait,—as their monarch Pelias bade them,—seeking the Golden Fleece,—rowed forth in the well-built Argo. ↑ Musical plays so named from their subjects; but the names are by no means certain, and various others have been proposed instead. ↑ Marcus may have been alluding to himself and Lucius as the eyes of the state. ↑ See De Eloquentia above, 3, § 1. ↑ J. W. E. Pearce has suggested to me that this is the meaning of the words. A text-book on rhetoric by Theodorus seems referred to, by the rules of which Fronto judges the expressions quoted. There were two rhetoricians of this name, one of Gadara, the other of Constantinople. For the latter see Cic. Brut. 12 ( in arte suitilior ). ↑ This passage, if no other, makes impossible the suggestion of Mommsen that this treatise was written as late as 177. Fronto died, almost certainly, in 166 or 167. ↑ It is not known who the Censor was. ↑ The Senecan style. ↑ Probably not Favorinus, the Gallic orator of Hadrian's circle, who was a friend of Fronto's. ↑ i.e. in the orator's show speech on the subject. ↑ The Gallic orator. ↑ Who the Tuscan was who canalised the Tiber is not clear, nor whether the whole of this is not another extract from the rhetorician. ↑ cp. Verg. Aen. viii. 77. He probably followed Ennius. ↑ The Ovilia was a place in the Campus Marti us where the voting at the elections took place. ↑ Actus , a certain measure of land (see Plin. N.H. xviii. 17). ↑ Marcus ( Ad Caes. i. 2 and v. 7) uses the word illibatus of corpus and salus , coupling it with incolumis in the latter case. Pius uses it in a rescript ( Inst. Iust. i. 8, 2) with potestas . It appears, therefore, that its use with a personal subject was objectionable. ↑ That is, like Seneca's. ↑ See Index. ↑ This mention of Commodus is difficult. He was named Caesar in 166, but did not become emperor till 177. Though the father of Lucius Verus was Commodus, the latter could not have been called Commodus. Perperna was consul 130 B.C. There is a coin of the Gens Trebanvia extant; see Eckhel, v. 326. ↑ Fronto says: Follow the older writers. The Senecan style is as catching as the itch. There is purer metal in the older coins. What, not prefer a coin of Antoninus! Of course the older words are worn and discoloured with age and want careful handling to justify their use. ↑ From Sallust's Hist. Lib. I. says Hauler. Servius quotes the passage on Verg. Georg. ii. 209. ↑ Cicero seems to use it so. ↑ Verus is writing from Syria not long after his arrival at the seat of war, while the Parthians had not yet been definitely beaten. ↑ Nazarius ( Paneg. xxiv. § 6) says that Varus in a panic offered the Parthian king terms which were scornfully rejected, but he means Lucius. ↑ A second deprecator was probably Marcus. ↑ The twins Lucius Aurelius Commodus and Antoninus Geminus, born at Lanuvium on August 31, 161. The latter died in 165. ↑ The author of De Differentiis Vocabulorum —possibly Fronto himself—explains locuples as a copia locorum . Fronto means that he has been able to see Marcus without going to Lorium, where he apparently was, in the faces of his two children. ↑ cp. "Thy small pipe," Shaks. Tw. N. i. 4, 32. ↑ Fronto seems to mean that his reply, or payment of his debt, was not made at once but followed later, as the entry in the ledger follows the transaction. ↑ Does Fronto mean that as the wind finds freer entrance to our bodies when the sun has caused us to lay aside our wraps, so toil makes itself more felt when joy has relaxed our energies? ↑ Cato (see Aul. Gell. vii. 3, 37) mentions this old law, under which the fine for certain offences was limited to half a man's property less 1000 (asses). Fronto says that, all his wishes and prayers for Marcus having been abundantly fulfilled, he is bound now to perform his part of the bargain and pay the fine due. To meet this liability he tenders his doubled love for Marcus, and does not, as was the old custom, pay with less than half his assets. ↑ His adoptive father Pius. Marcus's pietas is also mentioned Capit. v. § 8, vii. § 2, and Dio, lxxi. 35. ↑ Lucius Verus, his colleague. ↑ This long letter to Lucius in Syria was written on the victorious conclusion of the Armenian portion of the great Parthian war, when Lucius received the title Armeniacus . Besides flattering Lucius on the military successes, he praises the eloquence of his despatch to the senate. The rest of the letter is a glorification of eloquence, in which he includes all good literature, shewing its essential importance to the ruler and the general in the field. Unfortunately the letter is much mutilated, and many interesting passages are only partially intelligible. The last part is taken up with a comparison between Lucius's despatch and other historical documents of a similar character. The picture of the demoralised army is given again in the Principia Historia , but the restoration of discipline was the work of Avidius Cassius and Martius Verus and the other generals. ↑ See ii. 213. ↑ Dausara was near Edessa and Nicephorium on the Upper Euphrates in Mesopotamia. Artaxata was the capital of Armenia. ↑ Capit. ( Vit. Mar. ix. § 2) says this title was bestowed on both emperors after the successful campaign of Statius Priscus in Armenia in 163, but refused at first by Marcus. It appears on his coins late in 164, and he dropped it on the death of Lucius in 169. ↑ A phrase found in the Elder Seneca ( Controv. i.) and Quint. ( Instit. i. pr.). It apparently originated with Cato. ↑ Fronto was a native of Cirta. ↑ Ventidius Bassus was enslaved as a child in the Social war. As legatus of Antony fifty years later he defeated the Parthians, and attained the unique distinction of a triumph over them. ↑ cp. Suet. Caes. 55. Montaigne (i. 25) speaks of "the soldier-like eloquence, as Suetonius calleth that of Caesar." ↑ But Josephus ( Hist. of Jews , xix. 3, 5) and Tacitus ( Ann. xiii. 5) speak highly of the eloquence of Gaius ( i.e. Caligula). ↑ For Hadrian's rococo tastes see Spart. Hadr. xvi. 5. ↑ There was a proverb ὄνος λύρας , "an ass at the lyre." cp. Lucian, De Merc. Cond. 25: Dial. Meretr. 14; Adv. Ind. 4. ↑ I have given the probable meaning of the mutilated passage, aacording to Naber's view of it; cp. Min. Felix, Octavius , xviii. 6, and see Herod, iii. 84. ↑ He is being contrasted probably with Cato. ↑ Thuc. vii. 11–16. ↑ Sallust, Hist. iv. ↑ ibid. Hist. iii. The letter was from Spain; see Plutarch, Life of Sertorius , ad fin. ↑ ibid. Bell. Jug. 24. If arte be read, translate straitly . ↑ cp. Cic. Brut. 132, where he speaks of Catulus' book De Consulatu et de rebus gestis suis as written molli et Xenophonteo genere sermonis . ↑ For Pollio's style see Seneca, Ep. 100, 7. Marcus took a dislike to this author; see i. p. 140. ↑ A coin of Lucius, A.D. 164, with legend Rex Armeniis datus (Cohen, iii. 189, Plate 1), shews us Lucius giving Sohaemus the crown. He had been driven from his kingdom by the Parthians, and became senator and consul at Rome; for which see Photius, 94. ↑ A sarcophagus with an inscription by this Aurelius Pacorus to his brother is extant. See Corp. Inscr. Graec. 3559. Vologaesus had made him King of Armenia. ↑ A Lusitanian guerilla chief (147 B.C. ) who defied the Romans for many years. ↑ A Thracian slave and gladiator who raised an insurrection and held out in Italy itself for two years. 73–71 B.C. ↑ cp. below, Princ. Hist. ad med. and Ad Am. i. 6. ↑ cp. Lucian, De Salt. : οἶ Ἀντιοχεῖς . . . πὀλις ὔρχησιν μάλιστα πρεσβεύουσα . ↑ We know his cursus honorum from Corp. Inscr. Laot. vi. 1549. ↑ Probably Q. Caecilius Metellus, called Numidicus , who conducted the war against Jugurtha in 109 B.C. ; see below, Sallust, quoted Ad Anton. ii. 6. ↑ From an unknown work of Cato. ↑ Yet according to Aul. Gellius he could spend more than £3,000 on a bath (Gell xix. 10, § 4). ↑ cp. Capit. Pii Vit. viii. 4. ↑ Especially between parents and children. See i. p. 281 and Marcus, Thoughts , i. 11, and Justinian, Inst. ii. 18 pr. ↑ This letter, contrasting the characteristics of history and oratory in the matter of style, preserves for us long extracts from Sallust which would have been greatly appreciated if Sallust's works had been totally lost. It has not been thought necessary here to give the extracts in full. ↑ Sallust and Cicero ↑ Sallust, Catil. 5. ↑ Sallust, ibid. ↑ i.e. repetition of an emphatic word. ↑ Cicero, Pro Cael. 6. The passage continues: Illa vero iudices, in illo homine mirabilia fuerunt, comprehendere multos amicitia, tueri obsequio; cum omnibus communicare quod habebat; servire temporibus omnium suorum , etc. ↑ Sallust, Jug. 6, § 1. ↑ Sallust, Jug. 7, § 4-8, § 1. ↑ ibid. 17, § 5. ↑ ibid. 20 §§ 1 and 2. ↑ ibid. 28, § 5. ↑ Sallust, Jug. 44, § 1. ↑ ibid. 44, § 4 to end of 45. ↑ Sallust, Jug. 63, §§ 1-7. ↑ ibid. 100, §§ 3-5. ↑ ibid. Cat. 25. ↑ Sallust, Cat. 31, §§ 1-3. ↑ ibid. 37, § 3. ↑ An eminent rhetorician of Galatia; see Philost. Vit. Soph. ii., under Chrestus. ↑ This conventional use of Domine ( cp. Domine frater , p. 244, and even, if the MS. is correct, domine magister , Ad Ant. ii. 1), is ridiculed in an epigram of the Anthologia Palatina . x. 44. ↑ Victorinus, the son-in-law of Fronto, was appointed legatus of Germany about 162. ↑ The same person, viz. Gratia, who was possibly with child. The son here mentioned must be the consul of 199 A.D. , who set up an inscription to his son of the same name: M • AUFIDIO • FRONTONE • PRONEPOTI • M • CORNELII • FRONTONIS • ORATORIS • CONSULIS • MAGISTRI • IMPERATORUM • LUCI • ET • ANTONINI • NEPOTI • AUFIDI • VICTORINI • PRAEFECTI • URBI • BIS • CONSULIS • FRONTO • CONSUL • DULCISSIMO • ( Corp. Inscr. Lat. xi. 6334). ↑ See Dio, lxxii. 11. ↑ Publ. Consentius, in his Ars Grammatica , p. 2031, 16 (Putsch), quotes from Fronto, et illae vestrae Athenae Dorocorthoro (Rheims), words which were probably contained in a letter to Victorinus in his province. ↑ An interesting personality and a relative, probably, of Pius. We have his cursus honorum in an inscription set up by the municipality of Concordia ( Corp. Inscr. Lat. v. 1874). There is an inscription also set up to him at Cirta (see Dessau, 1119). Tertullian ( Ad Scap. 5) gives us an interesting anecdote of him in connection with a persecution of Christians in Asia Minor, 184–5. ↑ Hom. Il. ix. 203. The son of Menoetius was Patroclus. Plutarch ( Symp. v. 4) discusses the meaning of these words. See also Athen. x. 6. The usual texts of Homer read κέραιε . ↑ This letter is important for our knowledge of the status of a decurio, or municipal senator. It shews that these were elected by the whole body. The exact merits of the case at issue are obscured by the mutilation of the letter. We know from a law still preserved in the Digest that a decurio temporarily exiled for an offence not involving infamia might on his return take up his old position, but, if not a senator previously, he could only become one with the emperor's express permission. By excluding Volumnius even for a time from the senate, Antoninus might seem to affix upon him the stigma of infamy. Fronto argues that there can be no doubt he was a senator before his exile. We learn from this letter also that the decurions had to pay for their privileges. The case came under the cognizance of Antoninus as juridicus per Italiam regionis Transpadanae (see inscription quoted under the previous letter). ↑ 231.0 231.1 In Venetia. ↑ He was praef. urb. in 152 and following years, when this case would have come before him. We know that he condemned certain Christians, named Ptolemaeus and Lucius, to death (Justin, Apol. ii. §§ 1 and 2). He was also governor of Britain, defeated the Brigantes, a Yorkshire tribe, and completed the Wall of Antoninus between the Forth and the Clyde. See Corp. Inscr. Lat. x. 419 ( Add. ). ↑ Marcus and Verus. Nothing further is known of the case of Lysias. ↑ Digest , xlvii. 7, 2; Gaius, iv. 2, etc. ↑ Felices arbores Cato dixit quae fructum ferunt , Paul, ex Fest. p. 92. ↑ No one who had reached fifty-five could be forced to become a decurion; see Digest , 1. 2, 2, 8. ↑ There was a notable jurist named Proculus quoted in the Digest . A Cornelius Proculus is also mentioned in the Digest as the recipient of a rescript from Marcus and Verus. ↑ This letter seems to refer to a contract for a public building, for part of which Baburiana was responsible. Arrius had found some fault with this, or had fined B. for the work not being finished in time. ↑ Humanitas was beginning about this time to get the meaning humanity . See Aul. Gell. xiii. 16; Digest , xliv. 37, etc. ↑ There was another letter to Arrius in the Codex, but we have only its title in the Index (Naber, p. 189; Ambr. 277 or 292) and the first two words, Valerianus Clitianus . ↑ Possibly consul in 149, and, if so, proconsul about 164, for at this time about fifteen years separated the two offices. ↑ Probably a pupil of Fronto's. ↑ The ablest general in the Parthian war. He afterwards, in 175, revolted against Marcus, and after a six months dream of empire was assassinated. ↑ In token of victory on the successful termination of tht Parthian war. So in the Peninsular war our coaches ran down through the country decked with laurel when a victory had been won. ↑ The Miles Gloriosus . ↑ From the defeat of Xerxes to the Peloponnesian war. Thuc. i. 89 S. ↑ cp. Cic. Ad Fam. v. 12, a letter which Lucius seems to imitate. See also Pliny to Tacitus (vii. 33). m ↑ This is evidently a covering letter to Marcus with the Principia Historiae . The fuller account of the war was possibly, owing to Fronto's death in 166 or 167, unless Lucian ( Quomodo Hist. , 19) refers to Fronto, never written. ↑ A preface to the history of the Parthian war which Fronto was to write from materials supplied to him by Lucius. This we may presume would have had considerable historical value. This preamble covered twenty-eight pages of the Codex. Fronto praises Lucius extravagantly, setting him even above the great Trajan. But much of the eulogy is mere rhetoric, and he seems to have had his eye on a rhetorical common place, Livy's sketch of Hannibal. The piece is too mutilated for us to be able to judge Fronto's performance fairly, but his account of the virtues and exploits of Lucius does not tally with what we learn of him elsewhere. Lucian may be referring to Fronto in his Quom. Hist. Scrib. § 19, where he ridicules the contemporary historians of the Parthian war, when he speaks of ἄλλος τις ἀοίδιμος ἐπὶ λόγων δυνάμει . ↑ Euphrates and Tigris. ↑ At Charrae in Mesopotamia, B.C. 53. ↑ Mark Antony, in 36. ↑ Maximus, mentioned again below. See Dio, lxviii. 29, 30. ↑ Marius. ↑ Vespasian. ↑ He is speaking of Trajan. See Pliny, Paneg. 15. ↑ See Spart. Hadr. 5 and Aug. De Civ. Dei , iv. 29. ↑ Such as the Moles Hadriana at Rome, and perhaps the tomb of Antinous in the Campus. ↑ Mai compares Livy's description of Hannibal (xxi. 24) and Pliny's Panegyric of Trajan , 13. ↑ Hor. Ep. I. vii. 59. ↑ cp. Dio, lii. 34. ↑ The bonitas of Lucius is mentioned several times by the historians. ↑ See Dio, lxviii. 17, Victor, xlviii. 10. But Pliny, Paneg. 16, defends Trajan. ↑ See Lucian, Pseudomant . 27, and Quom. Hist. Scrib. 21 and 25. ↑ Appius Maximus Santra (see Hauler, Wien. Stud. 38, 1916, p. 170). Fronto is blaming Trajan for attending to unimportant matters while his troops are attacked in the rear. ↑ According to Hauler's reading. ↑ See Capit. Vit. Veri , viii. §§ 10, 11, and for Trajan see Dio, lxviii. 24. ↑ cp. Juvenal, Sat. x. 78, panem at circenses . ↑ Added by Brakman from the Codex. ↑ Demostratus appears twice as an accuser of Herodes in the year 142 (for the trial see i. 60 ff.), and again in 170, as we learn from Philostratus, who also tells us that he wrote speeches against Herodes. The speech of Fronto here mentioned may also be the one against Herodes spoken of above (i. 65), but the allusion reads as if it were a recent one. ↑ i.e. Marcus. ↑ This grandson may be the one who died, aged three, in Germany (see Ad Verum , ii. 9, 10, below). ↑ See Marcus, Thoughts , ii. 2, 3; 13, 16; iv. 3, 32; vi. 49, etc. ↑ See Dio, lxxii. II. ↑ cp. Psalms, xvii. 14. ↑ Lit. task weighed or measured . It would almost do to translate it "neither in rhyme nor reason." ↑ cp. Marcus, Thoughts , iv. 58; ix. 2; x. 36. ↑ ibid. ii. 11; vi. 44. ↑ cp. the well-known fragment of Menander, ὃν οἱ θεοὶ φιλοῦσιν ἀποθνῄσκει νέος . ↑ Charisius, in his Ars Grammatica , quotes from Fronto's second book of letters to Antoninus: Male me, Marce, praeteritae vitae meae paenitet . ↑ In a letter from the fourth book of letters Ad Anton. Imp. , quoted by Charisius, Ars Grammatica , ii. 197, 3 (Kiel), Fronto says Satis abundeque honorum est quos mihi cotidiano tribuis . ↑ He could not have been very poor; see Aul. Gellius, below. ↑ Some think this is the grandson's name. ↑ See the preceding letters De Nepote . ↑ Notes on the conduct of the war mentioned above, Ad Verum , ii. 3. See above, p. 194. ↑ Socrum cannot = socerum and mean Marcus. Faustina must therefore have been with Verus and her daughter Lucilla, but whether in Asia or in Italy is not clear. As Lucius married Lucilla in 164, he is not likely to have had more than one child yet, and in any case the children would have been too young to have a message sent them. Therefore Faustina's other children must be included in liberos , as vestros also seems to shew. ↑ The loss of the opening words makes it difficult to divine the meaning of the first two sentences. There had apparently been some jealousy excited among the entourage of Verus at the favour shewn to Fronto. The latter seems to have suggested some plan for obviating this, which Verus had not fallen in with, but followed another course. ↑ Savages rub foreheads and noses. Shaking hands could not have been unknown, as clasped right hands were a common symbol of amity and unity. ↑ Fronto suffered from rheumatism, but not, it appears, as his contemporary Polemo, from arthritis. ↑ Was legatus of Numidia in 166; this letter may be to him in his province. ↑ Possibly the famous jurist Ulpius Marcellus, who was one of the Consilium of Marcus. ↑ Fronto writes to his friend Gallicanus on the success of his son at the bar. This son was evidently one of his pupils who lived in his house ( contubernales ). The word dominus had come to be used as a complimentary title with filius and frater . Select critical notes [ edit ] ↑ About eight lines are lost. ↑ In these lacunae twelve lines are lost. ↑ From opportune to paravit the Codex has eleven lines not deciphered. ↑ Plaut. Rud. II. i. 10. ↑ Plaut. Mil. Glor. III. ii. 38. ↑ Plaut. Asin. V. iii 1. cp. cael = caelum , gau = gaudium (Ennius), and nol = nolueris (Lucilius). It was the fashion in Elizabethan times to curtail English words, e.g. sor = sorrow . ↑ Galen, vi. 406 (Kühn) says the same of Marcus. ↑ The margin of Cod. has theatrum twice, and implies that it was another reading. Capit. Vit. Pii , xi. 2 says Pius was fond of fishing. ↑ From Ennius's tragedy Telamon , quoted also by Cic. Tusc. iii. 13. Fronto adapts the words of Ennius, which are ad Troiam quom misi ob defendendam Graeciam . He also has mortiferum bellum . ↑ Twenty-six lines are lost. ↑ Eleven lines are missing. The names are from the margin. ↑ Nine lines are lost. ↑ Four lines are illegible. ↑ Thirteen lines are lost. ↑ There is a gap, says Naber, of 32 pp. between tenueris and nullius . ↑ The lost passage was on Friendship, as we learn from a marginal note. ↑ About a column and a half are lost in the lacunae. ↑ A lacuna of four pages follows to meremur in Ad Amicos , i. 12, below. ↑ About twenty-five letters missing. ↑ About ten letters lost. ↑ In these lacunae eight lines are lost. ↑ In the first gap ten letters are lost, in the second ten lines, and in the third three lines. ↑ Two lines lost. ↑ These two words are not certain. ↑ Perhaps ten lines are lost here. ↑ In the lacunae after imbribus about a quarter of a page would seem to be lost. ↑ A little more than a line is lost. ↑ Nine or ten letters lost. ↑ Three lines lost. ↑ The lacunae cover more than a column. ↑ The best part of a page is lost between the end of Ad Verum , ii. 1, and here. ↑ This word is from the margin of Cod. Mommsen says at least two leaves are lost between this word and the mutilated beginning of Ad Verum , ii. 3. ↑ The following letter. ↑ Eight lines are lost from the beginning of Vat. 14. ↑ Here Fronto addresses both emperors. ↑ From the margin, and quoted, says Hauler, from Sallust, who he asserts is mentioned in the previous lacuna. ↑ There is a gap in the Codex here of twelve pages, says Naber, the last being Vat. 158. The fragments he gives at the beginning of the letter do not seem to belong to it. ↑ Four lines are lost. ↑ About a hundred letters are lost. ↑ This letter, says Hauler ( Rhein. Mus. 54, Pt. 2, p. 161), is followed by an undeciphered letter of thanks from Marcus. To this apparently belong the fragments given by Naber (p. 111; Ambr. 89, col. 2): misisti . . . nonus . . . sed quem . . . sal < utem >. It may have reference to the letters which follow Ad Antoninum , ii 7 and 8. ↑ Thirty-seven and a half lines are lost. ↑ Five lines lost. ↑ Eighteen lines are illegible here. ↑ Seven lines are lost. ↑ Eight lines lost. ↑ Three lines are lost. ↑ Three lines are lost. ↑ Two pages are lost before the next letter ( III viris et Decurionibus ) Ambr. 306. ↑ To the end of the page six lines are lost. ↑ Niebuhr annexes this letter to Ad Verum , ii. 10, which seems very unlikely. Mai suggests that it may be part of Ad Verum , ii. 2, which is impossible from the contents of it. ↑ There are twenty-four lines lost at the beginning of this letter. ↑ Four and a half lines lost. ↑ After this letter follow two letters, Domino meo and Magistro meo salutem , illegible except for a word here and there. They are contained on Ambr. 71 (Naber, p 112). Moreover the words, given by Naber, p. 107, at the beginning of Ad Anton , ii. 6 (Ambr. 143, col. 2), do not appear to belong to that letter, and I give them here as read by Brakman Vel a < te > visum quanta sollicitudinem < mihi adferant > . . . . ita deo . . . . id ago . . . . explora diligentius . They are from a letter of Fronto's and refer, perhaps, to his grief. ↑ The Cons. Suff. in 150 was M. Petr. Mamertinus, the father, no doubt, of the Petr. Mamertinus who married a daughter of Marcus; see Capit. Vit. Comm. vii. 5. ↑ There are seventeen lines from here to the end of the letter. ↑ Two pages are missing between this and what we have of the next letter. These contained three letters, probably like this one, letters of consolation, for the margin has consolatoriae. See Index (Naber, p. 172; Ambr. 337): (1) Iunio Maximo; Humani casus homini . . . . (2) Praecilio Pompeiano: Labris eius labra fovi . . . . (3) Sardio Saturnino: Hortatus sum constanter . . . . ↑ Consul in 150. ↑ From here to the end of the letter are twenty-six lines. 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ad amicos 1.27 [185 Hout; 2.244 Haines] Fronto Squillae Gallicano salutem. 1 Tibi, domine frater, commodius evenit, qui pro filio nostro praesens trepidaveris, quam mihi, qui trepidaverim absens. Nam tua trepidatio pro eventu actionis facile sedata e st; ego, quoad mihi ab omnibus contubernalibus nuntiatum est, quo successu noster orator egisset, trepidare non destiti. Et tu quidem ad singulos orationis successus, prout quaeque sententia laudem meruerat, gaudio fruebare; at ego domi sedens perpetua sollicitudine angebar, ut qui periculum actoris recordarer, laudibus actionis non interessem. Tum praeterea multiplicis tu fructus abstulisti: Non enim audisti tantum,sed et vidsti agentem; nec eloquentia sola, sed etiam vultu ejus et gestu laetatus es. Ego tametsi quid dixerit scio, tamen ignoro, quemadmodum dixerit. 2 Postremo dico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cui Callistus lacrimas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . patrem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . adeptus es . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . quia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . gaudeo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . et . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hodie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . esse si hodie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . mens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . moris est, sed ausculta dicendo . . . . . . . . . . . . justisti disertis, nam in forum descendit natalibus nobilis, de foro rediit eloquentia quam genere nobilior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .