Marcus Cornelius Fronto→Marcus Aurelius|c. 143 AD|Marcus Cornelius Fronto|From Rome (career hub)|To Rome (career hub)|AI-assisted
In your last letter you asked why I have not yet delivered my speech in the Senate. I do owe thanks to your father, my lord, in a public notice as well. I will put that notice up at my circus games, and it will begin something like this: "On the day when, through the kindness of our greatest emperor, I first give a spectacle most pleasing and most popular with the people, I thought it timely to give thanks, so that the same day..." Then some Ciceronian ending will follow.
The speech in the Senate I shall deliver on August 13. Perhaps you will ask why so late. Because I am never in a hurry to discharge a solemn duty as soon as possible, merely to get it done somehow. But since I ought to deal with you plainly and without evasions, I will tell you what I am turning over in my mind.
I often praised your grandfather, the deified Hadrian, in the Senate with steady and ready zeal, and those speeches are widely known. Yet, if your filial feeling allows me to say it, I wanted Hadrian to be favorable and appeased, as one might appease Mars Gradivus or Father Dis, more than I loved him. Why? Because love needs some confidence and familiarity. Since I lacked that confidence, I did not dare to love a man I so deeply revered. Antoninus, by contrast, I love and cherish like sunlight, like day, like life, like breath; and I feel that he loves me.
If I do not praise him in such a way that the speech is not hidden away in the official records of the Senate, but is passed from hand to hand and seen by people's eyes, I am ungrateful even toward you. They say a runaway groom once said, "I ran sixty miles for my master; for myself, to escape, I will run a hundred." So when I praised Hadrian, I was running for my master. Today I run for myself; for myself, I say, and for my own talent I am writing this speech. For my own advantage, then, I shall work slowly, leisurely, and calmly.
If you are very impatient, amuse yourself meanwhile in other ways: kiss your father, embrace him, or finally praise him yourself. In any case, you must wait until August 13 to hear what you want, and in the form you want it. Farewell, Caesar, and prove worthy of your father. If you want to write anything, write it slowly.
July , 143 A.D. To my Lord. 1. In your last letter you ask me why I have not delivered my speech in the Senate. Well, I have to return thanks to my Lord your Father by proclamation also, and that I shall issue at my Games in the Circus; it will begin with these very words: On the day on which, by the kindness of our great Emperor, I am exhibiting a spectacle most attractive to the people and popidar in the highest degree, I have thought it a good opportunity to return thanks to him, that the same day —to be followed by some Ciceronian conclusion. My speech I shall deliver on August 13th. You will ask, perhaps, Why so late? Because I am never in a hurry to discharge a solemn duty at the first possible moment, and anyhow. But, as I ought to deal with you without disguise and without circumlocution, I will tell you what is in my mind. I often praised your grandfather, the deified Hadrian, in the Senate, with a steady zeal, aye, and a ready, and those speeches are constantly in everyone's hands. Yet, if your filial feeling towards him will allow me to say so, I wished to appease and propitiate Hadrian, as I might Mars Gradivus or Father Dis, rather than loved him. Why? Because love requires some confidence and intimacy. Since, in my case, confidence was lacking, therefore I dare not love one whom I so greatly revered. Antoninus, however, I love, I cherish like the light, like day, like life, like breath, and feel that I am loved by him. Him I must so praise that my praise be not hidden away in the Journals of the Senate , but come into the hands and under the eyes of men, else am I ungrateful also towards you. Again, as the runaway syce is reported to have said, I have run sixty miles for my master, I will run a hundred for myself, to escape; so I, too, when I praised Hadrian, ran for my master, but today I run for myself; for myself, I say, and write this speech to please myself. I shall compose it, therefore, at my ease, slowly, leisurely, placidly. 2. If you are very impatient for it, amuse yourself the while in other ways; kiss your father, embrace him, lastly, praise him yourself. But you may certainly look forward to hearing on August 13th what you would wish and such as you would wish. Farewell, Caesar, and prove worthy of your father, and if you wish to write anything, write slowly.
ad M. Caesarem 2.4 [24 Hout; 1.108 Haines]
<Caesari suo consul.>
1 Posterioribus litteris tuis, cur orationem in senatu non recitaverim, requisisti. At ego et edicto gratias agere domino meo patri tuo debeo, sed edictum quidem circensibus nostris proponam; cujus principium id ipsum erit: “Qua die primum beneficio maximi principis ederem spectaculum gratissimum populo maximeque populare, tempestivom duxi esse gratiae agere ut idem dies”, hic sequatur Tulliana conclusio. Orationem autem in senatu recitabo Augustis Idibus. Quaeras fortasse cur tam tarde? Quoniam ego numquam quam primum officio sollemni quoquo modo fungi propero. Sed ut tecum agere debeo sine fuco et sine ambagibus, dicam, quid cum animo reputem. Divom Hadrianum avom tuom laudavi in senatu saepenumero studio inpenso et propenso quoque; et sunt orationes istae frequentes in omnium manibus. Hadrianum autem ego, quod bona venia pietatis tuae dictum sit, ut Martem Gradivom, ut Ditem patrem propitium et placatum magis volui quam amavi. Quare? Quia ad amandum fiducia aliqua opus est et familiaritate: Quia fiducia mihi defuit, eo, quem tantopere venerabar, non sum ausus diligere. Antoninum vero ut solem, ut diem, ut vitam, ut spiritum amo, diligo, amari me ab eo sentio. Hunc nisi ita laudo ut laudatio me non in actis senatus abstrusa lateat, sed in manibus hominum oculisque versetur, ingratus sum etiam adversus te. Tum quod cursorem fugitivom ferunt dixisse, “domino sexagena currebam; mihi centena, ut fugiam, curram”, ego quoque quom Hadrianum laudabam domino currebam; hodie autem mihi curro, mihi, inquam, meoque ingenio hanc orationem conscribo. Ad meum igitur commodum faciam lente, otiose, clementer.
2 Tu si et valde properas, aliter te interum oblecta: Basia patrem tuum, amplectere, postremo ipse eum lauda. Ceterum quidem in Idus Augustas tibi expectandum est, ut quidvis, qualevis audias. 3 Vale, Caesar, et patrem promerere; et si quid scribere vis, lente scribe.
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In your last letter you asked why I have not yet delivered my speech in the Senate. I do owe thanks to your father, my lord, in a public notice as well. I will put that notice up at my circus games, and it will begin something like this: "On the day when, through the kindness of our greatest emperor, I first give a spectacle most pleasing and most popular with the people, I thought it timely to give thanks, so that the same day..." Then some Ciceronian ending will follow.
The speech in the Senate I shall deliver on August 13. Perhaps you will ask why so late. Because I am never in a hurry to discharge a solemn duty as soon as possible, merely to get it done somehow. But since I ought to deal with you plainly and without evasions, I will tell you what I am turning over in my mind.
I often praised your grandfather, the deified Hadrian, in the Senate with steady and ready zeal, and those speeches are widely known. Yet, if your filial feeling allows me to say it, I wanted Hadrian to be favorable and appeased, as one might appease Mars Gradivus or Father Dis, more than I loved him. Why? Because love needs some confidence and familiarity. Since I lacked that confidence, I did not dare to love a man I so deeply revered. Antoninus, by contrast, I love and cherish like sunlight, like day, like life, like breath; and I feel that he loves me.
If I do not praise him in such a way that the speech is not hidden away in the official records of the Senate, but is passed from hand to hand and seen by people's eyes, I am ungrateful even toward you. They say a runaway groom once said, "I ran sixty miles for my master; for myself, to escape, I will run a hundred." So when I praised Hadrian, I was running for my master. Today I run for myself; for myself, I say, and for my own talent I am writing this speech. For my own advantage, then, I shall work slowly, leisurely, and calmly.
If you are very impatient, amuse yourself meanwhile in other ways: kiss your father, embrace him, or finally praise him yourself. In any case, you must wait until August 13 to hear what you want, and in the form you want it. Farewell, Caesar, and prove worthy of your father. If you want to write anything, write it slowly.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
ad M. Caesarem 2.4 [24 Hout; 1.108 Haines] <Caesari suo consul.> 1 Posterioribus litteris tuis, cur orationem in senatu non recitaverim, requisisti. At ego et edicto gratias agere domino meo patri tuo debeo, sed edictum quidem circensibus nostris proponam; cujus principium id ipsum erit: “Qua die primum beneficio maximi principis ederem spectaculum gratissimum populo maximeque populare, tempestivom duxi esse gratiae agere ut idem dies”, hic sequatur Tulliana conclusio. Orationem autem in senatu recitabo Augustis Idibus. Quaeras fortasse cur tam tarde? Quoniam ego numquam quam primum officio sollemni quoquo modo fungi propero. Sed ut tecum agere debeo sine fuco et sine ambagibus, dicam, quid cum animo reputem. Divom Hadrianum avom tuom laudavi in senatu saepenumero studio inpenso et propenso quoque; et sunt orationes istae frequentes in omnium manibus. Hadrianum autem ego, quod bona venia pietatis tuae dictum sit, ut Martem Gradivom, ut Ditem patrem propitium et placatum magis volui quam amavi. Quare? Quia ad amandum fiducia aliqua opus est et familiaritate: Quia fiducia mihi defuit, eo, quem tantopere venerabar, non sum ausus diligere. Antoninum vero ut solem, ut diem, ut vitam, ut spiritum amo, diligo, amari me ab eo sentio. Hunc nisi ita laudo ut laudatio me non in actis senatus abstrusa lateat, sed in manibus hominum oculisque versetur, ingratus sum etiam adversus te. Tum quod cursorem fugitivom ferunt dixisse, “domino sexagena currebam; mihi centena, ut fugiam, curram”, ego quoque quom Hadrianum laudabam domino currebam; hodie autem mihi curro, mihi, inquam, meoque ingenio hanc orationem conscribo. Ad meum igitur commodum faciam lente, otiose, clementer. 2 Tu si et valde properas, aliter te interum oblecta: Basia patrem tuum, amplectere, postremo ipse eum lauda. Ceterum quidem in Idus Augustas tibi expectandum est, ut quidvis, qualevis audias. 3 Vale, Caesar, et patrem promerere; et si quid scribere vis, lente scribe.