Marcus Cornelius Fronto (c. 100 – late 160s AD), best known asFronto, was a Roman grammarian, rhetorician, and advocate. OfBerber origin, he was born atCirta (modern-dayConstantine,Algeria) inNumidia. He wassuffect consul for thenundinium of July–August 142 withGaius Laberius Priscus as his colleague.[1] EmperorAntoninus Pius appointed him tutor to his adopted sons, the future emperorsMarcus Aurelius andLucius Verus.
Fronto was born aRoman citizen in the year 100[2] in the Numidian capital,Cirta. He described himself as a Libyan of the nomadicLibyans.[3][4] He was taught as a child by the Greek paedagogus Aridelus.[5][6]
Later, he continued his education atRome[7] with the philosopher Athenodotus and the orator Dionysius.[8][9]He soon gained such renown as an advocate and orator as to be reckoned inferior only toCicero. He amassed a large fortune, erected magnificent buildings, and purchased the famousgardens of Maecenas.[10]
In 142 he wasconsul for two months (August and September)[11] but declined the proconsulship ofAsia 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 calledFrontoniani[citation needed] after him; his object in his teaching was to inculcate the exact use of theLatin language in place of the artificialities of such 1st-century authors asSeneca the Younger and to 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 theAntonine Plague that followed theParthian War, though conclusive proof is lacking. C.R. Haines asserts he died in 166 or 167.[12]
Until 1815, the only extant works ascribed (erroneously) to Fronto were two grammatical treatises,De nominum verborumque differentiis andExempla elocutionum (the latter being really byArusianus Messius). In that year,Angelo Mai discovered in theAmbrosian library atMilan apalimpsest manuscript, on which had been originally written some of Fronto's letters to his imperial pupils and their replies; four years later Mai found several more sheets from this manuscript in the Vatican. These palimpsests had originally belonged to the famousconvent of St Columbanus atBobbio and had been written over by the monks with the acts of the FirstCouncil of Chalcedon.
The letters from the Ambrosian palimpsest, along with the other fragments, were published at Rome in 1815. The Vatican texts were added in 1823, as was the end of hisGratiarum actio pro Carthaginiensibus from another Vatican manuscript. It was not until 1956 thatBernhard Bischoff identified a third manuscript (consisting of a single leaf) that contained fragments of Fronto's correspondence with Verus which overlapped the Milan palimpsest; however, the actual manuscript had been first published in 1750 byDom Tassin, who conjectured that it might have been the work of Fronto.[13]
These fragments disappointed Romantic scholars as not matching the writer's great reputation, partly because Fronto's teachings, with their emphasis on studying ancient writers in search of striking words, were not in accordance with current fashion (Italy, where not only Mai butLeopardi enthused over them, was an exception), partly because they gave no support to the assumption that Fronto had been a wise counsellor to Marcus Aurelius (indeed, they contain no trace of political advice), and partly because his frequent complaints about ill health, especially those collected in book 5 ofAd M. Caesarem, aroused more annoyance than compassion. These adverse judgements were reversed once Fronto was read for what he was rather than what he was not, as already in the sympathetic treatment by Dorothy Brock,Studies in Fronto and his Age (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911).
The bulk of the letters consist of correspondence with Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, in which the character of Fronto's pupils appears in a very favourable light, especially in the affection they both seem to have retained for their old master.[14] There are also letters to friends, chiefly letters of recommendation, but including one (Ad amicos 1. 19) in which an out-of-sorts Fronto (ego epistulas invitissime scribo, "I hate writing letters") complains ofAulus Gellius' attempts to procure copies of his writings for publication. (Fronto appears in five chapters of theNoctes Atticae, though expressing tastes that sometime seem closer to Gellius' own than to those evinced in the letters.) The collection also contains treatises on eloquence, some historical fragments, and literary trifles on such subjects as the praise of smoke and dust, of negligence, and a dissertation onArion. In addition, a fragment of a speech is preserved byMinucius Felix (Octavius 9. 6–7) in which Fronto accuses the Christians of incestuous orgies.
Marcus Aurelius, in hisMeditations, says nothing of Fronto's rhetorical teaching; nor, although writing in Greek, does he so much as mention his teacher of Greek rhetoric and longtime friendHerodes Atticus. He does, however, credit Fronto with teaching him about the vices of tyranny and the lack of affection in the Roman upper class (1.11); since the former were commonplaces, there may be a concealed reference to life under Hadrian, whom Fronto retrospectively claims to have feared rather than loved,[15] but the latter is borne out by the master's remark that there is no Latin equivalent for the Greekphilóstorgos, meaning "affectionate".[16] The letters between Aurelius and Fronto, which reveal the intimate nature of their relationship, are the onlylove letters to survive from antiquity.[17]
Theeditio princeps was by Mai, as described above; the standard edition is the Teubner text by M. van den Hout (Leipzig, 1988). TheLoeb Classical Library printed an edition of Fronto's correspondence with a facing English translation by C. R. Haines in two volumes (1919–1920); its text, though dated, is still of interest.[to whom?] Van den Hout also published a full-scale commentary in English (Leiden, 1999).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fronto, Marcus Cornelius".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 250.| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded byas suffect consuls | Suffect consul of theRoman Empire 142 withGaius Laberius Priscus | Succeeded byas suffect consuls |
