Delphi Complete Works of Fronto (Illustrated)

ENDNOTES

1 Certainly an early letter, possibly the earliest preserved (see § 4). In a subsequent letter to Marcus, as Emperor, it seems to be referred to as prima ilia lougiuscula epistula (see Ad Ant. i. 2). Marcus became consul in 140, and this fact could scarcely have been ignored in § 6.

2 The Latin phrase verba dare alicui means “to use mere words to a person,” i.e. to deceive him. It is difficult to reproduce the subtle play on the words.

3 i.e. “to rinse the mouth.”

4 i.e. “to swab the flagged floor in the baths.”

5 “To bathe the cheeks in tears.”

6 “To wash clothes.”

7 “To wash off sweat and dust.”

8 “To scour out.”

9 “To water mead.”

10 “To gargle the throat.”

11 “To scrub out a horse’s frog.”

12 As it happens, it might mean one or two other things in English.

13 Used in the sense of supprimo, “checked.”

14 cp. below, Ad Caes, ii. 5, Ad Ant. i. 2, ad med.

15 Marcus (see Thoughts, iii. 14) possibly wrote some sort of History of the Greeks and Romans, which Nicephorus Callistus (iii. 31) may perhaps refer to. But Marcus in his Thoughts, i. 17 ad fin., disclaims the study of histories.

16 Gratia was Fronto’s wife. He had also a daughter Gratia, who was married about 160, and so probably born between 140 and 145.

17 Domitia Lucilla, the widow of Annius Verus. The adopted mother of Marcus, the elder Faustina, wife of Pius, died between July 140 and July 141.

18 The second of these must be the preceding letter. The other may possibly be the first letter given above.

19 His other pupil, Lucius Verus, also pays Fronto this compliment (Ad Ver. ii. 2). But Marcus, in his tribute to Fronto in his Thoughts (i. 11), omits all mention of it.

20 This title can stand for the mother of Marcus as it does in the previous letter, or for Faustina the elder, his adopted mother, or, after his marriage in 145, for his wife Faustina the younger.

21 A proverb for unflinching justice or determination.

22 The Discourse on Love which follows.

23 The speech of thanks to Pius in the Senate for being given the title of Caesar in the year 139 is probably meant.

24 cp. Hor. Ars Poet. 441.

25 Possibly Lorium, twelve miles from Rome, where Pius had a villa.

26 If the preceding sentence can be taken to imply that his mother Lucilla was away, this must refer to Faustina the elder, wife of Pius.

27 This is the piece referred to in the previous letter.

28 He is alluding to the speeches of Lysias and Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus. Philostratus (Ep. 6) sums up the opinions expressed in them thus: τὸ μὲν μὴ ἐρῶντι χαρίζεσθαι, Λυσίου δόξα• τῷ δὲ ἐρῶντι, δοκεῖ Πλάτωνι.

29 As your relations with him imply.

30 καλός was the recognised tribute to the victorious boy-athlete, and is constantly so used on vases. See also Aristoph. Vespae, 199.

31 cp. Lucian, De Saltat. 16: τοὺς ἐξαγορεύοντας τὰ μυστήρια ἐξορχεῖσθαι λέγουσιν οἱ πολλοί.

32 Possibly the sunflower (Girasole), or marigold; see Shaks. Sonnets, xxv. 6.

33 Orator and master seem both to refer to Fronto. We do not know what he may have said about Lais.

34 Referring to a letter not preserved.

35 Off Naples. It is mentioned in connection with Marius by Plutarch.

36 Probably the mother of Marcus, to whom Fronto sends a greeting in the next letter.

37 His adopted father, the emperor Antoninus Pius.

38 For the honour of being made “Caesar” in 139. It could no doubt refer to the Consulship in 145, or the Tribunicia Potestas in 147; but these dates are too late.

39 Marcus painted this portrait with a loving hand in his Thoughts, i. 6, vi. 30.

40 There were two rhetoricians of this name, one of Byzantium, the other of Gadara. The latter is probably meant.

41 We have more on the subject in a letter to Marcus’s mother (Epist. Graec. 1).

42 The best of such nugalia that we possess is Lucian’s on the Fly. Dio wrote one on the Gnat, and even Plato on Fever. There were others on Gout, Blindness, Deafness, and Baldness. cp. also Augustine, De Vera Relig. lxxvii., who says that some had written the praises of ashes and dung verissime atque uberrime.

43 Horace, Od. i. 2, 31

44 Homer, Il. xiv. 350.

45 A philosopher and rhetorician of Arles, a friend of the emperor Hadrian and of Herodes Atticus and Fronto.

46 Especially worshipped by Pius and Marcus.

47 These words point to an early letter.

48 cp. Thoughts, viii. 30, and below, Ad Ant. i. 1.

49 This would seem to be an early letter, in spite of its position in the Codex.

50 On the coast of Etruria (now Civita Vecchia), 47 miles from Rome. Pius inherited the magnificent villa built there by Trajan.

51 i.e. for the purpose of writing or study.

52 Possibly Fronto had brought Marcus some books from Rome.

53 Centumcellae.

54 Fronto follows Herodotus, as Gellius also professes to do. Fronto probably intended this piece to be a model of narrative style for his pupil. It seems to be of the matter-of-fact style (siccum genus) for which Fronto was celebrated.

55 Or possibly “love of his art.”

56 This and the next four letters refer to a trial at Rome, in which the famous Greek rhetorician, Herodes Atticus, one of Marcus’s teachers and his friend, was accused by the Athenians of various crimes. Their principal spokesman was Demostratus, who is mentioned again, Ad Ver. ii. 9. Of the circumstances we only know what the Letters tell us. But a very similar accusation was brought against him nearly thirty years later (see Philostratus, Vit. Soph. p. 242, Kayser). Herodes must have been honourably acquitted on the present occasion, as he was made consul in 143. The trial, one must suppose, preceded the consulship, as he could hardly have been elected to it with such accusations hanging over him.

57 Marcus practised what he preached in the second trial of Herodes, mentioned above.

58 His maternal grandfather. It seems as if Herodes was not yet a teacher of Marcus.

59 Fronto is probably punning on Marcus’s name Verus. Hadrian gave him the pet name of Verissimus, which Justin Martyr also uses, and it appears on the coins of Tyras on the Euxine.

60 We can scarcely keep the assonance: “It is not right that such a wight.”

61 Lit. “keep at a distance with darts.”

62 It is curious that Fronto did not know of this friendship and, indeed, more about such a man as Herodes.

63 Herodes himself is meant, not his son, as generally supposed. His father left by his will a yearly sum of money to every Athenian citizen. But Herodes compounded with the Athenians for a single payment of 5 minae. However, by deducting from this sum moneys owed by them to his father, he exasperated the citizens against himself, and this may have caused the high-handed proceedings described here. See Philost. Vit. Soph. 236,...