Fronto (c. 100–176 CE), a much admired orator and rhetorician, was befriended by the emperor Antoninus Pius and teacher of his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. His correspondence offers an invaluable picture of aristocratic life and literary culture in the 2nd century.
Letters of an imperial tutor.
Theliterary remains of the rhetorician Marcus Cornelius Fronto (ca. AD100–176) first came to light in 1815, when Cardinal Mai, then prefect ofthe Ambrosian Library in Milan, discovered that beneath an account ofthe Acts of the first Council of Chalcedon in 451 had originally beenwritten a copy of the correspondence between Fronto and members of theimperial family, including no less than three who were to wear thepurple. The letters possess an extraordinary fascination as giving anauthentic record of the relationship between the foremost teacher of histime and his illustrious student Marcus Aurelius, his chiefcorrespondent. Apart from small-talk (but even that is replete withinterest) the principal subject is Latin prose style. Fronto practicesto excess the cultivation of trendy mannerisms, but sees clearly enoughthe sterility of a slavish imitation of classical models.
The Loeb Classical Library edition of Fronto is in two volumes.
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