Fronto
- a proper name. So esp.: M. Cornelius Fronto, a famous Roman orator from Cirta, in Numidia, who lived about A. D. 90-168. Small portions of his writings have been discovered in palimpsests by Angelo Mai.—
- II Deriv. Frontōnĭānus, a, um, adj., of Fronto, Frontonian: decreta, Dig. 29, 2, 99.—Subst.: Frontōnĭāni, ōrum, m., pupils of Fronto, Frontonians, Sid. Ep. 1, 1.
was the grandson of Cornelius Fronto, the orator, by his ouly daughter, who married Aufidius Victorinus. Aufidius Fronto was consul A. D. 199, and in 217 was nominated governor of Africa, but at the solicitation of the provincials was removed by Macrinus to Asia. This appointment also was cancelled by the emperor, who offered the usual pecuniary compensation, which was refused. A monument discovered at Pesaro, erected by this individual in memory of his son, bears the following inscription :--M. AUFIDIO FRONTONI PRONEPOTI M. CORNELI FRONTONIS ORATORIS CONSULIS MAGISTRI IMPERATORUM LUCI ET ANTONINI NEPOTIS AUFIDI VICTORINI PRAEFECTI URBI BIS CONSULIS FRONTO CONSUL FILIO DULCISSIMO. (D. C. 78.22; Orelli, Inscrip. n. 1176.) [W.R]
a contemporary of Vespasian, who defended Bassus, and afterwards Varenus. He seems to have been an orator of some eminence at the time. (Plin. Ep. 4.9, 6.13.) Niebuhr, in his life of Corn. Fronto (p. 37) is inclined to believe that he is the same as the Fronto spoken of by Juvenal, and who owned the house of the poet Horace. [L.S]
of Emisa, the uncle of Longinus, taught rhetoric at Athens, and wrote many orations, in the reign of Alexander Severus. There are two epigrams by him on points of grammar in the Greek Anthology. (Suid. s. v. Φρόντων Ἐμισηνός; Brunck, Analect. vol. ii. p. 347; Jacobs., Anthol. Graec. vol. iii. p. 56, vol. xiii. p. 938.) [L.S]
is mentioned as the praefectus vigilum at the accession of Galba, A. D. 68, who deprived him of this office. He was probably restored to his office by Otho, when the latter ob tained the supreme power, A. D. 69, for we find him serving as tribune in Otho's army in the cam. paign against Caecina, the general of Vitellius. His brother, Julius Gratus, was praefect of the camp in Caecina's army, and Galba's soldiers, suspecting that Julius Fronto meditated treachery, put him in chains. His brother Gratus met with the same treatment from Caecina's soldiers, and for the same reason. (Tac. Hist. 1.20, 2.26.)
a contemporary of the emperor Tiberius, had once been invested with the praetorship, and in A. D. 16 spoke in the senate against the great luxury then prevailing. (Tac. Ann. 2.33.) [L.S]
a jurist, who probably lived about the time of Antoninus Pius, or rather earlier, for he is cited by Marcianus (who lived under Antoninus and several succeeding emperors), as if he were an elder contemporary : "Peculium nascitur, crescit, decrescit, moritur, et ideo eleganter Papirius Fronto dicebat, peculium simile esse homini." (Dig. 15. tit. 1. s. 40. pr.) Works Responsa
He published Responsa (Dig. 14. tit. 2. s. 4.2. fin.); and a third book of this work is cited by Callistratus. (Dig. 50. tit. 16. s. 220.1.) Probably not the Front who wrote the Decreta Frontiana
In Dig. 30. s. 114.7, an opinion in which Fronto agrees with Scaevola is approved of by Marcianus. It is not likely that the Decreta Frontiana upon which Aristo wrote, or on which Aristo was cited (Dig. 29. tit. 2. s. ult.), had any connection with the jurist Fronto. Jurist Fronto not to be confused with the Frontones from the age of the Antonines
There are no sufficient grounds for the identification of the jurist, or the establishment of his relationship, with any of the Frontones who are known to have lived about the age of the Antonines. Further Information
Maiansius, ad XXX. Ictorum Frag. Com. vol. ii. p. 256-263. [J.T.G]
served as commander of the cavalry under Pomponius Flaccus in B. C. 19, and conquered king Vonones on the river Pyramus. (Tac. Ann. 2.68.) [L.S]
(1) A Latin writer, born at Cirta, in Africa, of an Italian family, about A.D. 100. After studying in his own country, he came to Rome in the reign of Hadrian, and acquired great reputation as a rhetorician and grammarian. Antoninus Pius appointed him preceptor to his two adopted sons, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, whose confidence and affection he gained, as is proved by their letters. After being consul (A.D. 143), Fronto was appointed to a government in Asia, which his bad health prevented him from filling. His learning and conversation are mentioned with praise by Aulus Gellius, the historian Appian, and others of his contemporaries. He died in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, at an advanced age. Until this century we had nothing of Fronto's works, except fragments of his treatise De Differentia Verborum, being a vocabulary of the socalled synonyms; but in 1815, Angelo Mai, having discovered in the Ambrosian Library at Milan a palimpsest MS., on which had been originally written some letters of Fronto to his two pupils, deciphered the text wherever the writing was not entirely obliterated, and published it with notes. It happened, by singular good fortune, that Mai, being some years after appointed librarian of the Vatican, discovered in another palimpsest volume another part of Fronto's letters, with the answers of Marcus Aurelius and Verus. Both the volumes came originally from the monastery of St. Columbanus, at Bobbio, the monks having written them over with the Acts of the First Council of Chalcedon, and it had happened that one of the volumes was transferred to Milan and the other to Rome. Mai published the whole in a new edition (Rome, 1823 and 1846). The MSS. have been subsequently collated by Du Rieu (revision by Naber, Leipzig, 1867). These letters are very valuable, as throwing additional light on the age of the Antonines, confirming what we know of the excellent character of Marcus Aurelius, and also showing his colleague Verus in a more favourable light than he had been viewed before. Two or three short epistles of Antoninus Pius are also interesting. There are, besides, many letters of Fronto to various friends, some of which are in Greek. Fronto's style is excessively mannered, monotonous, and pedantic; he mixes Latin and Greek in a macaronic fashion; and shows himself to be a conceited prig. He was, however, an admirer of the early Roman literature and a man of upright and independent character. See Droz, De M. Corn. Frontonis Institutione Oratoria (Besançon, 1885); and on the diction, the treatise of Priebe (Stettin, 1885).
(2) A native of Emesa, a rhetorician, who lived at Rome in the time of Alexander Severus. He taught eloquence also at Athens, and was the rival of the first Philostratus. The critic Longinus was his nephew. He has left two epigrams on points of grammar (Jacobs, Anth. Graec. iii. 56; xiii. 398).