Marcus Cornelius Fronto - Wikipedia Marcus Cornelius Fronto From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search 2nd century Roman rhetorician and advocate Marcus Cornelius Fronto (c. 100 – late 160s), best known as Fronto, was a Roman grammarian, rhetorician, and advocate. Of Berber origin, he was born at Cirta in Numidia. He was suffect consul for the nundinium of July-August 142 with Gaius Laberius Priscus as his colleague.[1] Emperor Antoninus Pius appointed him tutor to his adopted sons and future emperors, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. Contents 1 Life 2 Surviving works 3 References 4 Further reading 5 External links Life[edit] Fronto was born a Roman citizen in the year 100[2] in the Numidian capital, Cirta. He described himself as a Libyan of the nomadic Libyans.[3][4] He was taught as a child by the Greek paedagogus Aridelus.[5][6] Later, he continued his education at Rome,[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 to Cicero. He amassed a large fortune, erected magnificent buildings and purchased the famous gardens of Maecenas.[10] In 142 he was consul for two months (August and September),[11] but declined the proconsulship of Asia 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 called after him Frontoniani; his object in his teaching was to inculcate the exact use of the Latin language in place of the artificialities of such 1st-century authors as Seneca the Younger, and 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 the Antonine Plague that followed the Parthian War, though conclusive proof is lacking. C.R. Haines asserts he died in 166 or 167.[12] Surviving works[edit] Until 1815, the only extant works ascribed (erroneously) to Fronto were two grammatical treatises, De nominum verborumque differentiis and Exempla elocutionum (the latter being really by Arusianus Messius). In that year, Angelo Mai discovered in the Ambrosian library at Milan a palimpsest 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 famous convent of St Columbanus at Bobbio, and had been written over by the monks with the acts of the First Council of Chalcedon. The letters from the Ambrosian palimpsest, together with the other fragments, were published at Rome in 1815. The Vatican texts were added in 1823, as well as the end of his Gratiarum actio pro Carthaginiensibus from another Vatican manuscript. It was not until 1956 that Bernhard 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 by Dom 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 but Leopardi 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), partly because his frequent complaints about ill-health, especially those collected in book 5 of Ad 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 of Aulus Gellius' attempts to procure copies of his writings for publication. (Fronto appears in five chapters of the Noctes 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 on Arion. In addition, a fragment of a speech is preserved by Minucius Felix (Octavius 9. 6-7) in which Fronto accuses the Christians of incestuous orgies. Marcus Aurelius, in his Meditations, 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 friend Herodes 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 Greek philóstorgos, meaning "affectionate".[16] The letters between Aurelius and Fronto, which reveal the intimate nature of their relationship, are the only love letters (homoerotic or not) to survive from antiquity.[17] The editio princeps was by Mai, as described above; the standard edition is the Teubner text by M. van den Hout (Leipzig, 1988). The Loeb 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. Van den Hout also published a full-scale commentary in English (Leiden, 1999). References[edit] ^ Werner Eck, "Die Fasti consulares der Regungszeit des Antoninus Pius, eine Bestandsaufnahme seit Géza Alföldys Konsulat und Senatorenstand" in Studia epigraphica in memoriam Géza Alföldy, hg. W. Eck, B. Feher, and P. Kovács (Bonn, 2013), p. 73 ^ "or a year or two earlier", C.R. Haines, p.lii. See also p. xxiii: "The probable date of his birth is 100 A.D., and in any case before 113 A.D." ^ Ad M. Caesarem 2. 3. 5; cf. A. R. Birley, The African Emperor (London: Batsford, 1999), 43. ^ Edward Champlin, Fronto and Antonine Rome (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1980), 7–8. ^ Ballif, Michelle; Moran, Michael G. (2005). Classical Rhetorics and Rhetoricians: Critical Studies and Sources. Greenwood. p. 83. ISBN 978-0313321788. ^ Hout, Michel P J (1999). A Commentary on the Letters of M. Cornelius Fronto. Brill. p. 1. ISBN 978-9004109575. ^ Champlin, Fronto, 20 ^ Fronto, M. Cornelius (2014). Fronto: Selected Letters. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 163. ISBN 978-1780934426. ^ Greek Letters-Marcus Cornelius Fronto ^ Aulus Gellius, 19.10 ^ W. Eck and M. M. Roxan in Festschrift für Hans Lieb 1995, p. 79-99 ^ "There can be little doubt that he predeceased Verus and died in 166 or 167". C.R. Haines, p. xl. ^ This account of Fronto's rediscovery is based on L.D. Reynolds (editor), Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 173f. ^ Amy Richlin, Marcus Aurelius in Love (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006). ^ Ad M. Caesarem 2.4.1; a certain distancing from Hadrian may be observed in the actions of Antoninus Pius and the words of Marcus Aurelius. ^ Ad Verum 1.6.7, Ad amicos 1.3.3 (margin). ^ Amy Richlin (trans.), Marcus Aurelius in Love, University of Chicago Press, 2007 Further reading[edit] Champlin, E. 1980. Fronto and Antonine Rome. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press. Claassen, J. M. 2009. "Cornelius Fronto: A “Libyan Nomad” at Rome." Acta Classica 52:47–71. Fleury, P. 2012. "Marcus Aurelius’ Letters." In A Companion to Marcus Aurelius. Edited by M. van Ackeren, 62–76. Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell. Freisenbruch, A. 2007. "Back to Fronto: Doctor and Patient in His Correspondence with an Emperor." In Ancient Letters: Classical and Late Antique Epistolography. Edited by R. Morello and A. D. Morrison, 235–256. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. Kemezis, A. M. 2010. "Lucian, Fronto, and the Absence of Contemporary Historiography Under the Antonines." American Journal of Philology 131:285–325. Keulen, W. 2014. "Fronto and Apuleius: Two African Careers in the Roman Empire." In Apuleius and Africa. Edited by B. Todd Lee, E. Finkelpearl, and L. Graverini, 129–153. London: Routledge. Mullen, A. 2015. “In Both Our Languages:" Greek-Latin Code-switching in Roman Literature." Language and Literature 24:213–232. Richlin, A. 2011. "Parallel Lives: Domitia Lucilla and Cratia, Fronto and Marcus." Eugesta 1:163–203. Ronnick, M. V. 1997. "Substructural Elements of Architectonic Rhetoric and Philosophical Thought in Fronto’s Epistles." In Roman Eloquence: Rhetoric in Society and Literature. Edited by W. J. Dominik, 229–245. London and New York: Routledge. Wei, R. 2013. "Fronto and the Rhetoric of Friendship." Cahiers des études anciennes 50: 67-93. External links[edit] Wikisource has original works written by or about: Marcus Cornelius Fronto Library resources about Marcus Cornelius Fronto Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries By Marcus Cornelius Fronto Online books Resources in your library Resources in other libraries The correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto. Edited and translated by C. R. Haines (1919). Volume 1, Volume 2, at the Internet Archive. Alternate links to the same: Loeb edition vol. 1 and Loeb edition vol. 2 M. Cornelius Fronto: Epistulae (Latin text)  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain:  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fronto, Marcus Cornelius". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 250. Political offices Preceded by Lucius Granius Castus, and Tiberius Junius Julianus as suffect consuls Suffect consul of the Roman Empire 142 with Gaius Laberius Priscus Succeeded by Lucius Tusidius Campester, and Quintus Cornelius Senecio Annianus as suffect consuls Authority control General Integrated Authority File 2 ISNI 1 VIAF 1 2 3 4 5 WorldCat National libraries Norway Spain France (data) Catalonia United States Czech Republic Australia Greece Croatia Netherlands Poland Sweden Vatican Scientific databases CiNii (Japan) Other Faceted Application of Subject Terminology RERO (Switzerland) 1 SUDOC (France) 1 Trove (Australia) 1 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marcus_Cornelius_Fronto&oldid=1019167212" Categories: 100s births 160s deaths 2nd-century Berber people 2nd-century Romans 2nd-century writers Ancient Roman rhetoricians Berber writers Cornelii Latin letter writers Romans from Africa Silver Age Latin writers Suffect consuls of Imperial Rome Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLG identifiers Wikipedia articles with NSK identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with VcBA identifiers Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers Wikipedia articles with FAST identifiers Wikipedia articles with RERO identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Wikipedia articles with multiple identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikisource Languages Asturianu Български Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Español Français Հայերեն Hrvatski Italiano עברית Latina Magyar مصرى Nederlands Polski Português Русский Slovenčina Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 21 April 2021, at 21:25 (UTC). 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