M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
Caesar to Fronto.
Thank the Gods we seem to have some hopes of recovery. The diarrhoea is stopped, the feverish attacks got rid of; but the emaciation is extreme, and there is still some cough. You understand, of course, that I am telling you of our little Faustina[1] who has kept us very anxious. Mind you let me know, my master, if, as I heartily pray, your health is improving.
Fronto to Caesar.
1. Good heavens! how shocked I was on reading the beginning of your letter! It was written in such a way that I thought some danger to your health was meant. Then, when the danger, which at the beginning of your note I had taken to be yours, was shewn to be your daughter Faustina's, how transformed was my apprehension. Yet not merely transformed, but in some subtle way a little relieved. You may say, Did my daughter's danger seem of less account to you than mine? Could it so seem to you, who protest that "Faustina is to you as a limpid light, as a gala day, as a near and dear hope, as a wish fulfilled, as an unalloyed delight, as a glory noble and assured"? I know, indeed, what came into my mind on reading your letter, but why it came to be so I do not know: I do not know, I say, why I was more shocked at your danger than at your daughter's, unless, perchance, though things be
- ↑ Annia Galeria Faustina, born probably early in 146. She died in infancy, and Herodes set up an inscription to her at Olympia (Dessau, ii. 8803).
