M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
Fronto to Marcus Aurelius as Caesar
To my Lord.
I am confined to my bed. If I should be fit for the journey when you go to Centumcellae[1] I shall see you, please God, at Lorium on the seventh day before the Ides. Make my apologies to my Lord your father, whom—may heaven preserve you both—I love and honour all the more intensely since the excellent decision in the Senate, which, while safeguarding the interests of the provinces, at the same time gently rebuked the offenders.
When you inaugurate your game preserve, be sure that you remember, without fail, if you strike a beast, to set your horse at full gallop. Of course you will bring Galba to Centumcellae, or can you be at Lorium,[2] on the 8th before the Ides? Farewell, my Lord, please your father, greet your mother, miss me. You know better than I what Cato says of Galba's acquittal.[3] As far as I remember he was acquitted for the sake of his nephews. But see for yourself what the truth of the matter is. Cato, in consequence, is of opinion that no one should bring into court his own or others' children to excite pity, nor wives nor relations, nor any women at all. Greet my Lady your mother.
Marcus Aurelius to Fronto
To my master.
I did not write to you in the morning, hearing that you were better, and being myself engaged in
- ↑ A splendid villa of Trajan's on the Etrurian coast, now Civita Vecchia. Pliny, Ep. vi. 31, gives a good description of it.
- ↑ Between Rome and Centumcellae on the Via Aurelia.
- ↑ He was tried for massacring nearly the whole nation of the Lusitanians by means of the basest treachery. Cato, though eighty-five years old, was his accuser. Galba brought his sons and one nephew into court to excite pity.
