M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
my duty as friend and heir. I was anxious that you should know of this, as of all else that concerns me, and, by heaven, I began a lengthy letter to you on this subject; but on thinking everything over I decided not to importune you or call you away from more important business.
Fronto to Antoninus Pius Augustus.
1 . . . . The modesty of my friends has ensured that I should make no unworthy request for them . . . . you have at my request enhanced the dignity of one Roman knight, Sextius Calpurnius, who lived with me,[1] by the grant of two procuratorships already. I count these two procuratorships as favours four times given: twice when you granted them, and twice when you permitted them to be declined.
2. For two years now I have been your suppliant for my friend Appianus,[2] between whom and myself there has been both a long-standing intimacy and almost daily practice of mutual studies. Moreover, I feel certain and would be bold to affirm, that he will shew the same modesty that my friend Calpurnius Julianus has. For it is to enhance his dignity in old age that he desires to attain this distinction, and not from ambition or coveting the salary of a procurator.
- ↑ Fronto had pupils who lived with him, such as the two sons of Sardius Saturninus, mentioned below.
- ↑ This was the historian Appian, who tells us in the Preface to his History that he received such an appointment from Marcus and Lucius, when emperors. These procurators were set over every department of state and of the imperial household. They managed the emperor's domains, his mines, etc., the corn-supply, the water-supply, and the alimentary institutions. In the imperial provinces the procurators were fiscal officers. The procurator a rationibus was the highest of these officials, and corresponded to a Secretary of State.
