FRONTO, THE ORATOR AND THE MAN
He remained for the rest of his life on the most intimate and affectionate terms with the court, and there is no evidence that he abused his position in any way. He was not, however, above flattering his royal pupils on occasion, for he could scarcely have believed himself, when he attributed to Marcus the abilities of the great Julius or to Lucius the military genius of a Marius or a Vespasian. Still at times he could tell Marcus some home truths, and at all events impressed both his charges with his sincerity and love of truth.[1] It was more excusable in Marcus to overrate, as he did, Fronto's oratorical gifts, and to set him beside Cato, Gracchus, Sallust, and Cicero, asserting that he alone of present-day orators talked Latin.[2]
When the time came for Fronto to receive a provincial appointment, the lot gave him Asia. He made preparations to take up his duties there, but a more than usually serious attack of illness supervened, and he was obliged to beg off his appointment.
His political life being now ended, Fronto devoted his remaining years to his profession of eloquence and to literature. Aulus Gellius[3] gives us a picture of him as one of the recognized leaders in the intellectual salons of the time, where questions of literature and archaeology were habitually discussed. He is there seen surrounded by all the great authors
- ↑ Ad M. Caes. iii. 12, Ad Verum, ii. 2 (verique amorem).
- ↑ Ad M. Caes. ii. 13; Ad Ant. i. 4.
- ↑ Noctes Atticae, ii. 26, xiii. 23, xix. 8, 10, 13.
