Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 1 Haines 1919.djvu/365

M. CORNELIUS FRONTO

venture to write either to your brother or to you, that I would come to you, but I wrote to your freedman Charilas to the best of my recollection in these words: Is it convenient for me to come to them to-day? Please tell me as a man of sense and a friend of mine . . . . when I went into the palace . . . . . . . . your occupations under the new circumstances . . . . . . . . . . . .^{[† 1]}

Marcus Antoninus as Emperor to Fronto

161 A.D.

To my master.^{[† 2]}

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I have read a little of Coelius and of Cicero's speech, but as it were by stealth, certainly by snatches, so closely does one care tread on the heels of another, my one relaxation the while being to take up a book. For our little daughters are at present lodging with Matidia^[1] in the town, so that they cannot come to me in the evening owing to the keenness of the air. Farewell, my best of masters. The Lord my brother and my daughters^[2] with their mother, whose . . . . send you their affectionate greetings.

Send me something to read which you think particularly eloquent, either of your own or Cato's or Cicero's or Sallust's or Gracchus's or some poet's, for I need relaxation, and especially of such a kind that the reading of it may uplift me and shake me

1. The great-aunt of Marcus. One of the little daughters must have been Cornificia, born about 159. It is not clear who the other was. Domitia Faustina died before Marcus became emperor, and Sabina was not born yet.
2. Lucilla and Fadilia.

301

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1. About eight lines are lost.
2. A new book begins here, as the words Legi emendavi immediately before it shew, but it is not certain whether it is the second book to Antoninus. More than a column is lost here.