FRONTO, THE ORATOR AND THE MAN
is technically skilful but lacks distinction, and the Ring of Polycrates is decidedly tame. The Praises of Smoke and Dust and Negligence are mere tours de force, but they throw light on his theory of rhetoric.
After so long and close an intimacy as these letters reveal we are surprised to find so meagre a mention of Fronto in the gallery of Worthies, from whom he learnt enduring lessons, which Marcus sets at the head of his Thoughts. It is nothing but this:
"From Fronto, to note the envy, the subtlety, and the dissimulation, which are habitual to a tyrant; and that as a general rule those amongst us who rank as patricians are somewhat wanting in natural affection."[1]
We find no trace in these letters of the former part of this obligation but there are references to φιλοστοργία, in which Fronto says that the patricians are wholly deficient.[2] He was himself a notable exception. Marcus calls him philostorgus.[3] His devotion to his wife and daughter, and to Victorinus, her husband, and their children, shows him to us in a very amiable light. He was very fond of children, and his love for Marcus and Lucius was deep and abiding.
We cannot help liking the old man for his honest, kindly disposition, and his loyalty to a high ideal of friendship.[4] He always showed the greatest affection
- ↑ Thoughts, i. 11.
- ↑ Ad Verum, ii. 7.
- ↑ De Fer. Als. 4.
- ↑ See his letter to Pius about his friend Censorius and the letter to Appian.
