M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
Fronto to Aufidius Victorinus his son-in-law, greeting.[1]
I have had severe pain in the eyes . . . . No pain or lumbago in the side or back came on. The Greeks call the back-bone ἱερὸν ὀστοῦν (the sacred bone): Suetonius Tranquillus calls it the sacred spine. For my part I would gladly not know the Greek or Latin name of a single member, if I could only live without pain in it.
Fronto to Arrius Antoninus,[2] greeting.
. . . . . . . . He has been brought to my notice by learned men and close friends of my own, whose personal wishes rightly have the greatest weight with me. Therefore, if you love me, accord to Volumnius so much respect and opportunity of gaining your friendship, for very dear friends have enlisted my sympathy for him. Therefore I would ask you to welcome him with such kindly friendship as the great Achilles wished to shew, when he bid the son of Menoetius mix the wine stronger.[3]
- ↑ Publ. Consentius, in his Ars Grammatica, p. 2031, 16 (Putsch), quotes from Fronto, et illae vestrae Athenae Dorocorthoro (Rheims), words which were probably contained in a letter to Victorinus in his province.
- ↑ An interesting personality and a relative, probably, of Pius. We have his cursus honorum in an inscription set up by the municipality of Concordia (Corp. Inscr. Lat. v. 1874). There is an inscription also set up to him at Cirta (see Dessau, 1119). Tertullian (Ad Scap. 5) gives us an interesting anecdote of him in connection with a persecution of Christians in Asia Minor, 184–5.
- ↑ Hom. Il. ix. 203. The son of Menoetius was Patroclus. Plutarch (Symp. v. 4) discusses the meaning of these words. See also Athen. x. 6. The usual texts of Homer read κέραιε.
