M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
That part of your speech, which you most kindly devoted to honouring my Faustina,[1] seemed to me as true as it was eloquent. For this is the plain fact: By heaven, I would sooner live with her in Gyara[2] than in the palace without her.
Marcus Caesar to his own consul and master.
1. Whether the Greeks of old ever wrote anything so good,[3] verily let those see to it who know; for myself, if I may say so, nowhere have I noticed in M. Porcius an invective so perfect as your praise. Oh, if my Lord could be praised enough, surely he had been enough praised by you. This work is not done in these days. Easier were it for one to rival Pheidias, easier Apelles, easier, in fine, Demosthenes himself or Cato himself, than this perfect and finished fork. Never have I read anything so refined, so classical, so polished, so Latin. Oh, happy you to be gifted with such eloquence! Oh, happy I to be in the hands of such a master! What reasoned thoughts! What orderly arrangement! What elegance! What wit! What beauty! What diction! What brilliance! What subtlety! What charm! What practised skill! What everything! My life on it, but some day you ought to have the wand[4] placed in your hand, the diadem round your brow, the tribunal under your feet: then the henild should summon all of us—why do I say us? I mean all your learned folk and your eloquent—one by one you should wave them along with your wand and
- ↑ Faustina the younger, daughter of Pius, seems to be meant, as Mommsen suggested.
- ↑ An Aegean island to which banished persons were sent.
- ↑ Marcus is referring to Fronto's speech of thanks to Pius in the Senate.
- ↑ As symbol of authority.
