M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
perience and not by learning. Often has it been my fate to suffer in my affections. At one time it was Athenodotus the philosopher, at another Dionysius the rhetor[1] that I loved: and yet, when I reflected that he was preserved to me whom it was my fortune to love, I was less at the mercy of grief and circumstance. But if you as well as I love a noble youth,[2] distinguished for virtue and learning and fortune and modesty, you cannot go wrong if you attach yourself to him and set in him all your assurance of good fortune, since as long as he remains to us—for I confess, and make no secret of it, that I am your rival in his love—everything else is remediable and of infinitely less importance than this.
M. Aurelius to Fronto
To my master.
What do you suppose are my feelings when I think how long it is since I have seen you, and why I have not seen you? And perhaps for a few days yet, while you are perforce nursing yourself, I shall not see you. So while you are down in bed, my spirits will be down too; and when by God's grace you stand on your feet, my spirits also will stand fast, that are now fevered with the most burning longing for you. Fare ever well, soul of your Caesar, of your friend, of your pupil.
- ↑ These two were masters of Fronto; see Index. Marcus (Thoughts, i. 13) mentions Athenodotus.
- ↑ Marcus is meant.
