M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
Fronto to Marcus as Caesar
To my Lord.
I love you ten times as much—I have seen your daughter![1] I seem to have seen you as well as Faustina in your infancy: so much that is good in both your faces is blended in hers. I love you ten times as much. Farewell, sweetest of Lords. Greet your Lady.
Marcus Aurelius to Fronto
To my master.
We too love Gratia the more for her likeness to you.[2] So we can easily understand how our little girl's likeness to both of us endears her to you, and in every way it is a delight to me that you have seen her. Farewell, my best of masters.
Fronto to Marcus as Caesar
To my Lord.
This is the third day that I have been troubled all night long with griping in the stomach and diarrhoea. Last night, indeed, I suffered so much that I have not been able to go out, but am keeping my bed. The doctors recommend a bath. I have prayed the Gods to give you many happy returns of the day.[3] Farewell, my Lord. Greet your Lady.
- ↑ Probably Domitia Faustina, who died as an infant. See inscription on the Moles Hadriana, Orelli 672 = Willmi. 964. Cornificia, the next daughter, was not born till about 159.
- ↑ Ehrenthal thinks that Marcus should have said: "We too love you the more because Gratia is like you. (So we can understand how our likeness to our baby endears us to you."
- ↑ April 26 (? 156).
