FRONTO, THE ORATOR AND THE MAN
165 A.D. One son certainly, and possibly a second, survived to manhood. The former, M. Aufidius Victorinus Fronto, was brought up in Fronto's house and lived to be consul in 199, and in an inscription[1] to his son at Pisaurum recalled his grandfather as "orator, consul, and master of Marcus and Lucius." We hear of an eloquent descendant of Fronto's, Leo by name, in the fifth century at Toulouse.[2]
Mommsen and others have supposed that Fronto lived till the year 175 at least, and possibly longer, because in the De Orationibus he mentions coins of Commodus, but it is necessary to explain the allusion in some other way than as implying the date of Commodus's participation in the Empire. For it is certain that no letter in this correspondence, as we have it, can be dated later than 166, and we find Fronto's health getting worse and worse, and the loss of his wife and grandchild in 165 also affected him greatly. There can be little doubt that he predeceased Verus and died in 166 or 167. His grateful pupil Marcus rewarded his love and fidelity with equal affection, and on his death obtained permission from the Senate to set up his statue in the Senate-house and kept his bust among his household gods.[3] No representation of him has come down to us.
He founded a school of disciples who imitated his methods in oratory and language, and he playfully alludes to his secta.[4] The Frontonian tradition had
- ↑ Corp. Inter. Lat. xi. 6334.
- ↑ Sidon. Apoll. Ep. iv. 21.
- ↑ Capit. Vit. Mar. ii. § 5.
- ↑ Ad Anton. i. 2.
