M. CORNELIUS FRONTO
hearth, altar, sacred grove and consecrated tree—for I was staying in the country. And now I am waiting to hear from your next letter how much the intervening days have done towards restoring your strength. For, indeed, much greater care and attention are required now, that you may fill your veins gradually and not be in too great a haste to repair your lost strength. For it is a belief verified and traditional that blood when in excess must be promptly drawn off, but must subsequently be regained by slow degrees.
I pray and beseech you, my Lord, take heed, as befits your eminent character, to be sparing and temperate and restrained[1] in all your desires which now, after the abstinence which you have practised on a necessary occasion, must necessarily make themselves felt more keenly and more importunately than usual.
Greet my Lord your brother,[2] whose health you will ensure if you are well. Farewell, most sweet Lord.
Fronto to Velius Rufus Senex,[3] greeting.
The figures in a speech are what most set off a speech. There are two kinds of figures, for there are verbal figures or figures of thought. Among the former are trope and metaphor.[4] I employed this figure[5] when I applied the word slough to a body in
- ↑ If Capit. (Vit. Ver. 6, § 7) is to be trusted, there was much need of this exhortation.
- ↑ Marcus hurried to Canusium to see him; see Capit. ibid.
- ↑ Nothing more is certainly known of him.
- ↑ Cicero (Brut. 17), following Greek precedent, separated tropes from figures. We use trope for the metaphorical use of a word.
- ↑ Perhaps in the speech Pro Bithynis mentioned below.
