REMAINS OF FRONTO
be of all peoples and of all cities I pray and beseech to guard for long years to come your health, on which is based the empire of the Roman People and our safety and the liberty, dignity, and security of the provinces and of all races and nations, and to keep you safe far into the future, and the cities so that they be unharmed . . . . may you restore . . . . and may they keep their conspicuous virtues (to be) . . . . an ornament of the Latin name . . . . the mainstay of our changing fortunes.
The "Incestuous Banquets" of the Christians
And about their banquet the facts are known: they are common talk everywhere: the speech[1] of our fellow citizen from Cirta also bears witness to them:—
"On a regular day they come together for a feast with all their children and sisters and mothers, persons of both sexes and of every age. Then after much feasting, when the banquet has waxed hot and the passion of impure lust and drunkenness has been kindled in the company, a dog which has been tied to the standing lamp is incited to jump and bound up by a little cake thrown to it beyond its tether. The tell-tale light being by this means cast down and extinguished, the guests under cover of the shameless darkness embrace one another in their unspeakable concupiscence, as chance brings
- ↑ Nothing more is knowno of this speech or the attitude of Fronto towards the Christians Some of these were put to death under Lollius Urbicus, the praef. urbi at Rome in 152, and again under Rusticus in 163. Had Fronto gone to Asia as proconsul in 154 (see i. p. 237), he would have had to deal with the incident of Polycarp's martyrdom. The accusation of Θυέστια δεῖπνα against the Christians was common: see Tert. Apol. vii.; Justin, Apol. i. 26, etc.
