INTRODUCTION
Marcus as Letter-writer
Perhaps the more interesting part of the Fronto correspondence is that which contains the letters of Marcus and Pius. But we cannot fairly judge of their epistolary style from these alone. Philostratus says[1] that "in his opinion the best letter writers for style were . . . . of kings the deified Marcus in the letters he wrote himself, for the firmness (τὸ ἑδραῖον) of his character was reflected in his writing by his choice of language; and of orators Herodes the Athenian, though by his over-atticism and prolixity[2] he often oversteps the bounds proper to the epistolary style."
Marcus was a prolific letter-writer. According to Capitolinus[3] he defended himself against calumny by letters. To his friends he sometimes, as we see below, wrote three times in one day. On one occasion he tells us that he had dictated thirty letters,[4] but these were probably official correspondence. Nearly 200 of his imperial rescripts are extant, which though interesting would be out of place here. Many are in
- ↑ Epistles, p. 364, Kayser.
- ↑ We have only one letter of his, and it certainly is not prolix, for it consists of but one word, ἐμάνης, addressed to Avidius Cassius when he revolted.
- ↑ Vit. Mar. xxii. 6; xxix. 6; cp. xxiii. 7, 9.
- ↑ See i. p. 185.
