Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 2 Haines 1920.djvu/306

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INTRODUCTION

the form of letters.[1] They contain characteristic sayings such as "No one has a right to let his own negligence prejudice others";[2] "Let those who have charge of our interests know that the cause of liberty is to be set before any pecuniary advantage to ourselves";[3] "It would not be consistent with humanity to delay the enfranchisement of a slave for the sake of pecuniary gain";[4] "It would seem beyond measure unfair that a husband should insist upon a chastity from his wife which he does not practise himself";[5] "Nothing must be done contrary to local custom."

In answer to Ulpius Eurycles,[6] curator of Ephesus, asking what should be done with old decayed statues of preceding emperors in the Ephesian senate house, we find the interesting pronouncement, "There must be no re-working of the material into likenesses of us. For as we are not in other respects solicitous of honours for ourselves, much less should we permit those of others to be transferred to us. As many of the statues as are in good preservation should be kept under their original names, but with respect to those that are too battered to be identified, perhaps their titles can be recovered from inscriptions on their bases or from records that may exist in the possession of the Council, so that our progenitors may rather receive a renewal of their honour than

  1. e.g. those which are addressed to "My dearest Piso," "My dearest Saxa," etc. Digest, xlviii. 18, 1, §27; ibid. xxix. 5, 3, etc.
  2. Digest, ii. 16, 3.
  3. Just. Inst. iii. 11.
  4. Digest, xl. 5, 37.
  5. Augustine, de Adult. ii. 8.
  6. An inscription found at Ephesus dated 164 A.D. See Oesterr. Archäol. Instit. 1913, ii. 121.
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