FRONTO, MARCO AURELIO. — Orator, born ca. AD 100 in Cirta (Numidia), was tutor to M. Aurelius and L. Verus; consul in 143. His greatest renown did not come from his mediocre writings in poetry and prose, but from the close friendship he enjoyed with M. Aurelius, who calls him “magister dulcissimus” (Ep. i, 7).
He valued literature more than philosophy, from which he vainly sought to divert his imperial pupil, and he was not favorably disposed toward Christianity, which he attacked in a now-lost speech, along with all his other works; its content, however, can be inferred from the Octavius of Minucius Felix, in which the accusations against Christians are drawn from Fronto’s discourse (“Cittinesi nostri testatur oratio”; “tuus Fronto”: Oct., 31, 1–2). By endorsing such foolish accusations (worship of an ass, infanticide, orgies), he demonstrates the superficiality of his critical judgment, placing him on the level of ignorant common folk.
Of his works, the Discourses are lost. Surviving are the Letters to M. Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Antoninus Pius, and friends; the treatises: De eloquentia, De bello Parthico, De orationibus, Principia historiae, Laudes frugi et pulveris, Laudes negligentiae, De feriis Alsiensibus, and Arian.