[Sidenote: Fronto.] AN important figure in the literature of the second century was Marcus Cornelius Fronto, of Cirta, in Numidia. He was born about 100 A. D., studied under the best teachers, and was distinguished as an orator and teacher even under Hadrian, though his greatest influence was exerted under the Antonines. He became a member of the senate under Hadrian, and his speech against the Christians may have been delivered before that body. In 143 A. D. he was consul, and was to have been proconsul entrusted with the government of Asia, but relinquished that office on account of ill health. He was the teacher of Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Verus, both of whom were much attached to him, and as was natural under such circumstances, he was greatly honored and became very wealthy. Of his family life we know only that he was married, that his daughter Gratia married Gaius Aufidius Victorinus, and that five daughters were removed by death. The date of his death is unknown, but it was probably shortly after 175 A. D. Parts of Fronto’s correspondence were discovered in 1815, and from his letters, we get an idea of his style and his teaching. The correspondence is with Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Antoninus Pius, and others, and several essays are included, which were probably sent with the letters to Fronto’s correspondents. One of these essays, the _Principia Historiæ_ compares the Parthian campaigns of Verus and Trajan to the advantage of Verus. This essay was intended to serve as an introduction to a history of the deeds of Verus in the Parthian War, but the history was never written. What gives Fronto’s letters their chief interest is his teaching in regard to oratory and style. He considers rhetoric the noblest possible study, and warns Marcus Aurelius against surrendering to the charms of philosophy, but the chief end of the study of rhetoric is to acquire new and striking words and phrases. Fronto apparently despaired of acquiring new ideas or new points of view, and he saw that Latin literature could not go on forever merely imitating the writers of the Golden Age, or even those of the Silver Age. He was too much of a scholar to think of drawing from the living spring of common every-day speech, and therefore hit upon the expedient of reverting to the early writers, such as Ennius, Plautus, Accius, Cato, Sallust, and Gracchus. His language is therefore full of old-fashioned expressions used without the simplicity that belongs to the early times. That such a writer as Fronto was highly respected and exerted a powerful influence upon his contemporaries is a sign of the depth to which Roman literature had sunk.