He was _praetor urbanus_ 70 A.D., and in 75 succeeded Cerealis as governor oi Britain, where, as Tacitus tells us, he distinguished himself by the conquest of the Silures: _sustinuit molem Iulius Frontinus, vir magnus, quantum licebat, validamque et pugnacem Siturum gentem armis subegit_: ‘Julius Frontinus was equal to the burden, a great man as far as greatness was then possible (i.e. under the jealous rule of Domitian), who subdued by his arms the powerful and warlike tribe of the Silures.’ In 97 he was nominated _curator aquarum_, administrator of the aqueducts of Rome: the closing years of his life were passed in studious retirement at his villa on the Bay of Naples. Cf. Mart. X. lviii. 2. Works. Two works of his are extant:-- (1) +De Aquis Urbis Romae.+--A treatise on the Roman water-supply, published under Trajan, soon after the death of Nerva, 97 A.D.; a complete and valuable account. (2) +Strategemata.+--A manual of strategy, in three books, consisting of historical examples derived chiefly from Sallust, Caesar, and Livy. 3. Style. Simple and concise: ‘he shuns the conceits of the period and goes back to the republican authors, of whom (and especially of Caesar’s Commentaries) his language strongly reminds us.’ --Cruttwell. As a mark of his unaffected modesty, Pliny (_Ep._ ix. 19) tells us: _vetuit exstrui monimentum: sed quibus verbis? ‘impensa monimenta supervacua est: memoria nostri durabit, si vita meruimus_.’ AULUS GELLIUS, circ. 123-175 A.D. 1. Life. [Sidenote: GELLIUS.] All that is known about his life is gathered from occasional hints in his own writings. He seems to have spent his early years at Rome, studying under the most famous teachers, first at Rome and afterwards at Athens, and then to have returned to Rome, where he spent the remaining years of his life in literary pursuits and in the society of a large circle of friends. 2. Works. The +Noctes Atticae+ (so called because it was begun during the long nights of winter in a country house in Attica) in twenty books consists of numerous extracts from Greek and Roman writers on subjects connected with history, philosophy, philology, natural science and antiquities, illustrated by abundant criticisms and discussions. It is, in fact, a commonplace book, and the arrangement of the contents is merely casual, following the course of his reading of Greek and Latin authors. The work is, however, of special value to us from the very numerous quotations from ancient authors preserved by him alone. 3. Style. His language is sober but full of archaisms, which he much affected (he gives, therefore, no quotations from post-Augustan writers). His style shows the defects of an age in which men had ceased to feel the full meaning of the words they used, and strove to hide the triviality of a subject under obscure phrases and florid expression. Yet, on the whole, he is a very interesting writer, and the last that can in any way be called classical.