Marcus Cornelius Fronto place of birth Cirta
Marcus Cornelius Fronto (c. 100 – late 160s AD), best known as Fronto, was a Roman grammarian, rhetorician, and advocate. Of Berber origin, he was born at Cirta (modern-day Constantine, Algeria) in Numidia. He was suffect consul for the nundinium of July-August 142 with Gaius Laberius Priscus as his colleague. Emperor Antoninus Pius appointed him tutor to his adopted sons and future emperors, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.Life
Fronto was born a Roman citizen in the year 100 in the Numidian capital, Cirta. He described himself as a Libyan of the nomadic Libyans. He was taught as a child by the Greek paedagogus Aridelus.Later, he continued his education at Rome, with the philosopher Athenodotus and the orator Dionysius.
He soon gained such renown as an advocate and orator as to be reckoned inferior only to Cicero. He amassed a large fortune, erected magnificent buildings and purchased the famous gardens of Maecenas.In 142 he was consul for two months (August and September), but declined the proconsulship of Asia on the grounds of ill-health. His latter years were embittered by the loss of all his children except one daughter. His talents as an orator and rhetorician were greatly admired by his contemporaries, a number of whom were later regarded as forming a school called after him Frontoniani; his object in his teaching was to inculcate the exact use of the Latin language in place of the artificialities of such 1st-century authors as Seneca the Younger, and encourage the use of "unlooked-for and unexpected words", to be found by diligent reading of pre-Ciceronian authors. He found fault with Cicero for inattention to that refinement, though admiring his letters without reserve. He may well have died in the late 160s, as a result of the Antonine Plague that followed the Parthian War, though conclusive proof is lacking. C.R. Haines asserts he died in 166 or 167.
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