Introduction
criticism of Seneca they find an effective place. He never grasped the fact that comparatio is not ratio. Whether he was proof against the seductive powers of the simile in the speeches which earned for him the epithets gravis and siccus we do not know, but the fragment on overseas wills is not free from this favourite device. One thing seems highly probable, that, if the bulk of Fronto’s speeches should ever be recovered, we should form a much higher opinion of his abilities. As it is we can say of him, and this is surely much, that he was vir bonus dicendi peritus.
Introduction
1. M. Cornelii Frontonis Opera inedita cum Epistulis item ineditis Antonini Pii, M. Aurelii, L. Veri, et Appiani, necnon aliorum fragmentis. Invenit et commentario praevio notisque illustravit Angelus Maius. Pars prior. Pars altera, cui adduntur seu edita seu cognita eiusdem Frontonis opera: Mediolani, regiis typis, 1815, 4to.1
This first edition only contained the Fronto leaves from the Ambrosian Codex with a facsimile page of the MS., followed by the two works previously attributed to Fronto, viz. De Differentiis Vocabulorum and Exempla Elocutionum, together with the passages in Aulus Gellius where Fronto is mentioned. Republished in 1816 at Frankfort, without second part.
2. M. Cornelii Frontonis Reliquiae ab Angelo Maio primum editae: meliorem in ordinem digestas suisque et Ph. Buttmanni, L. F. Heindorfii ac selectis a Maii animad cersionibius instructas iterum edidit B. G. Niebuhrius, C.F. Accedunt Liber de Differentiis Vocabulorum et ab eodem a Maio primum edita Q. Aurelii Symmachi octo orationum fragmenta: Berolini, mdcccxvi.
This was a great advance on Mai’s edition, many of his erroneous readings being corrected, the text itself emended in various places, the dislocated fragments better arranged, and valuable notes added.
3. M. Cornelii Frontonis et M. Aurelii Imperatoris Epistulac: L. Veri et Antonini Pii et Appiani Epistularum reliquiae: Fragmenta Frontonis et Scripta Grammatica. Editio prima Romana plus centum epistulis aucta ex codice rescripto bibliothccae pontificiae Vaticanae, curante Angelo Maio: Romae, mdcccxxiii.