Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 1 Haines 1919.djvu/45

 for his rhetorical flights Fronto is ever urging Marcus to "be bold; be bold, and evermore be bold."

Finally came the writing of themes and controversiae, in which the pros and cons of any question, historical or fictitious, are discussed as by a forensic speaker.

Whether after all this study Marcus became a really accomplished speaker is not known. We have too little to judge by. But at all events he had mastered thoroughly the principles of the art, and that he was straightforward, sensible, and practical in his official orations is certain. The Senate, the soldiers, and the people alike heard him with eagerness.

There are several passages in this work where Fronto tries his hand at descriptive narrative, and two in which he essays the rôle of historian. But his view of history, and how it should be written, was thoroughly mistaken. His eyes are not on the facts, but on the best way to show his rhetorical skill in commonplace or panegyric. His efforts therefore in this direction are useless as history and of no account as literature. The descriptive passages are more successful, the best being the apologue on sleep, translated by Pater in his Marius the Epicurean. A favourable specimen is the mutilated passage referring to Orpheus at the beginning of Ad Marcum, iv. Arion xxxvii