Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 2 Haines 1920.djvu/307

 its extinction through the melting down of their images."

There are, besides, two or three inscriptions and one papyrus, all much mutilated, recording letters or rescripts of Marcus, one in 163 to Pontius Laelianus, consul of that year. It contains a rare word rejected by Phrynichus.

Besides the above there are extant only two letters or parts of letters that are certainly genuine. Following these are two letters from Christian sources, the letter to Euxenianus Publio with respect to Abercius, bishop of Hieropolis, and the letter to the Senate purporting to give a report of the "Miraculous Victory" over the Quadi. The fact of the victory with the unexpected salvation of the Roman army is certain, but the heathen writers attribute it to the prayers of the emperor or the incantations of an Egyptian magician.

After these two letters come ten short epistles, or parts of such, which would be of considerable interest if their authenticity were established. Till comparatively lately they were accepted unquestioningly, and afforded material for charges against Marcus. They are all found in the Scriptores Historiae Augustae, a late compilation of the fourth Century, intended as a supplement to Suetonius's Lives of the Caesars, and attributed to various authors.

But in spite of Renan and Waddington and Naber and others, who have quoted them as evidence, they cannot be regarded as genuine. They contain several 291