Page:Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto volume 2 Haines 1920.djvu/308

 later words, and their style is rhetorical and unworthy of the subjects treated. The puerile playing upon words, Avidius avidus, etc. betrays their artificial character. Writing of Cassius, the general who conducted the Parthian war to a successful conclusion and afterwards in 175 rebelled against Marcus, the latter is represented as quoting from Suetonius instead of giving his own opinions. Moreover facts mentioned in the letters are at variance with what is known from other sources. For instance, Marcus was not in or near Rome in 175, as required by the Faustina correspondence; nor was Pompeianus, his son-law, consul in 176; nor was Lucius ever spoken of as grandson of Pius, but always as his son and the brother of Marcus; nor could Fadilla in 175 be alluded to as puella virgo, for by that time she would have been twenty-five and almost certainly married.

It is also incredible that Avidius Cassius should have contemplated revolt, and so openly as to arouse definite suspicions in the mind of Verus, so long before the actual outbreak. We know from Fronto's letters that Verus and Cassius were on excellent terms as late as 165, and Fronto's own letter to him shews the estimation in which he was then held. When Cassius revolted, Marcus felt it deeply as the defection of a friend. Equally rhetorical and fictitious is a letter said to be from Cassius to his son-in-law: "Marcus is assuredly an excellent man, but while he covets a reputation for clemency, he lets those live whose lives he does not approve. Where is Lucius Cassius, whose name I bear in vain? 292