Marcus Cornelius Fronto→Marcus Aurelius|c. 143 AD|Marcus Cornelius Fronto|From Rome (career hub)|To Rome (career hub)|AI-assisted
To the mother of Caesar [Domitia Lucilla, mother of Marcus Aurelius].
1. Gladly, gladly, by the gods, and indeed with the keenest eagerness, I have sent my own Cratia to celebrate your birthday with you, and I would have come myself had it been permitted. But for me the magistracy stands in the way, being already, so to speak, right at my foot. For only a few days of the office are left, and during these I am more occupied than ever on account of the public duties; once free of them, I expect to run to you far more eagerly than those who run the foot-race. For they stand at the starting-rope only a very brief moment, and then are let go to run, whereas I am now for this second month already barred from my run to you.
2. It would surely have been fitting that all the women from every quarter should gather for this day and celebrate your birthday: first among the women, those who love their husbands and love their children and are chaste; second, all those who are without pretense and without falsehood; and third, that the kindly, the approachable, the courteous, and the unpuffed-up should keep the feast. And many other ranks of women there might be who share in some portion of your praise and your virtue, since you yourself possess and understand all the virtues and accomplishments that befit a woman, just as Athena possesses and understands all the arts; whereas each of the other women understands one portion of virtue and is praised for that, much as the praise of the Muses is divided up, one art to each, drawn from a single craft.
3. But if I had been the one allotted to stand before the door as a kind of usher of those worthy of the festival, the first I would have shut out, following Homer, would have been the women who counterfeit and feign good-will, who "hide one thing in their hearts and say another," and who make a pretense of everything, from laughter to tears. For laughter, which was once by nature so guileless as even to display the teeth of those who laugh, has by now come round to such a degree of malice and treachery that those who laugh with a plot behind it conceal even their lips. This is indeed a certain womanish goddess, worshipped by the greater part of women: Deceit. For of what sort is the offspring of Aphrodite, when she has fashioned it out of many and varied females...
[Several pages are missing.]
To the mother of Marcus. 1. Willingly, willingly, by heaven, aye, with the greatest pleasure possible, have I sent my Gratia to keep your birthday with you, and would have come myself had it been lawful. But for myself this office is a clog round my feet. For there are a few days of it left, and these more than ever taken up with its duties. Once released from them, methinks I shall run to you with far more eagerness than those who run the course; for they, after a moment's delay at the starting-place, are forthwith despatched on their race, while I have already been kept from running to you these two months. 2. The right thing, it seems, would have been that all women from all quarters should have gathered for this day and celebrated your birth-feast, first, all the women that love their husbands and love their children and are virtuous, and, secondly, all that are genuine and truthful, and the third company to keep the feast should have been the kind-hearted, and the affable and the accessible and the humble-minded; and many other ranks of women would there be to share in some part of your praise and virtue, seeing that you possess and are mistress of all virtues and accomplishments befitting a woman, just as Athena possesses and is mistress of every art, whereas of other women each one is mistress of some one branch of excellence and commended for it, just as the Muses are praised individually, each one for a single art. 3. But had I been at your door, acting as a sort of introducer of those who were worthy of the festival, the first I should have shut out, on Homer's authority, would have been those who make a pretence of good-will and are insincere, who "hide one thing in their hearts while their lips speak another," with whom everything, from laughter to tears, is make-believe. Truly laughter, that at first was naturally so without craft as to shew the teeth of the laugher, has now changed round to such a depth of malice and guile that those who laugh with sinister intent hide even their lips. This goddess, true woman that she is, who gets most worship from women, is Deceit, offspring, of a truth, of Aphrodite, and compact of many and various traits of womankind . . . .
To the mother of Caesar [Domitia Lucilla, mother of Marcus Aurelius].
1. Gladly, gladly, by the gods, and indeed with the keenest eagerness, I have sent my own Cratia to celebrate your birthday with you, and I would have come myself had it been permitted. But for me the magistracy stands in the way, being already, so to speak, right at my foot. For only a few days of the office are left, and during these I am more occupied than ever on account of the public duties; once free of them, I expect to run to you far more eagerly than those who run the foot-race. For they stand at the starting-rope only a very brief moment, and then are let go to run, whereas I am now for this second month already barred from my run to you.
2. It would surely have been fitting that all the women from every quarter should gather for this day and celebrate your birthday: first among the women, those who love their husbands and love their children and are chaste; second, all those who are without pretense and without falsehood; and third, that the kindly, the approachable, the courteous, and the unpuffed-up should keep the feast. And many other ranks of women there might be who share in some portion of your praise and your virtue, since you yourself possess and understand all the virtues and accomplishments that befit a woman, just as Athena possesses and understands all the arts; whereas each of the other women understands one portion of virtue and is praised for that, much as the praise of the Muses is divided up, one art to each, drawn from a single craft.
3. But if I had been the one allotted to stand before the door as a kind of usher of those worthy of the festival, the first I would have shut out, following Homer, would have been the women who counterfeit and feign good-will, who "hide one thing in their hearts and say another," and who make a pretense of everything, from laughter to tears. For laughter, which was once by nature so guileless as even to display the teeth of those who laugh, has by now come round to such a degree of malice and treachery that those who laugh with a plot behind it conceal even their lips. This is indeed a certain womanish goddess, worshipped by the greater part of women: Deceit. For of what sort is the offspring of Aphrodite, when she has fashioned it out of many and varied females...
[Several pages are missing.]
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.