VITA
de vita eiushis lifeSex. Iulius Frontinus circa annum XL p.C.n. natus est; origo eius incerta est, fortasse Gallia Narbonensis. Bello Civiliano (anno LXX) Lingones, opulentissima Galliae civitas, septuaginta milia armatorum ei tradiderunt, ut ipse in Strategematis narrat. Praetor urbanus anno LXX fuit, et post consulatum (anno LXXIII vel LXXIV) Britanniam circa annos LXXIV–LXXVII rexit, ubi, ut Tacitus ait, validam et pugnacem Silurum gentem armis subegit.
Sextus Julius Frontinus was born about A.D. 40; his origins are uncertain, perhaps in Narbonese Gaul. In the revolt of Civilis (70) the Lingones, a rich Gallic people, surrendered seventy thousand armed men to him, as he records in his Stratagems. He was urban praetor in 70, and after his consulship (73 or 74) governed Britain from about 74 to 77, where, as Tacitus says, he subdued by arms the strong and warlike people of the Silures in south Wales.
De re militari librum scripsit, qui periit, et Strategemata, exempla callide facta ad usum ducum digesta. Anno XCVII Nerva eum curatorem aquarum fecit; aquae ductus ipse inspexit, fraudes aquariorum et fistulas furtivas detexit, eaque omnia in libro De Aquaeductu descripsit. Scripsit, ut ait, ut officium sibi delegatum cognosceret, cum nihil aeque indecorum tolerabili viro putaret quam delegatum officium ex adiutorum praeceptis agere.
He wrote a treatise on military science, now lost, and the Strategemata, a collection of stratagems arranged for the use of commanders. In A.D. 97 Nerva made him curator of Rome's water supply; he inspected the aqueducts himself, uncovered the frauds of the water-men and their illegal taps, and described it all in On the Aqueducts. He wrote it, he says, to understand the duty entrusted to him, thinking nothing so unbecoming to a responsible man as to perform an entrusted duty on his assistants' instructions.
Iterum cum Traiano anno XCVIII et tertium anno C consul fuit, honore raro, et augur; in eo sacerdotio Plinius Minor ei successit. Circa annum CIII mortuus est, cum monumentum sibi exstrui vetuisset; de qua re Plinius Minor in epistula eum cum Verginio Rufo comparat. De agrorum mensura quoque scripsit, cuius fragmenta inter gromaticos supersunt.
He was consul for a second time with Trajan in 98 and a third time in 100, a rare honour, and served as augur; Pliny the Younger succeeded him in that priesthood. He died about A.D. 103, having forbidden anyone to build him a monument, a choice Pliny the Younger discussed in a letter comparing him with Verginius Rufus. Fragments of his work on land surveying also survive.
TEMPORA
res gestaetimeline- c. 40 p.C.n.c. A.D. 40Nascitur.Born.
- 70 p.C.n.A.D. 70Praetor urbanus.Urban praetor.
- c. 74–77 p.C.n.c. A.D. 74–77Britanniam regit; Silures subigit.Governs Britain; subdues the Silures.
- 97 p.C.n.A.D. 97Curator aquarum.Curator of the water supply.
- 98 p.C.n.A.D. 98Iterum consul.Consul for the second time.
- 100 p.C.n.A.D. 100Tertium consul.Consul for the third time.
- c. 103 p.C.n.c. A.D. 103Moritur.Dies.
SENTENTIAE
verba ipsiusin his own wordsImpensa monumenti supervacua est; memoria nostri durabit, si vita meruimus.
The cost of a monument is superfluous; my memory will last if my life has deserved it.
Frontinus ap. Plin. Ep. IX.19.6
Tot aquarum tam multis necessariis molibus pyramidas videlicet otiosas compares aut cetera inertia sed fama celebrata opera Graecorum.
Compare with these many indispensable structures carrying so much water the idle pyramids, or the useless though famous works of the Greeks.
Front. Aq. 16
Nihil enim aeque indecorum tolerabili viro puto quam delegatum officium ex adiutorum agere praeceptis.
Nothing, I think, is so unbecoming to a decent man as to carry out a duty entrusted to him on the advice of his assistants.
Front. Aq. 2
SCRIPTA IN ACTISHIS PIECES IN THE ACTA
—Nondum in Actis scripsit — mox scribet.He has not written for the Acta yet — his turn is coming.