Editing Marcus Aurelius (section)

===Fronto and further education===
After taking the ''[[toga virilis]]'' in 136, Marcus probably began his training in [[Eloquence|oratory]].<ref>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 61.</ref> He had three tutors in [[Greek language|Greek]] (Aninus Macer, Caninius Celer, and [[Herodes Atticus]]) and one in Latin ([[Marcus Cornelius Fronto]]). The latter two were the most esteemed orators of their time,<ref>''HA Marcus'' iii. 6; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 62.</ref> but probably did not become his tutors until his adoption by Antoninus in 138. The preponderance of Greek tutors indicates the importance of the Greek language to the aristocracy of Rome.<ref>''HA Marcus'' ii. 4; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 62.</ref> This was the age of the [[Second Sophistic]], a renaissance in Greek letters. Although educated in Rome, in his ''[[Meditations]]'' Marcus would write his inmost thoughts in Greek.<ref>Alan Cameron, review of Anthony Birley's ''Marcus Aurelius'', ''Classical Review'' 17:3 (1967): p. 347.</ref>

Atticus was controversial: an enormously rich Athenian (probably the richest man in the eastern half of the empire), he was quick to anger and resented by his fellow Athenians for his patronising manner.<ref>''Vita Sophistae'' 2.1.14; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 63–64.</ref> Atticus was an inveterate opponent of [[Stoicism]] and philosophic pretensions.<ref>[[Aulus Gellius]], ''[[Noctes Atticae]]'' 9.2.1–7; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 64–65.</ref> He thought the Stoics' desire for [[apatheia]] was foolish: they would live a 'sluggish, enervated life', he said.<ref>[[Aulus Gellius]], ''[[Noctes Atticae]]'' 19.12, qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 65.</ref> In spite of the influence of Atticus, Marcus would later become a Stoic. He would not mention Herodes at all in his ''Meditations'', in spite of the fact that they would come into contact many times over the following decades.<ref>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 65.</ref>

Fronto was highly esteemed: in the self-consciously antiquarian world of Latin letters,<ref>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 67–68, citing Champlin, ''Fronto and Antonine Rome'', esp. chs. 3 and 4.</ref> he was thought of as second only to [[Cicero]], perhaps even an alternative to him.<ref name='ReferenceB'>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 65–67.</ref>{{refn|Modern scholars have not offered as positive an assessment. His second modern editor, [[Barthold Georg Niebuhr|Niebhur]], thought him stupid and frivolous; his third editor, [[Samuel Adrian Naber|Naber]], found him contemptible.<ref>Champlin, ''Fronto'', pp. 1–2.</ref> Historians have seen him as a 'pedant and a bore', his letters offering neither the running political analysis of a Cicero or the conscientious reportage of a Pliny.<ref>Mellor, p. 460.</ref> Recent prosopographic research has rehabilitated his reputation, though not by much.<ref>Cf., e.g.: Mellor, p. 461 and ''passim''.</ref>|group=note}} He did not care much for Atticus, though Marcus was eventually to put the pair on speaking terms. Fronto exercised a complete mastery of Latin, capable of tracing expressions through the literature, producing obscure [[synonym]]s, and challenging minor improprieties in word choice.<ref name='ReferenceB'/>

A significant amount of the correspondence between Fronto and Marcus has survived.<ref name='Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 69'>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 69.</ref> The pair were very close, using intimate language such as 'Farewell my Fronto, wherever you are, my most sweet love and delight. How is it between you and me? I love you and you are not here' in their correspondence.<ref>''Ad Marcum Caesarem'' iv. 6 (= Haines 1.80ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 76.</ref> Marcus spent time with Fronto's wife and daughter, both named Cratia, and they enjoyed light conversation.<ref>''Ad Marcum Caesarem'' iv. 6 (= Haines 1.80ff); Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 76–77.</ref>

He wrote Fronto a letter on his birthday, claiming to love him as he loved himself, and calling on the gods to ensure that every word he learnt of literature, he would learn 'from the lips of Fronto'.<ref>''Ad Marcum Caesarem'' iii. 10–11 (= Haines 1.50ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 73.</ref> His prayers for Fronto's health were more than conventional, because Fronto was frequently ill; at times, he seems to be an almost constant invalid, always suffering<ref>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 73.</ref> – about one-quarter of the surviving letters deal with the man's sicknesses.<ref>Champlin, 'Chronology of Fronto', p. 138.</ref> Marcus asks that Fronto's pain be inflicted on himself, 'of my own accord with every kind of discomfort'.<ref>''Ad Marcum Caesarem'' v. 74 ( =Haines 2.52ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 73.</ref>

Fronto never became Marcus's full-time teacher and continued his career as an advocate. One notorious case brought him into conflict with Atticus.<ref>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 77. On the date, see Champlin, 'Chronology of Fronto', p. 142, who (with Bowersock, ''Greek Sophists in the Roman Empire'' (1964), 93ff) argues for a date in the 150s; Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 78–79, 273 n.17 (with Ameling, ''Herodes Atticus'' (1983), 1.61ff, 2.30ff) argues for 140.</ref> Marcus pleaded with Fronto, first with 'advice', then as a 'favour', not to attack Atticus; he had already asked Atticus to refrain from making the first blows.<ref>''Ad Marcum Caesarem'' iii. 2 (= Haines 1.58ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 77–78.</ref> Fronto replied that he was surprised to discover Marcus counted Atticus as a friend (perhaps Atticus was not yet Marcus's tutor), and allowed that Marcus might be correct,<ref>''Ad Marcum Caesarem'' iii. 3 (= Haines 1.62ff); Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 78.</ref> but nonetheless affirmed his intent to win the case by any means necessary: '[T]he charges are frightful and must be spoken of as frightful. Those in particular that refer to the beating and robbing I will describe so that they savour of gall and bile. If I happen to call him an uneducated little Greek it will not mean war to the death'.<ref>''Ad Marcum Caesarem'' iii. 3 (= Haines 1.62ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 79.</ref> The outcome of the trial is unknown.<ref>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 80.</ref>

By the age of twenty-five (between April 146 and April 147), Marcus had grown disaffected with his studies in [[jurisprudence]], and showed some signs of general [[malaise]]. His master, he writes to Fronto, was an unpleasant blowhard, and had made 'a hit at' him: 'It is easy to sit yawning next to a judge, he says, but to ''be'' a judge is noble work'.<ref>''Ad Marcum Caesarem'' iv. 13 (= Haines 1.214ff), qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 93.</ref> Marcus had grown tired of his exercises, of taking positions in imaginary debates. When he criticised the insincerity of conventional language, Fronto took to defend it.<ref>''Ad Marcum Caesarem'' iv. 3.1 (= Haines 1.2ff); Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 94.</ref> In any case, Marcus's formal education was now over. He had kept his teachers on good terms, following them devotedly. It 'affected his health adversely', his biographer writes, to have devoted so much effort to his studies. It was the only thing the biographer could find fault with in Marcus's entire boyhood.<ref>''HA Marcus'' iii. 5–8, qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 94.</ref>

Fronto had warned Marcus against the study of philosophy early on: "It is better never to have touched the teaching of philosophy [...] than to have tasted it superficially, with the edge of the lips, as the saying is".<ref>''Ad Marcum Caesarem'' iv. 3, qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 69.</ref> He disdained philosophy and philosophers and looked down on Marcus's sessions with [[Apollonius of Chalcedon]] and others in this circle.<ref name='Birley, Marcus Aurelius, p. 69'/> Fronto put an uncharitable interpretation of Marcus's 'conversion to philosophy': 'In the fashion of the young, tired of boring work', Marcus had turned to philosophy to escape the constant exercises of oratorical training.<ref>''De Eloquentia'' iv. 5 (= Haines 2.74), qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 95. Alan Cameron, in his review of Birley's biography (''The Classical Review'' 17:3 (1967): p. 347), suggests a reference to chapter 11 of Arthur Darby Nock's ''Conversion'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1933, rept. 1961): 'Conversion to Philosophy'.</ref> Marcus kept in close touch with Fronto, but would ignore Fronto's scruples.<ref>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 94, 105.</ref>

Apollonius may have introduced Marcus to Stoic philosophy, but [[Junius Rusticus|Quintus Junius Rusticus]] would have the strongest influence on the boy.<ref>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 95; Champlin, ''Fronto'', p. 120.</ref>{{refn|Champlin notes that Marcus's praise of Rusticus in the ''Meditations'' is out of order (he is praised immediately after Diognetus, who had introduced Marcus to philosophy), giving him special emphasis.<ref>Champlin, ''Fronto'', p. 174 n. 12.</ref>|group=note}} He was the man Fronto recognised as having 'wooed Marcus away' from oratory.<ref>''Ad Antoninum Imperatorem'' i.2.2 (= Haines 2.36), qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', p. 95.</ref> He was older than Fronto and twenty years older than Marcus. As the grandson of [[Arulenus Rusticus]], one of the martyrs to the tyranny of [[Domitian]] (''r''. 81–96), he was heir to the tradition of '[[Stoic Opposition]]' to the 'bad emperors' of the 1st century;<ref>Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 94–95, 101.</ref> the true successor of [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] (as opposed to Fronto, the false one).<ref>Champlin, ''Fronto'', p. 120.</ref> Marcus thanks Rusticus for teaching him "not to be led astray into enthusiasm for rhetoric, for writing on speculative themes, for discoursing on moralising texts&nbsp;... To avoid oratory, poetry, and 'fine writing{{'"}}.<ref>''Meditations'' i.7, qtd. and tr. Birley, ''Marcus Aurelius'', pp. 94–95.</ref>

[[Philostratus]] describes how even when Marcus was an old man, in the latter part of his reign, he studied under [[Sextus of Chaeronea]]:

<blockquote>The Emperor Marcus was an eager disciple of Sextus the [[Boeotia]]n philosopher, being often in his company and frequenting his house. Lucius, who had just come to Rome, asked the Emperor, whom he met on his way, where he was going to and on what errand, and Marcus answered, 'it is good even for an old man to learn; I am now on my way to Sextus the philosopher to learn what I do not yet know.' And Lucius, raising his hand to heaven, said, ' O Zeus, the king of the Romans in his old age takes up his [[wax tablet|tablets]] and goes to school.'<ref>Philostratus, ''Vitae sophistorum'' ii. 9 (557); cf. Suda, ''Markos''</ref></blockquote>