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Sextus Julius Frontinus

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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SEXTUS JULIUS FRONTINUS ( c. A.D. 40-103), Roman soldier and author. In 70 he was city praetor, and five years later was sent into Britain to succeed Petilius Cerealis as governor of that island. He subdued the Silures, and held the other native tribes in check till he was superseded by Agricola (78). In 97 he was appointed superintendant of the aqueducts ( curator aquarum ) at Rome, an office only conferred upon persons of very high standing. He was also a member of the college of augurs. His chief work is De aquis urbis Romae, in two books, containing a history and description of the water-supply of Rome, including the laws relating to its use and maintenance, and other matters of importance in the history of architecture. Frontinus also wrote a theoretical treatise on military science ( De re militari) which is lost. His Strategematicon libri iii. is a collection of examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history, for the use of officers; a fourth book, the plan and style of which is different from the rest (more stress is laid on the moral aspects of war, e.g. discipline), is the work of another writer (best edition by G. Gundermann, 1888). Extracts from a treatise on landsurveying ascribed to Frontinus are preserved in Lachmann's Gromatici veteres (1848) .

A valuable edition of the De aquis (text and translation) has been published by C. Herschel (Boston, Mass., 1899). It contains numerous illustrations; maps of the routes of the ancient aqueducts and the city of Rome in the time of Frontinus; a photographic reproduction of the only MS. (the Monte Cassino); several explanatory chapters, and a concise bibliography, in which special reference is made to P. d Tissot, E tude sur la condition des agrimensores (1879). There is a complete edition of the works by A. Dederich (1855), and an English translation of the Strategematica by R. Scott (1816).