Frontīnus, Sextus
Iulius
A Roman writer and soldier, born about A.D. 40, and governor of Britain A.D. 75-78, where he
distinguished himself by the conquest of the Silures. He was the author of two treatises that
are still extant —one on the art of war and another on the Roman aqueducts. He was
nominated Curator Aquarum, or Superintendent of the Aqueducts, in 97, and died in 106. His
military treatise is in three books (
Strategematon Libri Tres), and was
published as a supplement to another work now lost, which related to the theory of war. To
these three books a fourth book has been added by some unknown writer, on which see the
dissertation by Fritze
(Halle, 1889). The treatise on aqueducts (
De Aquis
Urbis Romae) is in two books, and contains many valuable historical notices.
Fragments of a treatise on gromatics (see
Gromatici) have also descended to us. The first complete edition of Frontinus was that
of Keuchen
(Amsterdam, 1661). A good text is that of Dederich
(Leipzig,
1855). The principal edition of the
Strategemata (with notes) is still
that of Oudendorp
(2d ed. Leipzig, 1779), lately re-edited by Gundermann
(Leipzig, 1888); of the
De Aquis, that by Dederich (with notes
and a German version). See Lanciani,
Topografia di Roma Antica, etc.
(Rome, 1881).
