A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

of whose origin and early career we know nothing, first appears in history under Vespasian, at the beginning of A. D. 70, as praetor urbanus, an office which he speedily resigned in order to make way for Domitian, and it is probable that he was one of the consules suffecti in A. D. 74. In the course of the following year he succeeded Cerealis as governor of Britain, where he distinguished himself by the conquest of the Silures, and maintained the Roman power unbroken until superseded by Agricola in A. D. 78. In the third consulship of Nerva (A. D. 97) Frontinus was nominated curator aquarum, an appointment never conferred, as he himself informs us, except upon the leading men of the state (de Aq. 1; comp. 102); he also enjoyed the high dignity of augur, and his death must have happened about A. D. 106, since his seat in the college was bestowed upon the younger Pliny soon after that period. From an epigram in Martial we might conclude that he was twice elevated to the consulship; but since his name does not appear in the Fasti, we are unable to determine the dates, although, as stated above, we may infer that this honour was bestowed upon him, for the first time at least, before his journey to Britain, since the generals despatched to command that province were generally consulars.

[J.T.G]