Nothing is known about Fronto's early life except that his family originated in Asia Minor and that his father, Tiberius Claudius Fronto, was a Roman senator. Fronto was thus born into the ordo senatorius, the highly privileged and wealthy elite of some 600 families which filled most of the major civilian and military posts in the empire. Fronto pursued a typical senatorial cursus honorum, a mix of civilian and military posts.
Political career
In the civic sphere, Fronto, in his early 20s, served a traditional term as one of the decemviri stlitibus judicandis, a judicial body. He entered the Senate by the normal route, as one of 20 candidates elected by senators as quaestors each year. He then served as curule aedileab actis senatus and praetor. The culmination of his civilian career was election in 165 or 166 as Suffect Consul. . On his return from the Parthian War, Fronto served as one of the two curatores operum et locorum publicorum, charged with the maintenance of public buildings in Rome.
Military career
In the military sphere, the normal path for senators' sons was to serve, in their early 20s, between the decemvirate and admission to the Senate, a stint of about 3 years as the ranking military tribune, on the staff of a legatus legionis in order to gain military experience. It is probable that Fronto performed this service, but no record of it survives. Fronto's first recorded post as a general officer, held after his praetorship, was as commander of the legionXI Claudia, under the emperor Antoninus Pius. This legion was permanently based, from AD 104, at Durostorum in Moesia Inferior on the lower Danube.
Parthian War">Roman–Parthian War of 161–166">Parthian War (161–166)
During Marcus Aurelius' Parthian War, Fronto initially commanded the legion I Minervia, which in 162 he personally led on the long march to the Eastern front from its permanent base at Bonna on the riverRhine in Germania Superior. During the course of this war, he won from the nominal commander-in-chief of the campaign, co-emperor Lucius Aurelius Verus, a string of the army's most prestigious awards for valour: the corona muralis, corona vallaris, corona aurea, and four hastae purae ; in addition, he was accorded 4 vexilla. In 163, Fronto was promoted to field-marshal rank, in command of Roman forces in the Eastern provinces of Armenia, Osrhoene and Anthemusia. In 165/6, Fronto, in his capacity as Consul, was entrusted with supervising the recruitment of Italian youth for Marcus Aurelius' two newly founded legions, II Italica and III Italica.
In 166-70, during the early stages of the Marcomannic Wars, known to the Romans as the "German and Sarmatian War", Fronto served as a field-marshal on the troubled Danube front. He was governor of Moesia Superior in 166-8, facing the "Sarmatian salient". In 168, he accompanied the co-emperors M. Aurelius and Lucius Verus to Sirmium as one of Verus' comites. In 169, the emperors decided to return to Rome in order to escape the Antonine plague, a virulent smallpox epidemic which was ravaging the army. Fronto remained at the front. On the death of Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, governor of neighbouring Tres Daciae province, Dacia Apulensis was added to his command and then the whole of Tres Daciae. At this point, Fronto's "super-command" would probably have comprised 4 legions and around 60 auxiliary regiments, a grand total of over 50,000 troops. In this period, there was heavy fighting in Fronto's sector, although details are entirely lacking. Fronto's adversaries were the Iazyges and neighbouring Germanic tribes, especially the Quadi, who threatened Dacia's western and northern borders. Fronto's epitaph records that he fought "a number of successful battles against the Germans and the Iazyges". However, in the campaigning season of 170, Fronto's luck ran out: "He fell, bravely fighting to his last breath for the Republic".
Memorial
In recognition of his services to the state, the Senate approved a motion tabled by the emperor to erect in Trajan's Forum a statua armata of Fronto.
