Roman Masculinity and BABIES, squee! Fronto, Ad Amicos 1.12.1-2

Fronto Fawns Over His Grandbabies!

Name:  Fronto and Marcus Aurelius Date:  100 – 170 CE Region:  Cirta [modern Algeria], Rome [modern Italy] Citation: Fronto, Letters to Friends 1.12.1-2

From: Fronto

To: Aufidius Victorinus

Hello, Son-in-Law!

[First Part of Letter is Missing]...In due course the gods will honor my daughter / your wife and our entire family with more children and grandchildren, and, since you'll be their dad, they will grow up to be just like you. Not a day goes by that I don’t have little mini-baby-talk conversations or hear mini-tantrums with our either our Victorinus, Jr, or our Fronto, Jr.  Whereas you never seek a reward or bribes from your words or deeds, our little Fronto doesn’t babble any other word more frequently than “da.” [“Give!”]  And so I give the little guy whatever is at hand—either a little scrap of paper or a writing tablet, things I hope he’ll want one day. But there are some signs he’s just like me, his grandpa: he really, really, really likes grapes. It was his first solid food, and all day he would lick them, or savor them in his lips, or nom-nom on them with his little baby gums[1]. He also really, really likes little birds: he really delights watching baby birds, little baby chicks, baby doves, and baby sparrows. I heard from my nurses and teachers that I always did the same when I was a kid...

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[1] Please do not give uncut grapes to small children. They are a choking hazard. Thank you.

 

Fronto Fawns Over His Grandbabies!

Fronto Aufidio Victorino genero salutem.

<...> meremur et mihi filiam et tibi uxorem, ut recte proveniat, favebunt et familiam nostram liberis ac nepotibus augebunt et eos, qui ex te geniti sunt eruntque, tui similes praestabunt.Cum isto quidem sive Victorino nostro sive Frontone cotidianae mihi lites et jurgia intercedunt. Cum tu nullam unquam mercedem ullius rei agendae dicendaeve a quoquam postularis, Fronto iste nullum verbum prius neque frequentius congarrit quam hoc ‘da’. Ego contra quod possum aut chartulas ei aut tabellas porrigo, quarum rerum petitorem eum esse cupio. Nonnulla tamen et aviti ingeni signa ostendit: Uvarum avidissimus est. Primum denique hunc cibum degluttivit nec cessavit per totos paene dies aut lingua lambere uvam, aut labris saviari ac gingivis lacessere ac ludificari. Avicularum etiam cupidissimus est: Pullis gallinarum, columbarum, passerum oblectatur, quo studio me a prima infantia devinctum fuisse saepe audivi ex his, qui mihi eductores aut magistri fuerunt...