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FRIGIDARIUM—-FRONTO.
and llberllnl in their legal relation to the State. After formal emancipation they at once became Roman citizens, and members of the urban tribes and of the lowest classes in the centuries, with full right of voting. But, not being free born, they were not eligible to office, and were excluded from military service. The latter was, however, the case only till the 1st century b.c. They obtained the right to be enrolled in the country tribes several times in the republican period, but not permanently till the imperial age. Their descendants, however, were, as being free-born (ing&nul), admitted into all the tribes, and in the second, or at least in the third generation, eligible to office. Informal emancipation conferred only practical freedom without civic rights. It was not until 17 a.d., under Tiberiua, that freedmen of this kind won the com-merclum, or the right of acquiring and transferring property. Even then they had no power of testamentary bequest, and their property, at their death, went to their liberators. It was permissible, however, to pronounce a formal emancipation after their death.
To obviate abuses, and to check the excessive increase in the number of freedmen, the right of manumission was limited in several directions under Augustus. Among other things, if a slave under thirty years of age was to be manumitted vin-dicta, a proof of sufficient reason was required; and, in case of testamentary manumission, the number was limited to a certain proportion of the whole number of slaves, and never allowed to exceed 100.
A mutual obligation continued to exist between the freedman and his liberator, based on the fact that the freedman belonged to the family of his patron. This is seen in the circumstance that the freedman assumed the nomin and the prosnOmln of his patron. In and after the 1st century b.c. we generally find a Greek cognomen added. A well-known freedman of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, for instance, was called Lucius Cornelius Epicidus. The pfitronus was bound on his side to care for his liberties, and in consequence either retained him altogether in his home and service, or supplied him with a farm and capital to start it; buried him in the family tomb after his death, and took charge of his children if not grown up. On the other side the freedman was bound to support his patronus, in case of need, out of his own resources, and if he was reduced to poverty, to main-
I tain him. If he died childless, his patron inherited his property. But the rights of the patron in respect of his freedman did not pass to the patron’s heirs. If the freedman neglected his duties, he was liable to severe punishment. In special cases, at least under the Empire, he might be sold for his patron’s profit, or given back to him as a slave. Frigidarlum. See baths. Froutinus (Scxtus lulius). A Roman writer, born about 40 A.D. He was one of the urban praators under Vespasian, and consul for the first time in 74. After this he fought with distinction in Britain until 78, first under Petlllus Cerealis, and then as his successor. Under Domitian he kept aloof from public life. He was recalled by Nerva, who in 97 appointed him to the important office of superintendent of the aqueducts (curator dquarum). He was also made a second time consul, and a third time under Trajan, two years later (100). Under Trajan he was also made augur, and was succeeded in the office by the younger Pliny. He died in 103 or 104, much esteemed by his contemporaries. His surviving works are (1) a collection, in three books, of typical instances of military stratagems taken from Greek and Roman history. This was intended as an additional chapter to a lost work on military science, which he had written under Domitian. A fourth book has been rightly judged spurious, and the work of a later age. (2) Selections from a treatise on land-surveying in two books (De dgrdrum qualltate and De controversies agrorum’), likewise written under Domitian. (3) The interesting treatise on the aqueducts of Rome (De aquls urbis Romce), in two books. The occasion of his writing this work was his tenure of the office of curator aquarum ; but it was not published till the time of Trajan. It is a history and description of the water supply of Rome, containing also the laws affecting its use and maintenance.
Pronto (Marcus Cornelius). The most celebrated orator in the age of the An-tonines, born at Cirta in Numidia, about 100 a.d. As an advocate and speaker at Rome, he earned not only considerable wealth and reputation, but the favour of Hadrian and Antoninus Plus, who entrusted him with the education of the imperial princes Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.
In 143 he was consul for two months, but his health was too weak to allow of his administering a province as proconsul. This ill-health, and many family misfor-
