She turns snippets of Greek into snippets of French and substitutes quotations from Shakespeare for those of early Latin authors. The second strategy is certainly a success: the letters are wonderfully readable. The first strategy, even Richlin admits, will not convince every reader. The power differential between Marcus and Fronto-student and teacher, emperor and subject-causes each man to show off for the other. Marcus is the more engaging performer, probably because he is only eighteen when the correspondence begins and is less guarded than Fronto, a mature man and master rhetorician who must instruct his prize pupil by example. Knowing that Cicero, another great orator, was executed a hundred years earlier, Fronto must also watch what he says. Both men are effusive in their declarations of affection, but it is hard to tell if this is anything more than the manner in which well-educated Romans expressed devotion and friendship in the 2nd century.
