La cura delle acque nell’epistolario di Frontone

Fronto’s letter collection is a rich source of information on the public and private baths that
the orator and his addressees used to heal their illnesses. Reference to the culture of thermal
baths provides the writer with the opportunity to give rhetorical and linguistic lessons to
Marcus Aurelius; the theme of water cure, connected to the motif of illness, is functional to
the epistolary representation of the friendship between teacher and pupil, and follows the
evolution of their relationship.