FRONTINUS, SEXTUS JULIUS

born AD 35 died c. 103 Roman soldier, governor of Britain, and author of the De aquis urbis Romae (Concerning the Waters of the City of Rome), a history and description of the water supply of Rome, including the laws relating to its use and maintenance and other matters of importance in the history of architecture. In 70 Frontinus was city praetor in Rome, and about five years later he succeeded Petillius Cerealis as governor of Britain. He subdued the Silures, a tribe in southeast Wales, and held the other tribes in check until he was superseded by Agricola (77). In 97 he was appointed superintendent of the aqueducts (curator aquarum) at Rome. Frontinus' De aquis provides complete technical details on the aqueducts of Rome, along with their history and the regulations governing their use. His treatise De re militari (On Military Matters) is lost. His Strategematicon libri iii is a collection of examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history; a fourth book, the plan and style of which is different from the rest (more stress is laid on the moral aspects of war, such as discipline), is the work of another writer known as Pseudo-Frontinus. Extracts from a treatise on land surveying ascribed to Frontinus are preserved in C. Lachmann's Gromatici veteres (1848).