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[14]O my dear Fronto, most distinguished Consul! I yield, you

have conquered: all who have ever loved before, you have

conquered out and out in love's contest. Receive the victor's

wreath; and the herald shall proclaim your victory aloud before

your own tribunal: "M. Cornelius Fronto, Consul, wins, and is

crowned victor in the Open International Love-race."[15] But

beaten though I may be, I shall neither slacken nor relax my own

zeal. Well, you shall love me more than any man loves any other

man; but I, who possess a faculty of loving less strong, shall

love you more than any one else loves you; more indeed than you

love yourself. Gratia and I will have to fight for it; I doubt I

shall not get the better of her. For, as Plautus says, her love

is like rain, whose big drops not only penetrate the dress, but

drench to the very marrow.'

[12] Ad M. Caes., iii. 19.

[13] The writer sometimes uses archaisms such as quom, which I

render 'whenas'.

[14] Ad M. Caes., ii. 2.