Although Frontinus was a successful general and prominent political figure in the late first century A.D., his primary importance rests on his extant writings on a variety of technical subjects. Most interesting, and a crucial source on Roman topography and administration in the early empire, is his treatise on the aqueduct system of ancient Rome, De aquaeductu urbis Romae, written when he assumed responsibility for the cura aquarum or water commission under the emperor Nerva in A.D. 98. His other major works are four books of Stratagems written in the late 80s A.D. and several treatises on land surveying that survive only in fragments (C.O. Thulin, ed., Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum [Stuttgart: Teubner, 1913]).

Frontinus's early life is obscure; he was probably born in the last years of Tiberius's principate, since Tacitus cites him as urban praetor in A.D. 70 (Hist. 4.39.1-2). Little is known about Frontinus's...