Gaius Aeterius Fronto

{{Infobox governor

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Gaius Aeterius Fronto

| honorific_suffix =

| image =

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| order =

| office = Governor of Roman Egypt

| term_start = 78

| term_end = 79

| lieutenant =

| predecessor = Lucius Julius Ursus

| successor = Gaius Tettius Cassianus Priscus

|birth_date = {{circa|1st century}}

|birth_place = Roman Empire

|death_date = {{circa|1st century}}

|death_place = Roman Empire

| occupation = Ancient Roman politician

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}}

Gaius Aeterius Fronto was a Roman eques who held a number of appointments during the reigns of the emperor Vespasian, the most important of which was praefectus or governor of Roman Egypt.

There is some controversy over the reading of his gentilicium. Louis Robert had read his name in the inscription on a bronze vase from Alexandria as "Literius",Alf. Merlin and Jean Gagé, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25606636 "Publications relatives a l'antiquité Romaine"], L'Année épigraphique, Année 1937 (1938), p. 85 in accordance with the text of Josephus' Bellum Judaicum in some manuscripts; however, other manuscripts read "Aeterius", which is a possible reading of the bronze vase, and clearly attested in an unpublished specimen from the Oxyrhynchus Papyri according to John Rea. The current consensus is that "Aeterius" is the correct reading.O. W. Reinmuth, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/24518448 "A Working List of the Prefects of Egypt 30 B.C. to 299 A.D."], Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists, 4 (1967), pp. 85f

Fronto's first mention in history was following the capture of Jerusalem in AD 70. Josephus mentions that Fronto was present with troops drawn from the legions stationed in Egypt, namely Legio XXII Deiotariana and Legio III Cyrenaica,Josephus, Bellum Judaicum, VI.238, 242 and afterwards Titus delegated to him the responsibility to pass judgment over the Jewish survivors.Josephus, Bellum Judaicum, VI.416, 419

He is next appears as governor of Egypt, where he is attested from 78 to 79.Guido Bastianini, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/20180880 "Lista dei prefetti d'Egitto dal 30^a al 299^p"], Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 17 (1975), p. 276 He have no further information about Aeterius Fronto's life after he stepped down from the prefectureship.