She occupied a villa about two miles
from the city gates, where there were immense vineyards, festooned
between mulberry trees. The vines were now hung with great purple
clusters of grapes, promises of luscious fruits a little later, when
the time of the Vendemmia should come in October. Then, there would be
feasting and merriment among the servants, but no dancing or drinking,
as was the custom on other grape plantations, so numerous on the broad
Campagna around Rome.
Before Martius had been sent away from home, by his step-mother's
orders, in the main hope that the poison of Christian belief would be
drawn from his mind, he had been a student in his father's office,
going with him daily at nine o'clock and returning at two for the
family dinner. Now, he resumed his studies for the legal profession,
and once more walked proudly by his father's side through the crowded
passageways of the city and the broad, handsome streets of the Forum.
Martius was a little taller than his father.
Aurelius Lucanus was, like many another pagan, no great believer in
the gods, although, partly from regard to prevailing sentiment, partly
because of his business relations, he outwardly gave attention to the
formal customs of the day.
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