gentleman farming, as we say, had been much affected by some of the
most cultivated [15] Romans. But it became something more than an
elegant diversion, something of a serious business, with the
household of Marius; and his actual interest in the cultivation of
the earth and the care of flocks had brought him, at least,
intimately near to those elementary conditions of life, a reverence
for which, the great Roman poet, as he has shown by his own half-
mystic pre-occupation with them, held to be the ground of primitive
Roman religion, as of primitive morals. But then, farm-life in
Italy, including the culture of the olive and the vine, has a grace
of its own, and might well contribute to the production of an ideal
dignity of character, like that of nature itself in this gifted
region. Vulgarity seemed impossible. The place, though
impoverished, was still deservedly dear, full of venerable memories,
and with a living sweetness of its own for to-day.

To hold by such ceremonial traditions had been a part of the
struggling family pride of the lad's father, to which the example of
the head of the state, old Antoninus Pius--an example to be still
further enforced by his successor--had given a fresh though perhaps
somewhat artificial popularity. It had been consistent with many
another homely and old-fashioned trait in him, not to undervalue the
charm of exclusiveness and immemorial authority, which membership in
a local priestly college, hereditary in his house, conferred upon
him. To set a real value on [16] these things was but one element in
that pious concern for his home and all that belonged to it, which,
as Marius afterwards discovered, had been a strong motive with his
father. The ancient hymn--Fana Novella!--was still sung by his
people, as the new moon grew bright in the west, and even their wild
custom of leaping through heaps of blazing straw on a certain night