codes, such as were notably unobserved by the Roman of that day.

One of his clients was a widow, Octavia, wife of Aureus Cantus, the
Senator, a woman of rare mental gifts and a personality which was at
once gracious and commanding. She had two children, a boy and girl, a
little older than Martius and Virgilia, and the lawyer, while saying
nothing, had noticed that his son was not averse to lingering in the
office when the sweet Hermione came with her mother to consult him on
some subjects dealing with her husband's will and the large property
interests now coming under the widow's control.

Octavia did not live in the handsome house formerly occupied when her
husband was living on the same street where Aurelius Lucanus dwelt,
preferring to leave it in charge of her freedman and his wife, who had
served her family for many years. 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.