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salt marsh. But this section of the marsh had long since been reclaimed, and the private road, which turned off the Appian Way and led to the estate, was almost as well built as the main road itself. Antonius Caius, who owned the estate, was related to Caius and Helena through their mother; and though his country place was not as elaborate as some, being rather near to the city, it was still a great plantation in its own right and ranked high as a showplace among the latifundia .

    After Caius and the two girls had turned off the Appian Way, there was still four miles of private road before they came to the house itself. The difference was immediately noticeable; every inch of land was manicured and cared for. The woods were pruned and park-like. The hillsides were terraced, and among the terraces were many fields of finger-like grape vines, just beginning to put forth their first springtime shoots. Other fields were planted in barley—a practice becoming less and less common and profitable as the small peasant landholds gave way to the great latifundia —and still others showed endless rows of olive trees. Everywhere, there was that evidence of elegant landscaping which can only be provided by an almost unlimited supply of slave labor, and again and again, the three young people noticed lovely little grottos, mossy and green and cool, with small replicas of Greek temples within them, marble benches, fountains of transluscent alabaster, and white stone paths which wound in and out of the woodland glens. Seen as it was now, in the cooling late afternoon with the sun dropping behind the low hills, the scene had a fairy enchantment which caused Claudia, who had not been there before, to cry out again and again in delight. It was in keeping with the “new Claudia,” and Caius reflected upon how a delicate and rather plethoric young lady could flower so under the stimulus of tokens of punishment, as they were called by the nicer-minded.

    At this time of the day, the cattle were being driven in, and the tinkle of cow-bells and the sad call of the cowherds’ horns sounded constantly. Goatherds, young Thracians and Armenians, naked except for shreds of hide across their loins, ran through the woods, halooing at the scampering animals, and Caius wondered which looked the more human, the goats or the slaves. He reflected now, as he had so often before, on the wealth of this uncle of his. By law, any sort of commercial transaction was forbidden to the old and noble families; but Antonius Caius—as with many of his contemporaries—found the law a convenient cloak rather than a chain. It was said that he had, through his agents, over ten million sesterces out at interest, interest which frequently amounted to one hundred per cent. It was also said that he owned a controlling interest in fourteen quinqueremes in the Egyptian trade and that he owned half of one of the largest silver mines in Spain. Although no one but knights sat on the boards of the great joint stock companies which had arisen since the Punic Wars, the wishes of Antonius Caius were scrupulously observed by these boards.

    It was impossible to say how wealthy he was, and though the Villa Salaria was a place of taste and beauty, with over ten thousand acres of fields and woodland belonging to it, it was by no means the largest or the most splendid of the latifundia . Nor did Antonius Caius make the ostentatious display of wealth that had become habitual with so many noble families of late, the sponsoring of great gladiatorial games, the setting of a table of indescribable luxury, and entertainment in the Eastern style. The table of Antonius was good and plentiful, but it was not graced with peacock breast, hummingbird tongues, or stuffed entrails of Libyan mice. This sort of fare was still frowned upon, and the scandals of the family were not paraded. Antonius himself was a Roman of old-fashioned dignity, and Caius—who respected him but did not particularly like