trustworthy materials, they misled and perplexed him in his researches, Whether, as manners became more corrupt, biographers grew more veracious, cannot be told.
Cnæus Julius Agricola was born at the ancient and famous colony of Forum Julii—the modern 'Frejus.' Each of his grandfathers was an imperial procurator—that is, of the highest equestrian rank. His father, Julius Græcinus, was of even higher station, since he was a member of the senatorian order. Græcinus was a distinguished orator and philosopher, but these good gifts excited the envy of Caius Cæsar, who took the first convenient opportunity of getting rid of him. His mother, Julia Procilla, was a matron of the old Roman stamp. Under her wise and watchful guardianship, Agricola imbibed in early youth the virtues which he practised in mature years. In a period notorious for extravagance and excess of every description—vices that extended even to learning and philosophy—Julia kept always in view the wholesome doctrine of "a golden mean." While pursuing his studies at Massilia (Marseilles),—one of the great universities of the empire—he manifested a keen relish for merely speculative subjects—more, indeed, than his mother approved. She destined the apt pupil for practical life. She looked forward to his serving his country in the senate and the field. She knew, perhaps too well, that the philosophers of the time were often idle dreamers, and sometimes arrant knaves. From each of the four great schools he might derive some wholesome rules for the conduct of life, but no one of them would fit him for commanding a legion, or for becoming a great
