One among
them, of noblest name, Flavius Anicius Maximus, broken in health by
the troubles of the time and by private sorrow, languishing all but
unto death in the heavy air of the Tiber, was permitted to seek
relief in a visit to which he would of his domains in Italy. His
birth, his repute, gave warrant of loyalty to the empire, and his
coffers furnished the price put upon such a favour by Byzantine
greed. Maximus chose for refuge his villa by the Campanian shore,
vast, beautiful, half in ruin, which had been enjoyed by generations
of the Anician family; situated above the little town of Surrentum
it caught the cooler breeze, and on its mountainous promontory lay
apart from the tramp of armies. Here, as summer burned into autumn,
the sick man lived in brooding silence, feeling his strength waste,
and holding to the world only by one desire.
The household comprised his unwedded sister Petronilla, a lady in
middle age, his nephew Basil, and another kinsman, Decius, a student
and an invalid; together with a physician, certain freedmen who
rendered services of trust, a eunuch at the Command of Petronilla,
and the usual body of male and female slaves.
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