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A.D. 40. Cnaeus Julius Agricola was born in the ancient and illustrious
Colony of Forojulium, [Footnote: Frejus.] and both his grandfathers were
Procurators to the Emperors; a dignity peculiar to the Equestrian Order.
His father Julius Graecinus was a Senator, and noted for eloquence and
philosophy. By these his virtues, he earned the wrath of Caligula. For, he
was by him ordered to accuse Marcus Silanus, and put to death for
refusing. His mother was Julia Procilla, a lady of singular chastity.
Under her eye and tender care he was reared, and spent his childhood and
youth in the continual pursuit and cultivation of worthy accomplishments.
What guarded him from the allurements of the vicious (besides his own
virtuous disposition and natural innocence) was, that for the seat and
nursery of his studies, whilst yet very little, he had the city of
Marseilles; a place well tempered and framed, as in it all the politeness
of the Greeks and all the provincial parsimony are blended together. I
remember he was wont to declare, that in his early youth he studied
Philosophy and the Law with more avidity than was allowable to a Roman and
a Senator; till the discretion of his mother checked his spirit, engaged
with passion and ardour in the pursuit.
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