The house facing the garden of the Paneum, where Barine lived, was the property of her mother, who had inherited it from her parents.  The artist Leonax, the young beauty’s father, son of the old philosopher Didymus, had died long before.

After Barine’s unhappy marriage with Philostratus was dissolved, she had returned to her mother, who managed the affairs of the household.  She too, belonged to a family of scholars and had a brother who had won high repute as a philosopher, and had directed the studies of the young Octavianus.  This had occurred long before the commencement of the hostility which separated the heirs of Caesar and Mark Antony.  But even after the latter had deserted Octavia, the sister of Octavianus, to return to Cleopatra, the object of his love, and there was an open breach between the two rivals for the sovereignty of the world, Antony had been friendly to Arius and borne him no grudge for his close relations to his rival.  The generous Roman had even given his enemy’s former tutor a fine house, to show him that he was glad to have him in Alexandria and near his person.

The widow Berenike, Barine’s mother, was warmly attached to her only brother, who often joined her daughter’s guests.  She was a quiet, modest woman whose happiest days had been passed in superintending the education of her children, Barine, the fiery Hippias, and the quiet Helena, who for several years had lived with her grandparents and, with faithful devotion, assumed the duty of caring for them.  She had been more easily guided than the two older children; for the boy’s aspiring spirit had often drawn him beyond his mother’s control, and the beautiful, vivacious girl had early possessed charms so unusual that she could not remain unnoticed.

Hippias had studied oratory, first in Alexandria and later in Athens and Rhodes.  Three years before, his uncle Arius had sent him with excellent letters of introduction to Rome to become acquainted with the life of the capital and try whether, in spite of his origin, his brilliant gifts of eloquence would forward his fortunes there.

Two miserable years with an infamous, unloved husband had changed the wild spirits of Barine’s childhood into the sunny cheerfulness now one of her special charms.  Her mother was conscious of having desired only her best good in uniting the girl of sixteen to Philostratus, whom the grandfather Didymus then considered a very promising young man, and whose advancement, in addition to his own talents, his brother Alexas, Antony’s favourite, promised to aid.  She had believed that this step would afford the gay, beautiful girl the best protection from the perils of the corrupt capital; but the worthless husband had caused both mother and daughter much care and sorrow, while his brother Alexas, who constantly pursued his young sister-in-law with insulting attentions, was the source of almost equal trouble.  Berenike often gazed in silent astonishment at the child, who, spite of such sore grief and humiliation, had preserved the innocent light-heartedness which made her seem as if life had offered her only thornless roses.