When Giovanni reached Rome, August 10, 1496, the Cardinal of Valencia, accompanied by the entire Court on horseback, went to meet him at the Porta Pertusa, and escorted him in great state to the papal palace. Giovanni found his sister Lucretia and his brother Giuffre married into two of the great families of the peninsula and his brother Caesar an enormously wealthy Prince of the Church. So many benefices had been conferred on him that he was one of the richest of the cardinals. At this time Caesar’s secretary was Carlo Valgulio of Brescia, a famous scholar, who dedicated his “De Contemplatione Orbium Excelsorum Disputatio,” a translation from Cleomedes, to his master with the usual flattery. Towards the end of October the Duke of Gandia was made Captain-General of the Pontifical forces, and, together with the Duke of Urbino and several of the Colonna, with all his men, arms, and machines of war, set out for Anguillara for the purpose of seizing the estates of the Orsini. In less than a month they took ten castles, but during this time Bartolomeo d’Alviano made a raid up to the very walls of Rome and just missed capturing Caesar, who was hunting; the cardinal only saved himself by flight. Carlo Orsini arrived at Soriano January 26, 1497, with the troops of Vitellozzo Vitelli, and after a fierce struggle the Duke of Urbino was captured. In the fight the Duke of Gandia was slightly wounded in the face. Fabrizio Colonna and the legate Pietro de Luna were forced to flee to Ronciglione. The war continued for another month, and ended with an agreement by which the Orsini promised to pay 50,000 ducats for the return of the territory which had been occupied and to release all their prisoners except the Duke of Urbino. When the King of France had learned of Alexander’s activity against the great feudatories of the Romagna, who had sided with him, he had sent Carlo Orsini and Vitellozzo Vitelli to their aid with fresh troops. One after another the Baglioni, the Della Rovere, and all who hated Alexander and saw that the destruction of the Orsini would be followed by the overthrow of their own power joined the Pope’s enemies. Only the Colonna and the Savelli held to the Holy Father. The Duke of Gandia was the hero of the _fêtes_ which followed the termination of the war. He and Lucretia’s husband, Giovanni Sforza of Pesaro, were selected to meet Gonsalvo de Cordova when he came to Rome, March 15th, after the capture of Ostia, which Minaldo da Guevra had endeavoured to hold for Giuliano della Rovere. The Holy Father, however, continued to look after the interests of Lucretia, and especially of those of Caesar, who was given a share of the spoils wrested from the Roman barons. Next to Estouteville, Caesar was the wealthiest of the cardinals, and it now began to be whispered about that he intended to relinquish the purple.