Everyone perceived that the young _Capo della Repubblica_ was in full possession of the solid grit of his pushful grandfather. He had not studied the careers of his famous ancestors, Salvestro, Giovanni, and Cosimo, for nothing. Indeed Piero, his father, in writing to his sons at Cafaggiuolo to acquaint them with the death of Cosimo, "_Il Padre della Patria_," in 1463, had pointedly said: "Your mother and I offer the character and example of your grandfather to our sons." Besides these strong characteristics he had inherited, in a superlative degree, the shrewd common-sense of Piero, and his mother's passionate love of Florence, with all her enthusiasm for what was pure, cultured, philanthropic, and religious. Niccolo Macchiavelli, somewhat unwillingly, admitted that--"Lorenzo has all the high-mindedness and liberality which anybody could expect in one occupying such an exalted station." Giuliano tacitly and contentedly accepted a less ambitious and responsible role. Whilst Lorenzo took the first place and occupied himself in questions of State policy and in the affairs of the family, Giuliano drew to himself all the younger men in physical exploit and mental effort. From boyhood addicted to sports and pastimes, he became _facile princeps_ in all manly exercises. "_Il bel Giulio!_" as he was called generally, was moreover the leader of fashion and the organiser of all the pageants and jousts with which Lorenzo and he delighted the citizens. Whilst devoting most of his time to fun and frolic, the young prince was acknowledged as one of the chief _litterati_, and a conspicuous ornament of the Platonic Academy. The serious side to his character and his, studious disposition gained for him the gentle title of "_Il Pensieroso_." His mother's fond hope was that he should be named a Cardinal, not merely a Papal princeling, nor of course a religious reprobate--as, alas, most of the Cardinals were--but a devout wearer of the scarlet hat, and that one day he might even assume the triple tiara! Anyhow Giuliano's youth was as spotless as it might be amid unchaste surroundings. His passion for the bewitching Simonetta, "The Star of Genoa," seems to have been the only serious romance of his life, and therein he never aroused Marco de' Vespucci's jealousy by his attentions to his young wife. Indeed the loves of "_Il bel Giulio_" and "_La bella Simonetta_" were the talk and the admiration of the whole city:--the Apollo or the Mercury of the New Athens with his Venus--Venus de' Medici!