Alexander provided for his son's retinue with regal
extravagance.

It happened one day that a train of mules laden with silks and cloth of
gold on the way to Caesar in Rome was plundered by the people of Cardinal
Farnese and of his cousin Pier Paolo in the forest of Bolsena, whereupon
the Pope addressed some vigorous communications to the cardinal, in
whose territory, he stated, the robbery had been committed.[61]

In the service of the Farnese were numerous Corsicans, some as
mercenaries and bullies, some as field laborers, and these people, who
were universally feared, probably were the guilty ones, for it is
difficult to believe that Cardinal Alessandro would have undertaken such
a venture on his own account. It seems, however, that the relations of
the Borgias and the Farnese were somewhat strained during this period.
The cardinal spent most of his time on his family estates, and at this
juncture little was heard of his sister Giulia. It is not even known
whether or not she was living in Rome and continuing her relations with
the Pope, although, from subsequent revelations, it appears that she
was. April 2, 1499, we find the cardinal and his sister again in Rome,
where a nuptial contract was concluded in the Farnese palace between
Laura Orsini, Giulia's seven-year-old daughter, and Federico Farnese,
the twelve-year-old son of the deceased condottiere Raimondo Farnese, a
nephew of Pier Paolo. Laura's putative father, Orsino Orsini, was
present at the ceremony.[62]

It was probably Adriana and Giulia who were endeavoring to bring about a
reconciliation between the house of Orsini and the Borgias. In the
spring of 1498 these barons, having issued victorious from their war
with the Pope, began a bitter contest with their hereditary foes, the
Colonna, which, however, ended in their own defeat. These houses made
peace with each other in July, a fact which caused Alexander no little
anxiety, for upon the hostility of these, the two mightiest families of
Rome, depended the Pope's dominion over the city; his greatest danger
lay in their mutual friendship. He therefore endeavored again to set
them at loggerheads, and he succeeded in attaching the Orsini to
himself,--which they subsequently had reason to regret. He accomplished
his purpose so well that they intermarried with the Borgias; Paolo
Orsini, Giambattista's brother, uniting his son Fabio with Girolama, a
sister of Cardinal Giovanni Borgia the younger, September 8, 1