With the outbreak of the War, white Southerners staked their all on the consolidation of their slaveholding society into an independent nation. The slaveholding states had flourished within the Union, and, when eleven seceded, four chose to remain. Of the Southerners who favored secession, few seriously underestimated the magnitude of the step they were taking, although opinions varied on their prospects. For the great majority, their vision of the best possible slaveholding society included state rights – an attachment to the state as their first and most enduring home place. In this inclination, they followed the sentiments of their beloved Roman republicans, who, like Cicero, wrote eloquently about life on one's own rural estate.