Gracchus

Gracchus, i, m.,

• a Roman family name in the gens Sempronia; the most celebrated are the two brothers Ti. and C. Sempronius Gracchus, sons of Ti. Sempronius and Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africanus the elder, Cic. Brut. 86, 296; id. Phil. 7, 6, 17: Cornelia, mater Gracchorum, id. Brut. 58, 210; Juv. 6, 168: Gracchi de seditione querentes, id. 2, 24.—
• II Deriv.
• • A Gracchā-nus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to a Gracchus, Gracchan: judices, i.e. the knights who were made judges by a law of C. Gracchus, Cic. Brut. 34, 128: tumultus, Val. Max. 1, 1: mala, Sen. Brev. Vit. 6.—
  • B Grac-chūris, ĭdis, f., a town in Spain founded by Ti. Sempronius Gracchus: Ti. Sempronius Gracchus proconsul Celtiberos victos in deditionem accepit, monumentumque operum suorum Gracchurim oppidum in Hispania constituit, Liv. Ep. 41; cf. Paul. ex Fest. p. 97 Müll.
• —Hence, Gracchū-rĭtāni, ōrum, m., the inhabitants of Gracchuris, Plin. 3, 3, 4, § 24.

Gracchus, ī, m., ein Familienname des sempronischen Geschlechts, aus dem am bekanntesten die Volkstribunen u. Brüder Tib. u. C. Sempron. Gracchus, Söhne des Tib. Sempron. Gracchus u. der Kornelia, der Tochter des ältern Scipio Afrikanus, Cornif. rhet. 4, 7 u. 4, 46 (wo synk. Genet. Plur. Gracchûm). Cic. de or. 1, 38; Brut. 27, 103; 33, 125 u. s. – Dav. Gracchānus, a, um, gracchanisch, des Gracchus, der Gracchen, iudices, Cic.: leges, Vell.: tumultus, Val. Max.

Gracchus, (9) ī, m. , nom dʼune famille de la gens Sempronia, v. Gracchi.

Gracchus

the name of an illustrious family of the plebeian Sempronia gens, of which the following members are known in history.

Gracchus

1. Tib Sempronius, TIB. F. C. N. Gracchus, was consul in B. C. 238; and with his colleague, P. Valerius Falto, carried on a war in Sardinia and Corsica, shortly after the insurrection of the Carthaginian mercenaries. He conquered the enemy, but, though he made no booty, he is said to have brought back a number of worthless captives. (Fest. s. v. Sardi ; Zonar. 8.18; comp. Plb. 1.88; Oros. 4.12.)

Gracchus

2. Tib. Sempronius, TIB. F. TIB. N. Gracchus, a distinguished general of the second Punic war. In B. C. 216 he was curule aedile; and shortly after the battle of Cannae, he was appointed magister equitum to the dictator, M. Junius Pera, who had to levy a fresh army against Hannibal. Both then pitched their camp near Casilinum; and the dictator being obliged to return to Rome, Gracchus was entrusted with the command of the camp; but in accordance with the dictator's command, he abstained from entering into any engagement with the enemy, although there was no want of favourable opportunities, and although the inhabitants of Casilinum, which was besieged by Hannibal, were suffering from famine. As there was no other way of relieving the besieged without fighting against the enemy, he contrived in three successive nights to send down the river Vulturnus casks filled with provisions, which were eagerly caught up by the inhabitants, the river flowing through the town. But in the fourth night the casks were thrown on shore by the wind and waves, and thus discovered by the enemy, who now, with increased watchfulness, prevented the introduction of any further supplies into Casilinum. The famine in the place increased to such a fearful degree, that the people and the garrison, which chiefly consisted of Praenestines, fed on leather, mice, and any herbs they could get, until at length they surrendered. The garrison was allowed to depart on condition of a certain sum being paid for every man. Out of 570 men, more than half had perished in the famine, and the rest, with their commander, M. Anicius, went to Praeneste, where afterwards a statue was erected to Anicius, with an inscription recording the sufferings of the besieged at Casilinum. Shortly after this affair Gracchus accompanied the dictator to Rome, to report on the state of affairs, and to take measures for the future. The dictator expressed great satisfaction with the conduct of Gracchus, and recommended him for the consulship, to which he was accordingly elected for the year B. C. 215, with L. Postumius Albinus. The time was one of great disasters for Rome; but Gracchus did not lose his courage, and inspired the senate with confidence, directing their attention to the point where it was most needed. He undertook the command of the volones and allies, marched across the river Vulturnus, and pitched his camp in the neighbourhood of Liternum. He there trained and disciplined his troops, and prepared them to meet the enemy. On hearing that the Campanians were about to hold a large meeting at Hamae, he marched towards Cumae, where he encamped, and from whence he made an unexpected attack upon the assembled Campanians. They were routed in a very short time, and 2000 of them, with their commander, Marius Alfius, fell in the engagement. After taking possession of their camp, Gracchus quickly returned to Cumae, as Hannibal was encamped at no great distance. The latter, on hearing of the affair of Hamae, hastened thither, but came too late, and found only the bodies of the slain, whereupon he too returned to his camp above Tifata; but immediately after he laid siege to Cumae, as he was anxious to obtain possession of a maritime town. Gracchus was thus besieged by Hannibal: he could not place much reliance on his troops, but was obliged to hold out for the sake of the Roman allies, who implored his protection. He made a sally, in which he was so successful, that the Carthaginians, being taken by surprise, lost a great number of men; and before they had time to turn round, he ordered his troops to withdraw within the walls of Cumae. Hannibal now expected a regular battle; but, as Gracchus remained quiet, he raised the siege, and returned to Tifata. Soon afterwards Gracchus marched his troops from Cumae to Luceria in Apulia.

For the year 214 his imperium was prolonged, and, with his two legions of volones, he was ordered to carry on his operations in Apulia; but the dictator, Q. Fabius Maximus, commanded him to go to Beneventum. At the very time he arrived there Hanno, with a large army, came from Bruttium ; but a little too late, the place having been already occupied by Gracchus. When the latter heard that Hanno had pitched his camp on the river Cator, and was ravaging and laying waste the country, he marched out, and took up his quarters at a short distance from the enemy. His volones, who had served in the hope of being restored to freedom, now began to murmur; but as lie had full power from the senate to act as he thought proper in this matter, he assembled the soldiers, and wisely proclaimed their freedom. This generous act created such delight among the men, that it was difficult to keep them from attacking the enemy at once. But the next morning at day-break he complied with their demand. Hanno accepted the battle. The contest was extremely severe, and lasted for several hours; but the loss of the Carthaginians was so great, that Hanno, with his cavalry, was obliged to take to flight. After the battle, Gracchus treated a number of the volones who had behaved rather cowardly during the engagement, with that generous magnanimity which is so peculiar a feature in the family of the Gracchi, and by which they rise far above their nation. He then returned with his army to Beneventum, where the citizens received them with the greatest enthusiasm, and celebrated the event with joy and festivities. Gracchus afterwards had a picture made of these joyous scenes, and dedicated it in the temple of Libertas on the Aventine, which had been built by his father.

At the end of the year he was in his absence elected consul a second time for B. C. 213, with Q. Fabius Maximus. He now carried on the war in Lucania, fought several minor engagements, and took some of the less important towns of the country; but as it was not thought advisable to draw the consuls away from their armies, Gracchus was commanded to nominate a dictator to hold the comitia. He nominated C. Claudius Centho. In B. C. 212 he was ordered by the consuls to quit Lucania, and again take up his quarters at Beneventum. But before he broke up an ill omen announced to him his sad catastrophe. He was betrayed by Flavius, a Lucanian, into the hands of the Carthaginian Mago. [Flavius, No. 2.] According to most accounts, he fell in the struggle with Mago, at Campi Veteres, in Lucania; and his body was sent to Hannibal, who honoured it with a magnificent burial. Livy records several different traditions respecting his death and burial. but adds the remark that they do not deserve credit. (Liv. 22.57, 23.19, 24, 25, 30, 32, 35_37, 48, 24.10, 14-16, 43, xxv, 1, 3, 15-17; Appian, Annib. 35; Zonar. 9.3, &c.; Oros. 4.16; Eutrop. 3.4, who confounds Tib. Sempronius Longus with our Tib. Sempronius Gracchus; Cic. Tusc. 1.37; Gellius, 2.2.)

Gracchus

3. Tib. Sempronius Gracchus. probably a son of No. 2, was elected augur in B. C. 203, when he was yet very young, although it was at that time a very rare occurrence for a young man to be made a member of any of the colleges of priests. He died as augur in B. C. 174, during a plague. (Liv. 29.38, 41.26.)

Gracchus

4. Tib. Sempronius Gracchus, was commander of the allies in the war against the Gauls, under the consul Marcellus, B. C. 196, and was one of the many illustrious persons that fell in battle against the Boians. (Liv. 33.36.)

Gracchus

5. P. Sempronius Gracchus, was tribune of the people in B. C. 189; and in conjunction with his colleague, C. Sempronius Rutilus, he brought an accusation against M'. Acilius Glabrio, the conqueror of Antiochus, charging him with having appropriated to himself a part of the money and booty taken from the king at Thermopylae. Cato also spoke against Glabrio on that occasion. (Liv. 37.57; Fest. s. v. penatores.)

Gracchus

6. Tib. Sempronius Tib., P. F. N. Gracchus, the father of the two illustrious tribunes, Tib. and C. Gracchus, was born about B. C. 210. In B. C. 190 he accompanied the consul, L. Cornelius Scipio, into Greece, and was at that time by far the most distinguished among the young Romans in the camp for his boldness and bravery. Scipio sent him from Amphissa to Pella to sound Philip's disposition towards the Romans, who had to pass through his dominions on their expedition against Antiochus; and young Gracchus was received by the king with great courtesy. In B. C. 187 he was tribune of the people; and although he was personally hostile to P. Scipio Africanus, yet he defended him against the attacks of the other tribunes, and restored peace at Rome, for which he received the thanks of the aristocratic party. It appears that soon after this occurrence Gracchus was rewarded with the hand of Cornelia, the youngest daughter of P. Scipio Africanus, though, as Plutarch states, he may not have married her till after her father's death. An anecdote about her engagement to him clearly shows the high esteem which he enjoyed at Rome among persons of all parties. One day, it is said, when the senators were feasting in the Capitol, some of Scipio's friends requested him to give his daughter Cornelia in marriage to Gracchus, which he readily promised to do. On his returning home, and telling his wife Aemilia that he had given his daughter to wife, Aemilia censured him for his rashness, saying that if he had chosen Gracchus she would not have objected; and on hearing that Gracchus was the man whom Scipio had selected, she rejoiced with her husband at the happy choice. Some writers relate the same anecdote of his son Tiberius and Claudia, the daughter of Appius Claudius and Antistia. Shortly after Gracchus also defended L. Scipio in the disputes respecting the accounts of the money he had received from Antiochus. Towards the end of the year M. Fulvius Nobilior, who claimed a triumph, was nobly supported by Gracchus against the other tribunes. In B. C. 183 he was one of the triumvirs to conduct a Roman colony to Saturnia; and shortly after this he must have been aedile, in which character he spent large sums upon the public games. In 181 he was made praetor, and received Hispania Citerior as his province, in which he succeeded Q. Fulvius Flaccus. [Flaccus, Fulvius, No. 5.] When his army was ready he marched to Spain ; and having made an unexpected attack upon Munda, he reduced the town to submission. After receiving hostages, and establishing a garrison there, he took several strongholds of the Celtiberians, ravaged the country, and in this manner approached the town of Certima, which was strongly fortified; but as its inhabitants despaired of being able to resist him, they surrendered. They had to pay a large sum of money, and give forty of their nobles as hostages. Gracchus thence proceeded to Alce, where the Celtiberians were encamped. Here several skirmishes took place, until at last, by a feigned flight of his own men, he succeeded in drawing the Celtiberians away from their camp, of which he immediately took possession. On this occasion 9000 enemies are said to have been slain. Gracchus now proceeded to ravage the country, which, together with his victory, had such an effect upon the people, that in a short time 103 Celtiberian towns submitted to him. Laden with immense booty, Gracchus then returned to Alce, which he besieged. The place at first made a gallant resistance, but was compelled to surrender. He again gained great booty, but treated the conquered people with kindness; and one Celtiberian chief, Thurrus, even entered the Roman army, and assisted Gracchus as a faithful ally. The large and powerful city of Ergavica opened its gates to the Romans. Some historians, says Livy, stated that these conquests were not so easily made, but that the Celtiberians invariably revolted after their submission, as soon as the enemy was out of sight, until at last a fearful battle was fought, the irreparable loss of which induced the Celtiberians to conclude a permanent peace. This may indeed have been so, for the Spaniards had been treated by nearly all the previous Roman generals with cruelty and treachery; and they could not know that they had now to do with a bold, gallant, and formidable, but at the same time a kind and honest enemy. In the year following Gracchus remained in Spain ; and by his usual prudence and valour he again achieved the most brilliant exploits; he relieved the town of Carabis, which was besieged by a large army of Celtiberians, and he afterwards defeated, by a stratagem, another army near Complega, which had endeavoured to ensnare him. In this manner he gradually subdued all the Celtiberians, and he afterwards showed that he was as great in the peaceful administration of his province, as he had before been at the head of his armies. He adopted various excellent measures, which tended not only to secure his conquests, but to win the affections of the Spaniards to such a degree, that nearly fifty years afterwards they evinced their gratitude towards his son Tiberius. He assigned lands and habitations to the poorer people, and established a series of laws to regulate their relations to Rome. In commemoration of his achievements in Spain, he changed the name of the town of Illurcis into Gracchuris.

In B. C. 178 Gracchus returned to Rome, where he celebrated a splendid triumph over the Celtiberians and their allies, and was elected consul for the year following, with C. Claudius Pulcher. He obtained Sardinia for his province, where he had to carry on a war against the revolted inhabitants. He gained a brilliant victory over the enemy, and then led his army into winter quarters. In the spring of the year following he continued his successful operations against the Sardinians, and reduced them to submission. When this was achieved, and hostages were received, he sent envoys to Rome to solicit permission to return with his army and celebrate a triumph. But public thanksgivings only were decreed, and Gracchus was ordered to remain in his province as proconsul. At the close of B. C. 175. however, he returned to Rome, and was honoured with a triumph over the Sardinians. He is said to have brought with him so large a number of captives, that they were sold for a mere trifle, which gave rise to the proverb Sardi venales. A tablet was dedicated by him in the temple of the Mater Matuta, on which the reduction of Sardinia was recorded, and on which were represented the island itself and the battles Gracchus had fought there.

In B. C. 169 Gracchus was appointed censor with C. Claudius Pulcher. His censorship was characterised by a strictness bordering on severity: several persons were ejected from the senate, and many equites lost their horses. In consequence of this, the tribunes brought an accusation against the censors before the people, but both were acquitted. On that occasion Gracchus acted with great magnanimity towards his colleague, who was unpopular, while he himself enjoyed the highest esteem and popularity, for he declared, that if his colleague should be condemned, he would accompany him into exile. With the money assigned to him for the public works he purchased the site of the house of P. Scipio Africanus, and of some adjoining buildings, and there erected a basilica, which was afterwards called the Basilica Sempronia. A more important act of his censorship was his throwing all the libertini together in the four tribus urbanae, whereas before they had gradually spread over all the tribes. This measure is called by Cicero one of the most salutary regulations, and one which for a time checked the ruin of the republic. In B. C. 164 Gracchus was sent by the senate as ambassador into Asia, to inspect the affairs of the Roman allies; and it appears that on that occasion he addressed the Rhodians in a Greek speech, which was still extant in the time of Cicero. In B. C. 163 he was raised to the consulship a second time. Polybius mentions several other embassies on which he was employed by the senate, and in which he acted as a kind mediator between foreign princes and Rome, and afforded protection where it was needed. The time of his death is unknown: Orelli (Onom. Tull. ii. p. 531) commits the blunder of saying that he fell in battle in Lucania, thus confounding him with No. 2.

Tib. Sempronius Gracchus had twelve children by Cornelia, nine of whom appear to have died at an early age. The remaining three were Tiberius and Caius, and a daughter, Cornelia, who was married to the younger Scipio Africanus. In his private and family life Gracchus was as amiable a man as he was great in his public career: he was the worthy husband of Cornelia, and the worthy father of the Gracchi, and, like his two sons, he combined with the virtues of a Roman those of a man. Cicero mentions him in several passages in terms of high praise, and also acknowledges that he had some merits as an orator. (Liv. 37.7, 38.52, 53, 57, 60, 39.5, 55, 40.35, 44, 47_50, 41.3, 11, 12, 21, 26, 33, 43.16_18, 44.16, 45.15; Plb. 23.6, 26.4, 7, 31.5, 6, 9, 13, 14, 19, 23, 32.3, 4, 5, 35.2; Appian, Hispan. 43; Plut. TG 1, &c., Marcell. 5; Cic. Brut. 20, de Re Publ. 6.2, de Invent. 1.30, 49, de Nat. Deor. 2.4, ad Q. Frat. 2.2, de Divinat. 1.17, 18, 2.35, de Amic. 27, de Orat. 1.9, 48, de Fin. 4.24, de Off. 2.12, de Prov. Cons. 8; comp. Meyer, Fragm. Orat. Rom. p. 151, &c, 2nd edit.; Niebuhr, Lectures on Roman Hist. vol. i. p. 269.)

Gracchus

7. Tib. Sempronius Gracchus, the elder son of No. 6. If Plutarch is right, that Tib. Gracchus was not thirty years old at his death, in B. C. 133, he must have been born in B. C. 164 ; but we know that he was quaestor in B. C. 137, an office which by law he could not hold till he had completed his thirty-first year, whence it would follow that he was born about five years earlier, and that at his death he was about thirty-five years old. He lost his father at an early age, but this did not prevent his inheriting his father's excellent qualities, and his illustrious mother, Cornelia, made it the object of her life to render her sons worthy of their father and of her own ancestors. It was owing to the care she bestowed upon the education of her sons, rather than to their natural talents, that they surpassed all the Roman youths of the time. She was assisted in her exertions by eminent Greeks, who exercised great influence upon the minds of the two brothers, and among whom we have especial mention of Diophanes of Mytilene, Menelaus of Marathon, and Blossius of Cumae. As the Gracchi grew up, the relation between them and their teachers gradually became one of intimate friendship, and of the highest mutual esteem and admiration. Tiberius was nine years older than his brother Caius and although they grew up under the same influence, yet their natural talents and dispositions were developed in different ways, so that their characters, though resembling each other in their main outlines, yet presented great differences. Tiberius, who was inferior to his brother in point of talent, surpassed him in the amiable traits of his gentle nature: his noble bearing, the softness of his voice, the simplicity of his demeanour, and his calm dignity, won for him the hearts of the people. His eloquence, too, formed a strong contrast with the passionate and impetuous harangues of Caius; for it was temperate, graceful, persuasive, and, proceeding as it did from the fulness of his own heart, it found a ready entrance into the hearts of his hearers. If the two brothers had been of an equal age, and could have united their efforts, their power would have been irresistible; but as it was, each had to fight single-handed, and each fell a victim to the selfishness of the oligarchy, and the faithlessness and shortsightedness of the people, whose rights they had undertaken to defend.

When Tib. Gracchus had arrived at the age of manhood, he was elected augur, and App. Claudius, who otherwise was not free from the haughtiness and selfishness so peculiar to his family, showed his esteem for Tiberius by offering him the hand of his daughter Claudia; and most historians, according to Plutarch, related, that as App. Claudius had made the engagement without his wife's consent, she exclaimed, on being informed of it, "Why in such a hurry, unless you have got Tib. Gracchus for our daughter's husband ?"

When P. Scipio Africanus the younger, who was married to a sister of the Gracchi, undertook the command against Carthage, Tib. Gracchus accompanied him, and was a witness of the fearful fall of that city. Tiberius thus received the first practical lessons in military affairs from the most illustrious general of the time, in whose tent he lived, and whose friendship lie enjoyed. The contemporary historian, Fannius, even related, that Tiberius, who surpassed all other soldiers in courage and attention to discipline, was the first among the Romans who scaled the walls of Carthage.

About ten years after his return from this expedition, B. C. 137, Tiberius was appointed quaestor, and in this capacity he accompanied the consul, C. Hostilius Mancinus, to his province of Hispania Citerior, where in a short time he gained both the affection of the Roman soldiers, and the esteem and confidence of the victorious enemy. When Mancinus, after being defeated by the Numantines, sent messengers to treat with them for a truce and terms of peace, the Spaniards, who had so often been deceived by the Romans in their negotiations, declared that they would not treat with any one except Tib. Gracchus; for the confidence they placed in him personally was heightened by the recollection of the just and fair treatment they had received from his victorious father. Tiberius accordingly was sent to Numantia, and concluded a peace with the Numantines on equitable terms. Considering the defeat which Mancinus had suffered, the terms were favourable to the Romans, and Gracchus saved by it an army of upwards of 20,000 men from utter annihilation ; but the concessions made to the Numantines were nevertheless more than the pride of the Roman senate could brook. After the conclusion of the peace, an incident occurred which gave further proof of the confidence which the Numantines placed in Tiberius. The Roman camp, and all that it contained, had fallen into the hands of the enemy; and when the army had already commenced its retreat, Tiberius discovered that the tablets containing the accounts of the money he had had to dispose of as quaestor were lost; and being anxious to recover them, that he might not be exposed to annoyances after his arrival at Rome, he returned with a few companions to Numantia. On his arrival he sent to the magistrates, and begged of them to restore him the tablets. They were delighted at the opportunity of doing him a service; they invited him to enter the city, and received him in a manner with which they would have treated their sincerest friend,--they honoured him with a public banquet, restored to him the tablets, and when he left, they gave him permission to take with him, as a remembrance, any thing he might please. But Tiberius took only some incense, which he wanted for a sacrifice.

When Mancinus and Tiberius returned to Rome, the feelings which there prevailed formed a great contrast to each other; for while the friends and relatives of the soldiers who had served in Spain were rejoiced at their safe return, and looked upon Gracchus as their saviour, the senate and the rest of the people regarded the treaty with Numantia as a disgrace to the Roman name. The odium of the treaty, however, was thrown on Mancinus alone, who of course was the only responsible person. He was tripped naked, and with his hands bound, he was delivered up to the Numantines, that the treaty might thus be annulled (B. C. 136). Tiberius, for the first time, enjoyed the admiration of the people, who rewarded his good services in the affair with affection and gratitude. P. Scipio Africanus, the brother-in-law of Gracchus, and then at the head of the aristocracy, took an active part in the proceedings against Mancinus, without attempting either to save him or to get the treaty with Numantia ratified. It would seem that even as early as this time, Scipio and the whole body of the aristocracy watched with fear and jealousy the career of Tiberius, whose popularity was gaining fresh strength every day.

But the sympathy of Tiberius with the people was excited much more by its distress than by the demonstrations of its favour. His brother Caius related in some of his works, that Tiberius, on his march to Spain, in B. C. 137, as he was passing through Etruria, observed with grief and indignation the deserted state of that fertile country ; thousands of foreign slaves in chains were employed in cultivating the land and tending the flocks upon the immense estates of the wealthy, while the poorer classes of Roman citizens, who were thus thrown out of employment, had scarcely their daily bread or a clod of earth to call their own. He is said to have been roused through that circumstance to exert himself in endeavouring to remedy this evil. C. Laelius had, before him entertained the thought of interfering, but, for want of courage, had despaired of success. Had the Licinian law, which regulated the amount of public land which a person might occupy, and the number of cattle he might keep on the public pastures, been observed, such a state of things could never have arisen. If Tiberius had wished to enforce obedience to the letter of that law, he would have acted with perfect justice, and no one could have censured him for it, but the greedy aristocracy, who had enriched themselves by the violation of the law, would have moved heaven and earth to prevent such a measure. The suite of things, moreover, had, by a long-continued neglect of the law, become so complicated, that a renewal of the Licinian law, without any modification, would have been unfair towards a large class of the occupiers of public land, and it required the greatest care to act in the affair with prudence and moderation, and in a manner equitable and satisfactory towards all parties. Large tracts of public land had passed from father to son, and no one ever seems to have thought of the possibility of their being reclaimed by the state. Through this feeling of security many persons had erected buildings on their possessions, or had otherwise laid out large sums of money upon them; many also, who now this possessed more than the five hundred jugera allowed by the Licinian law, had acquired either the whole or part of their possession by purchase, and were accustomed to look upon it as real property, although a moment's consideration would have convinced them that they were only precarious tenants of the republic, which might at any time claim its right of ownership.

Amid these clashing interests, Tib. Gracchus determined to remedy the evil by endeavouring to create an industrious middle class of agriculturists, and to put a check upon the unbounded avarice of the aristocracy, whose covetousness, combined with the disasters of the second Punic war, had completely destroyed the middle class of small landowners. With this view, he offered himself as a candidate for the tribuneship, and obtained it for the year B. C. 133. It should be observed, that at this period the tribunes were elected in the month of June, the harvest time in Italy, but they did not enter upon their office till the 10th of December.

The people appear to have anticipated that Gracchus was going to undertake something on their behalf, for placards were seen in all parts of the city calling upon him to protect them; but he felt that his work was too serious and important to be undertaken without the advice and assistance of others. His Greek friends, Diophanes and Blossius, and his mother, Cornelia, urged him on; and he was supported by the counsel of the most eminent men of the time, such as App. Claudius, his father-in-law, the consul and great jurist, Mucius Scaevola, and Crassus, the pontifex maximus, all of whom were probably as much losers by the measures which Gracchus was going to bring forward as the Scipios and others who opposed him. The first bill which he brought before the people proposed, that the agrarian law of Licinius, which had in fact never been abolished, should be renewed and enforced, with this modification, that besides the 500 jugera allowed by that law, any one might possess 250 jugera of the public land for each of his sons. This clause, however, seems to have been limited to two; so that a father of two sons might occupy 1000 jugera of public land. The surplus was to be taken from them and distributed in small farms among the poor citizens. The business of measuring and distributing the land was to be entrusted to triumvirs, who were to be elected as a permanent magistracy. He further enacted, that in future the possession of public land should not be transferred by sale or purchase, in order that the wealthy might not be able gradually to acquire again more land than the law allowed. In the case of buildings erected on land which was to be thus given up, the possessors were to be indemnified by a sum of money determined by a fair valuation of the buildings. There remains only one point in this agrarian law, for which the legislator is open to censure, not indeed on the ground of injustice, but merely on that of unfairness. A considerable, though probably not a very great number of those who had to give up a portion of their possessions, had acquired either the whole or a part by purchase; and as they had to give up their surplus, like those who had not paid for their land, those men were positive losers, just as much as if Gracchus had taken from them their private property. To remove all complaints on ground, Gracchus ought to have added a clause, that such persons should receive from the public treasury the sums for which they had bonn fide purchased the land, or else that the land thus purchased should not come within the law, and should be treated as private property, with which the law had nothing to do. The state ought, at all events, to have made this sacrifice. The opposition of the aristocracy would not indeed have been silenced by such a measure, but there would certainly have been no ground for that bitter exasperation which Gracchus now called forth. It is ever to be lamented that Gracchus did not introduce into his law a clause of that description.

The faction of the opposition, consisting of the senate and the aristocracy, was not numerous, but violent in the highest degree, and the thousands who were to be benefited by the measure were ready to support Gracchus at any risk; the issue of the struggle, therefore, could not be doubtful, and it would have been hopeless to oppose the agrarian law in the ordinary constitutional way, for as soon as the bill was passed by the tribes, it became law, the sanction of the senate not being required. The senatorial party, therefore, resorted to intrigues. A noble specimen of the deeply-felt and impressive eloquence with which Gracchus addressed the people in those days is preserved in Plutarch ( Tib. Gracc. 8) : it bears all the marks of genuineness, and has unjustly been considered by modern critics as a spurious piece of declamation. When Tiberius brought forward his bill, and it was manifest that it would be carried, the senatorial party resorted to the only means that was left them,--they gained over to their side one of the tribunes, M. Octavius Caecina, a man of a most obstinate character, who himself occupied more of the public domain than the law allowed. His interposition would of course have thwarted all the plans of Tiberius. The disputes between the two tribunes went on day after day, and Tiberius, though he was by no means in affluent circumstances, offered to indemnify Octavius out of his own purse, for the loss which he might sustain through the agrarian law. This offer was refused with indignation. Tiberius was prevailed upon to refer the matter to the senate; but there he was only abused, and the question did not advance one step further. When the people again met, and Tiberius saw no other way of carrying his measure, he declared that, as two tribunes differed in their opinions upon the public good, and could not come to any understanding, one of them must resign his office. Tiberius suspended the entire administration of government, and under heavy penalties forbade the magistrates to exercise their official authority, until this question was settled. Fear and exasperation increased, and the people looked forward with trembling to the day when the matter was to come to a decision. When the day of the assembly arrived, Tiberius publicly implored Octavius to yield to the wishes of the people, who desired nothing but what they had a right to claim. When this request was also repudiated, Tiberius proceeded to carry his threat into execution, but offered that his own case should be put to the vote first. When all attempts failed, Tiberius proposed the deposition of Octavius, and put it to the vote at once. When seventeen out of the thirty-five tribes had already voted for his deposition, Tiberius stopped the proceedings, and again implored Octavius to desist from his opposition; but Octavius indignantly exclaimed, " Complete what thou hast begun." The eighteenth tribe voted, and the tribuneship of Octavius was gone : he was dragged from the hustings, and with difficulty escaped being murdered on the spot. The deposition of a tribune was a thing unheard of in the history of Rome, and was, accordingly, proclaimed by the opposition as an unconstitutional act. They now triumphed over Gracchus, since he had given them a handle, and by his own act seemed to justify their hostility against him. The deposition of Octavius for the lawful exercise of his rights has been looked upon by both ancient and modern writers as a violation of the laws of the Roman constitution, but its injustice was only of a formal nature, a mere irregularity ; and Tiberius, as Niebuhr (Lectares on Rom. Hist. vol. i. p. 333 justly remarks, might have said that a tribune who acted independent of the people was an abuse, and a still greater irregularity ; the people surely had the right to take away a commission from a man to whom they had given it; it is an absurdity if in a republic this right is not maintained.

After the removal of Octavius, the agrarian law was carried without opposition, and permanent triumnvirs were appointed to superintend the measuring of the public land possessed by the wealthy, to deprive them of that which was beyond the amount allowed by the law, and to distribute it among the poor. The persons appointed as triumvirs were Tib. Gracchus, App. Claudius, his father-in-law, and his brother C. Gracchus, who was then little more than twenty years old, and was serving in the camp of P. Scipio at Numantia. Fortune thus seemed to favour the undertakings of Gracchus, and the people evinced a most enthusiastic attachment to him; but the treatment which he experienced in the senate, where P. Scipio Nasica was at the head of the aristocracy, was of a very different kind: he was attacked with contumely and the most unbridled fury. At the same time, one of his intimate friends suddenly died, and his body bore marks of poison. Such things were just so many proofs to Gracchus that it required the greatest precaution not to fall into the hands of some secret assassin. Whenever, therefore, he appeared in public, he was surrounded by a body of friends, who formed a sort of body-guard.

About this time a messenger arrived from Asia, with the will of king Attalus, who had bequeathed his kingdom and his property to the Roman people. Gracchus availed himself of this opportunity for enabling the poor, who were to receive lands, to purchase the necessary implements, cattle and the like; and he accordingly proposed that the money which Attalus had bequeathed to the Romans should be distributed among the people. It is generally stated that this law was carried, but in the Epitome of Livy (lib. 58) we read that he only promised the people to bring forward the bill. His agrarian law had evidently the object of creating an induistrious middle class of husbandmnen; and, in order to infuse some better blood into them, he is said to have entertained the idea of extending the Roman franchise, by admitting the Italian allies to the full rights of Roman citizens. (Vell. 2.2.) The matter certainly appears to have been discussed at the time, but no steps seem to have been taken, though it would have been one of the wisest and most salutary measures that could have been devised. He further abridged the time that Roman citizens had to serve in the armies. Macrobius (Macr. 2.10) mentions a lex judiciaria of Tiberius, but this seems to be only a mistake, the name of Tiberius being there written instead of Caius. Tiberius went even so far as to threaten to deprive the senate of the administration, inasmuch as he declared that the senate had no right to decide upon the towns and cities of the kingdom of Pergamus. Tiberius had thus reached the zenith of his power, but fortune began to turn against him. The opinion of his opponents that he had violated the sacred character of a tribune in the person of Octavius, had gradually spread among the people, which in its short-sightedness could not distinguish between the motives of the two parties, and merely looked for momentary advantages and gratifications. Hence they began not only to show indifference towards their sincere and disinterested protector, but even turned against him. In addition to this, his enemies spread the absurd report that Tiberius had secretly received a diadem and a purple robe from the Pergamenian messenger, and that he entertained the thought of making himself king of Rome. This report, which every one must have known to be a mere malicious calumny, was spread abroad by the contemptible Pompeius, with whom Scipio Nasica, and other persons of distinction, made common cause.

The period at which the tribunes for the next year were to be elected was now drawing near, and Tiberius himself, as well as his friends, were fully convinced that after the expiration of his office his laws would be abolished, and that his life would be in imminent danger as soon as he should be divested of the sacred office of tribune. He therefore resolved to offer himself as a candidate for the tribuneship of the following year. This was indeed an irregularity, for up to that time no man had ever been invested with the office for two consecutive years; but Tiberius was compelled by necessity, and the duty of selfdefence, to offer himself as a candidate. It was unfortunate for him that the election of the tribunes fell in the month of June, when the country-people, on whom he could rely most, were occupied with the harvest in the fields. The people assembled thus consisted, for the most part, of the city populace, who had little or no sympathy with him. His heart was filled with dark apprehensions and misgivings. He went about, leading his little son by the hand, and imploring the people not to desert him, and not to expose him to the fury of his enemies, against whom he had protected them. The tribes began to vote, and two had already declared in favour of Tiberius, when the aristocrats, who were mingled among the people, exclaimed that the election was illegal, and that no man could be elected tribune for two successive years. The presiding tribune, Rubrius, did not know what to do; another tribune offered to take the presidency, but the rest maintained that this could be decided only by lot. Amid such disputes the day passed away, and seeing that his enemies were gaining the upper hand, Tiberius proposed to defer the election till the next day. He now went about with his child, and endeavoured to rouse the people's sympathy. They were moved by his fear and danger; a large crowd gathered around him; they conducted him home, urged him not to despair, and kept watch about his house all night, to protect him against any unforeseen attack. Cheered by this demonstration of the people's favour, he, in conjunction with his friends, devised during the night a plan on which they were to act, if his enemies should use violence.

At daybreak the auspices were consulted, but the signs were unfavourable, and Tiberius was doubtful as to whether he should go to the assembly or not; but his friend Blossius urged him on not to give up his plans for things which perhaps were merely accidental. The people were assembled in the area of the capitol, and many of them came down to invite him and conduct him thither. When he arrived he was received with loud cheers and acclamations, and all promised well; but, when the voting began, the aristocrats did all they could to disturb the proceedings, and the noise and tumult became so great that no one could be heard. At this moment a senator, who was a friend of Gracchus, made his way through the crowd up to him, and informed him that the senators were assembled, and that, as they could not prevail upon the consuls to carry out their commands, they themselves were resolved to kill Tiberius, and had for this purpose armed many of their slaves and partisans. When Tiberius communicated this intelligence to those who stood nearest to him, they immediately prepared to repel force by force. Those who were at a greater distance wanted to know the cause of this sudden commotion, and as Tiberius could not make his voice heard, on account of the tumultuous noise, he pointed with his hand to his head, to indicate that his life was in danger. This act was maliciously interpreted by his enemies as a sign by which he demanded the diadem, and they hastened to inform the senate of it. The senators pretended to be greatly alarmed, and P. Scipio Nasica called upon the consuls to save the republic; but the consuls refused to have recourse to violence. The people, who in the mean time had learned that the life of their tribune was threatened, immediately armed themselves with sticks, the legs of the benches, and any other weapons they could lay hold of, and drove the aristocrats from the assembly. The confusion became general, and the tribunes took to flight. A report was quickly spread that Tiberius had deposed his colleagues, and was going to continue in his office without any election.

This was the moment which the aristocratic party had been anxiously looking for. Scipio Nasica sprang up, and exclaimed, "As the consul betrays the republic, do you who wish to maintain the constitution follow me." The senators rushed towards the assembly from the temple of Fides, where they had held their meeting. The people dispersed in all directions, and all who did not give way to the senators, or ventured to oppose then, were knocked down with clubs and sticks. Tiberius, in edeavouring to escape, fell over the body of a man who was killed, and as he was attempting to rise, he received a blow on his head, and was killed. He fell at the entrance of the temple of wides, in front of the statues of the kilns. The honour of being the murderer of Gracchus was disputed between P. Satureius, one of his own colleagues, and L. Rufus. Upwards of 300 persons were killed on that day by sticks and stones, but none by the sword. In the night following their bodies were thrown into the Tiber, and the surviving friends of Gracchus had to suffer imprisonment, exile, and death, at the hands of their infuriated and merciless opponents.

These, and other calamities which afterwards resulted from the legislation of Tiberius, though it was by no means their cause, might perhaps have been avoided by a little more prudence on the part of Tiberius. We may indeed regret that he did not all he might have done, but we cannot blame him for what he did : his motives were the purest, and lie suffered the death of a martyr in the noblest cause that a statesman can embrace--the protection of the poor and oppressed. All the odium that has for many centuries been thrown upon Tiberius and his brother Caius arose partly from party prejudice, and more especially from a misunderstanding of the nature of a Roman agrarian law, which, although it had been pretty clearly explained by Sigonius, was yet never generally recognised till the time of Niebuhr. Velleius Paterculus, who is otherwise biassed against the agrarian law of Gracchus, gives a noble testimony to his character, in these words, " Viya innocentissimus, ingenio florentissimus, proposito sanctissimus, tantis denique adornatus virtutibus, quantas, perfecta et natura et industria, mortalis condition recipit." (Plut. Vita Tib. Gracchi ; Appian, App. BC 1.9_17; Liv. Epit. 58 ; Vell. 2.2, 3 ; Dio Cass. Fragm. Peir. 86-88; Oros. 5.8, &c.; Aur. Vict. de Vir. Ilustr. 57; and the passages of Cicero which are collected in Orelli's Onomasticon, vol. ii. p. 531, &c.; comp. F. D. Gerlach, Tib. und C. Gracchus, pp. 1-30; Meyer, Fragm. Orat. Rom. p. 215, &100.2d edit.; Ahrens, Die drei Volkstribunen Tib. Gracchus, Drusus und Sulpicius ; Niebuhr, Lectures on Rom. Hist. vol. i. p. 223, &c., ed. Schmitz.)

Gracchus

8. C. Sempronius Gracchus, the brother of No. 7, and son of No. 6, was, according to Plutarch, nine years younger than his brother Tiberius, but he enjoyed the same careful education. He was unquestionably a man of greater power and talent than his brother, and had also more opportunity for displaying his abilities; for, while the career of Tiberius lasted scarcely seven months, that of Caius extends over a series of years.

At the time of his brother's murder, in B. C. 133, Caius was in Spain, where he received his first military training in the army of P. Scipio Africanus, who, although his wife was the sister of the Gracchi, exclaimed, on receiving the intelligence of the murder of Tiberius, " So perish all who do the like again! " It was probably in the year after his brother's murder, B. C. 132, that Caius returned with Scipio from Spain. The calamity which had befallen his brother had unnerved him, and an inner voice dissuaded him from taking any part in public affairs. The first time that he spoke in public was on behalf of his friend Vettius, who was under persecution, and whom he defended. On that occasion he is said to have surpassed all the other Roman orators. The people looked forward with great anticipations to his future career, but the aristocracy watched him with jealousy, seeing that he promised greater talent, energy, and passion than his brother, in whose footsteps it was presumed that he would follow. In B. C. 131, C. Papirius Carbo, a friend of the Gracchi, brought forward a bill to enable a person to hold the office of tribune for two or more consecutive years. C. Gracchus supported the bill, but it was rejected. The speech he delivered on that occasion appears again to have made a deep impression upon both parties; but after this time Caius obeyed the calling of his inner voice, and for a number of years kept altogether aloof from public affairs. During that period it was even rumoured that he disapproved of his brother's measures. Some circumstance or other, of which, however, we have no distinct record, seems again to have excited the fears of the optimates, and plans were devised for preventing Caius from obtaining the tribuneship. It is not impossible that this fear of the aristocracy may have been excited by Caius's speech against M. Pennus, which at any rate must have been delivered shortly before his quaestorship, B. C. 126. (Cic. Brut. 28; Fest. s. v. respublicas.) Chance seemed to favour the schemes of the optimates, for in B. C. 126 the lot fell upon C. Gracchus to go as quaestor to Sardinia, under the consul L. Aurelius Orestes; and since he was fond of military life, for which he was as well qualified and disciplined as for speaking in public, he was pleased with the opportunity of leaving Rome.

For a time Caius was thus removed from the jealous and envious eyes of the nobles, but in his province he soon attracted the greatest attention ; he gained the approbation of his superiors and the attachment of the soldiers. He was brave against the enemy, just towards his inferiors, punctual in the discharge of his duties, and in temperance and frugality he excelled even his elders. His popularity in the province is attested by two occurrences. As the winter in Sardinia had been very severe and unhealthy, and as the soldiers were suffering in consequence, the consul demanded clothing for his men from the allied towns of the island. The towns sent a petition against this demand to the senate at Rome, which thereupon directed the consul to get what he wanted by other means. But as he was unable to do this, Caius went round to the towns, and prevailed upon them voluntarily to supply the army with clothing and other necessaries. About the same time ambassadors of king Micipsa arrived at Rome to inform the senate, that out of regard for C. Gracchus, the king would send a supply of corn for the Roman army in Sardinia. These proofs of the great popularity and reputation of Caius were the cause of fresh fear and uneasiness to the optimates. He had now been absent in Sardinia for two years, and his return was dreaded. In order to prevent this, fresh troops were sent to Sardinia to replace the old ones; and Orestes was ordered to remain in the island, it being intended by this measure to keep Caius there also, on account of his office. But he saw through their scheme, and thwarted it. It appears that during the latter period of his stay in Sardinia he had altered his mind, and that his vocation had become clear to him. It is reported that the shade of his brother appeared to him in his dreams, and said, " Caius, why dost thou linger? There is no escape, thou must die, like myself, in defending the rights of the people." It is attested by Cicero and Plutarch that Caius was not a demagogue, and that he was drawn into his political career by a sort of fatality or necessity rather than by his own free will, and that had it not been for the exhortation of his brother's shade, he would never have sought any public office. But when he heard the call of Tiberius, and was at the same time informed of the command issued by the senate respecting Aurelius Orestes, he at once embarked, and appeared at Rome, to the surprise of all parties. The optimates were enraged at this conduct, and even his friends thought it a strange thing for a quaestor to quit the camp without a special leave of absence. He was taken to account before the censors, but he defended himself so ably, and proved so clearly that he had not violated any law or custom, that he was declared perfectly innocent. But his enemies, bent as they were upon destroying all his influence, annoyed him with various other accusations, one of which was, that he had participated in the recent revolt of Fregellae. These prosecutions, however, were nothing but foul and ill-devised schemes to deprive Gracchus of the popular favour: none of the charges was substantiated by evidence, and all of them only served to place his innocence in a more conspicuous light. C. Gracchus, who was thus irritated and provoked by acts of glaring injustice, encouraged by the desire of the people to come forward as their patron, filled with confidence in his own powers and in the justice of the people's demands, and, above all, stimulated by the manes of his murdered brother, at once determined to become a candidate for the tribuneship, and to carry out the plans of his brother. When his mother heard of this resolution, she implored him in the most moving terms to desist from his scheme. and not to deprive her of her last comfort and support in her old age. But it was too late; Caius had already gone too far; his hatred of his brother's murderers, and the enthusiasm of the people, who flocked to Rome from all parts to choose him as the defender of their rights, did not allow him to retrace his steps. The whole of the aristocracy, without exception, opposed his election, but in vain; and all they could effect was that Caius was not elected first, as he had anticipated, but only fourth. Caius, however, as Plutarch remarks, soon made himself first, for he surpassed all his contemporaries in eloquence; and his misfortunes gave him ample scope for speaking freely, when he lamented the death of his brother, to which he recurred as often as an opportunity was offered.

He entered on his tribuneship on the 10th of December, B. C. 123. The first steps he took as a legislator may be regarded as an expiatory sacrifice which he offered to the shade of his brother, for they were directed against his enemies and murderers. The first law he proposed was aimed at the ex-tribune Octavius, and enacted that whoever had been deprived by the people of one office should never be allowed to offer himself again as a candidate for another; the second, which was directed against the murderers of his brother and friends, and more especially against Popillius Laenas, enacted that whoever had put to death or banished a Roman citizen without a trial should be liable to a public prosecution. The former of these bills, however, was withdrawn by Caius at the request of his mother; and Laenas avoided the one aimed at him by voluntary exile.

After these preliminary steps he renewed the agrarian law of his brother, which had not indeed been repealed; but the proper way of carrying it into effect had been prevented and delayed by a variety of disputes, which belong to the period between the death of Tiberius and the tribuneship of Caius. The remaining part of his legislation had two great and distinct objects: first to ameliorate the condition of the poor, and secondly to weaken the power of the senate, and with it that of the aristocracy generally. His plan was most extensive, and embraced nearly every branch of the administration ; but the details are very little known, some of his laws being only slightly alluded to ; but if we may judge from those of which we have any accounts, we are led to conclude that his legislation was of the wisest and most salutary kind; and that, if his plans had not been thwarted by the blind and greedy aristocracy, the Roman republic might have derived infinite blessings from it. He carried a law enacting that the soldiers should be equipped at the expense of the republic, without any deduction being made on this account front their pay, as had heretofore been done; another law ordained that no person under the age of seventeen should be drafted for the army. A third law enacted that every month corn should be sold at a low and fixed price to the poor. The republic had thus to purchase large supplies of grain; and out of the public granaries the people were to receive the bushel (modius) of corn at five-sixths of an as. To carry this law into proper effect, it was necessary to build extensive granaries, which Caius superintended and conducted with the most minute care and unwearied vigilance. The ruins of these extensive public granaries existed at Rome through-out the middle ages, but at present no trace of them is visible. This measure, which may be regarded as a kind of poor-law, has been censured by writers of all ages, because, it is said, it drained the public treasury, because it led the people to idleness and indolence, and because it paved the way for that unruly democracy in which the republic perished. But in the first place, it must be borne in mind, that C. Gracchus did not give away the grain for nothing, but only sold it at so low a price that the poor, with sone labour, might be enabled to support themselves and their children; and secondly, that Rome was a republic with immense revenues, which belonged to the sovereign, that is, to the people; and a large class of this sovereign people was suffering from want and destitution. There was no other remedy; the state was obliged to support these poor; and it is, as Niebuhr justly remarks, the duty of a free and proud nation to provide for those members of the community who are unable to provide for themselves.

The power of Caius's oratory was irresistible, and carried victory with it in all he undertook; and on the wings of popular favour he was carried from triumph to triumph. He now resolved to direct the weapons he had hitherto wielded on behalf of the poor against the power of the senate, which had excited his indignation by systematically opposing and disturbing his proceedings with the people. witherto the judges in the case of judicia publica had been elected from and by the senators; and whese judges being generally men of the same class as those who were brought before them to be tried, they had outraged justice in every possible way; the governors of provinces extorted money not only to enrich themselves, but also to bribe their judges, who made their function a lucrative traffic. Caius now carried a law by which the judicia publica were transferred from the senate to a court consisting of 300 equites. We have three different descriptions of the enactments of this law; but Manutius (de Leg. Rom. 15) has made it highly probable that two of them refer only to two different conciliatory proposals, and that as they were rejected, the law, as stated above, was the final result. This law on the one hand inflicted a severe blow upon the power of the senate, and on the other it raised the equites, who formed a wealthy class of citizens between the nobility and the poor, as a powerful counterpoise to the senate. It may be questioned whether the rivalry which was thus created between the senate and the equites was salutary in its consequences or not; but thus much is certain, that the equites soon discovered as many motives for a bad administration of justice as the senators had had before. It is said that in the discussions upon this law, Gracchus, while addressing the people, turned his face towards the forum, whereas all orators before that time had turned their faces towards the senate and the comitium. Another constitutional measure was likewise directed against the arbitrary proceedings of the senate, though it was not felt as keenly as the former. Hitherto the senate had assigned the provinces to the consuls and praetors after their election, and thus had it in its power to gratify this or that person's wish, by assigning to him the province which he particularly desired, and from which he hoped to derive most advantage or honour. Gracchus remedied this evil by a law enacting that the provinces into which consuls or praetors were to be sent should be determined upon previous to the election of those magistrates. The province of Asia, which had for many years been left unsettled, and had thus given to the governors ample scope for plunder and extortion, received at length a regular organisation, for which it is indebted to C. Gracchus. In all his measures relating to the administration he took great care of the interests of the republic; and although he acted with justice towards the provincials and the people, to whom lands were assigned, yet he always tried to secure to the republic her revenues. For the purpose of facilitating the commerce and intercourse between the several parts of Italy, and at the same time giving assistance and employment to the poor, he made new roads in all directions, and repaired the old ones; milestones also were erected throughout Italy. Notwithstanding his great and numerous undertakings, he conducted and superintended everything himself, and each particular point was managed with a care and strictness as if he had nothing else to engage his attention. His skill and tact in his intercourse with persons of all classes with whom he was thus brought into connexion, and his talent for winning their affections, excited the admiration of every one. His favour with the people far and near, as well as with the equites, thus rose to the utmost height.

While things were thus in the most prosperous progress, and shortly before the election of the consuls for the next year took place, he once told the people that he was going to ask them a favour, which he would value above every thing, if they granted it; but he added, that he would not complain if they refused it. The people gladly promised to do anything he might desire; and every one believed that he was going to ask for the consulship: but on the day of the consular election, Gracchus conducted his friend C. Fannius into the assembly, and canvassed with his friends for him. Fannius was accordingly elected consul in preference to Opimius, who had likewise offered himself as a candidate. C. Gracchus himself was elected tribune for the next year (B. C. 122) also, although he had not asked for it. M. Fulvius Flaccus, a friend of Caius, who had been consul in B. C. 125, had caused himself to be elected tribune, for the purpose of being able to give his support to one important measure which Caius had in contemplation, viz. that of extending the Roman franchise. The plan was to grant the Roman franchise to all the Latins, and to make the Italian allies step into the relation in which the Latins had stood until then. This measure, though it was the wisest and most salutary that could have been devised, was looked forward to by the senate with the greatest uneasiness and alarm. The Latins and Italian allies had for some time been aspiring to the privilege of the Roman franchise; and Fregellae, being disappointed in its expectations, had revolted, but had been destroyed by the praetor Opimius. But it is uncertain whether Gracchus did actually bring forward a bill about the extension of the franchise, or whether he merely contemplated to do so. The senate, instead of endeavouring to allay the ill feelings of those who thought that a right was withheld from them, provoked them still more by an edict forbidding any one who was not a Roman citizen to stay in the city or its vicinity so long as the discussions on the bills of C. Gracchus were going on. At the same time the senate had recourse to the meanest and most contemptible stratagem to check Cains in the progress of his excellent legislation. The course which the aristocrats now began to pursue shows most clearly that the good of the republic was not the thing for which they were struggling, and that they looked upon it merely as a contest for power and wealth; they cared little or nothing about the demoralisation of the people, or the ruin of the republic, so long as they could but preserve their power undiminished.

Among the colleagues of C. Gracchus was M. Livius Drusus, a man of rank, wealth, and eloquence ; he was gained over by the senatorial party, and under their directions, and with their sanction, he endeavoured to outbid Caius in the proposal of popular measures. He acted the part of a real demagogue, for the purpose of supplanting the sincere friend of the people; and the people, who at all times prize momentary gain more than solid advantages, which work slowly and almost imperceptibly, allowed themselves to be duped by the treacherous agent of the aristocracy. Drusus proposed a series of measures which were of a far more democratic nature than those of Caius. Caius had proposed the establishment of two colonies at Tarentum and Capua, consisting of citizens of good and respectable character; but Drusus proposed the establishment of twelve colonies, each of which was to consist of 3000 needy Roman citizens. Caius had left the public land distributed among the poor, subject to a yearly payment to the treasury: Drusus abolished even this payment, and thus deprived the state of a large portion of its revenue. Gracchus contemplated granting the franchise to the Latins, but Drusus brought forward a measure that the Latins should be exempt from corporal punishment even while they served in the armies. The people thus imposed upon by Drusus, who assured them that the senate sanctioned his measures from no other desire than that of serving the poor citizens, gradually became reconciled to the senate; and the recollection of past sufferings was effaced by hypocritical assurances and demagogic tricks. Another means by which Drusus insinuated himself into the people's confidence was, that he asked no favour for himself, and took no part in carrying his laws into effect, which he left entirely to others; while Caius, with the most unwearied activity, superintended and conducted every thing in person. In proportion as the ill feeling between the people and the senate abated, the popularity of Caius decreased, and his position between the two became more and more perilous. Gracchus had proposed the establishment of a colony on the ruins of Carthage, and he himself was appointed one of the triumvirs to conduct the colonists. He settled every thing in Africa with the utmost rapidity; and after an absence of seventy days, he returned to Rome, shortly before the time at which the consuls for the next year were to be elected. Drusus had availed himself of the absence of Caius for making various attacks on his party and his friends, especially on Fulvius Flaccus, who began openly to stir up the Italian allies to demand the Roman franchise. It was in vain that Caius, after his return, endeavoured to restore what his enemies and his sanguine and passionate friend had destroyed. Fannius, who had obtained the consulship through the influence of Caius, had soon after treated him with indifference, and in the end even made common cause with his enemies. Opimius, who had never forgiven Caius for having procured the election of Fannius to the consulship, which he himself had coveted, now offered himself again as a candidate for that office; and it was generally reported that he was determined to abolish the laws of C. Gracchus. The latter had endeavoured to obtain the tribuneship for the third time, but in vain, either because he had really lost the popular favour through the intrigues of Drusus, or because his colleagues, whom he had offended by some arrangements during the public games in favour of the people, acted illegally and fraudulently in the proclamation and return of the votes. How much Caius had lost confidence in himself as well as in his supporters is clear from the following circumstance. By the command of the senate, and in pursuance of the above-mentioned edict, the consul Fannius drove out of the city all those who were not Roman citizens; and Caius, although he had promised them his assistance, if they would defy the edict and remain at Rome, yet allowed persons of his own acquaintance to be dragged off before his eyes by the lictors of the consul, without venturing to help them. The object of Gracchus undoubtedly was to avoid violence and prevent civil bloodshed, in order that his enemies might not obtain any just ground for attacking him, which was, in fact, the very thing they were looking for. But the people, who were unable to appreciate such motives, looked upon his forbearance as an act of cowardice.

The year of his second tribuneship, B. C. 122, thus came to its close. After Opimius had entered on his consulship, the senate, which had hitherto acted rather on the defensive, and opposed Gracchus with intrigues, contrived to lead Caius into wrong steps, that he might thus prepare his own ruin. His enemies began to repeal several of his enactments. The subject of the colony of Carthage was discussed afresh merely to provoke Gracchus, who, in establishing the colony, had disregarded the curse pronounced by P. Scipio upon the site of Carthage, and had increased the number of colonists to 6000. This and various other annoyances, which still more estranged the people from him, he endured for a time with forbearance and without making any resistance, probably because he did not believe that his legislation could be really upset. But as the movements of the hostile faction became more and more threatening, he could no longer resist the entreaties of Fulvius Flaccus, and once more he resolved to rally his friends around him, and take an active part in the public assembly. A day was appointed to decide upon the colony of Carthage, or, according to Plutarch, to abolish the laws of Caius. A number of country people flocked to Rome to support Caius and his friends; and it was said that they had been sent by his mother, Cornelia. Flaccus with his friends occupied the capitol early in the morning, and was already haranguing the people, when Caius arrived with his followers. But he was irresolute and desponding, and had a presentiment that blood would be shed. He took no part in the proceedings, and in silence he walked up and down under an arcade, watching the course of events. A common man of the name of Antyllius there approached him, touched his shoulder, and bade him spare his country. Caius, who was taken by surprise, gazed at the man as if he had suddenly been charged with a crime of which he could not deny his guilt. Some one of Caius's friends took this look for a significant hint, and slew Antyllius on the spot. According to Plutarch, Antyllius was one of the attendants of the consul Opimius, and while carrying a sacrifice through the arcade, insolently provoked the anger of the bystanders by calling out, " Make way for honest men, you rascals ! " But however this may be, Gracchus took no part in the proceedings on that morning, and the murder of Antyllius was committed wholly against his wish. It produced the greatest alarm and consternation, and Caius was deeply grieved, for he saw at once that it injured his party, and served to promote the hostile schemes of his enemies. He therefore immediately descended to the forum, to allay the terror and explain the unfortunate occurrence; but nobody would listen to him, and he was shunned by everybody as if he had been an accursed man. The assembly broke up, the people dispersed, and Gracchus and Fulvius Flaccus, lamenting the event, returned home, accompanied each by a number of friends. Opimius, on the other hand, who had now got the opportunity he wanted, triumphed and urged the people to avenge the murder. The next day he convoked the senate, while large crowds of the people were assembled in the forum. He garrisoned the capitol, and with his suite he himself occupied the temple of Castor and Pollux, which commanded the view of the forum. At his command the body of Antyllius was carried across the forum with loud wailings and lamentations, and was deposited in front of the senate-house. All this was only a tragic farce to excite the feelings of the people against the murderer and his party. When Opimius thought the minds of the people sufficiently excited, he himself entered the senate, and by a declamatory exposition of the fearful crime that had been committed, he prevailed upon the senate to confer on himself unlimited power to act as he thought best for the good of the republic. By virtue of this power, Opimius ordered the senate to meet again the next day in arms, and each eques was commanded to bring with him two armed slaves. Civil war was thus declared. These decrees, framed as they were with apparent calmness, for the purpose of clothing the spirit of party vengeance in the forms of legal proceedings, completely paralysed the mass of the people. That the equities, who as an order had been raised so much by Gracchus, deserted him in the hour of danger, is accountable only by the cowardice which is always displayed on such occasions by capitalists. On the second day Gracchus had been in the forum, but he had left the assembly, and as he went home he was seen stopping before the statue of his father ; he did not utter a word, but at last he sighed deeply, burst into tears, and then returned home. A large multitude of people, who seemed to feel the silent reproach of their ingratitude and cowardice, followed him to his house, and kept watch there all night.

Fulvius Flaccus, who had been filled with rage and indignation at the decree of the senate and the conduct of Opimius, called on his friends to arm themselves, and with them he spent the night in drinking and rioting. On the morning he was with difficulty roused from his drunken sleep to give the necessary orders, and organise his men for resistance. Amid shouts he and his band seized on the Aventine, where they took up a strong position, in the hope of thus compelling the senate to yield. Caius refused to arm: he left his house in the morning, dressed in his toga, and without any weapon save a dagger, which he concealed under his toga. It was in vain that his wife, Licinia, with her child in her arms, implored him to remain at home; he freed himself from her embrace, and went away with his friends without saying a word. When he arrived on the Aventine, he prevailed on Fulvius to send his younger son as a deputy to the senate, to propose a reconciliation. The appearance of the beautiful boy and his innocent request moved many of the senators; but Opimius haughtily declared, that the rebels ought not to attempt any thing through the medium of a messenger, but that they must lay down their arms, and surrender at discretion. Gracchus himself was ready to comply with this demand, but all his friends refused, and Fulvius sent his son a second time to negotiate. Opimius, who longed to bring the matter to a decision by force, ordered the boy to be thrown into prison, and forthwith he advanced with a body of armed men towards the Aventine. An amnesty was at the same time proclaimed for all those who would at once lay down their arms. This amnesty, the want of a regular plan of action on the part of Fulvius, and the missiles of the enemy, soon dispersed the party of Gracchus. Fulvius took to flight, and was murdered with his elder son. Gracchus, who took no part in the struggle, and was altogether dissatisfied with the manner in which his friends had conducted the affair, withdrew into the temple of Diana, with a view of making away with himself; but he was prevented by two faithful friends, Pomponius and Laetorius (others call him Licinius). Before leaving the temple he is said to have sunk on his knees, and to have pronounced a fearful curse upon the ungrateful people who had deserted him and joined his enemies. He then followed his friends towards the Tiber; and as they arrived at the wooden bridge leading to the Janiculus, he would have been overtaken by his pursuers and cut down, had not his friends resolutely opposed them, until they were killed. Caius, in the meantime, had reached the grove of the Furies, accompanied only by a single slave. He had called out for a horse, but no one had ventured to afford him any assistance. In the grove of the Furies the slave, Philocrates, first killed his master, Gracchus, and then himself. A proclamation had been issued at the beginning of the struggle, that those who brought the heads of Gracchus and Fulvius should receive their weight in gold. One Septimuleius cut off the head of Gracchus; and in order to increase its weight, filled it with melted lead, and thus carried it on a spear to Opimius, who paid him his bloodmoney. The bodies of the slain, whose number is said to have amounted to 3000, were thrown into the Tiber, their property was confiscated, and their houses demolished. All the other friends of Gracchus who fell into the hands of their enemies were thrown into prison, and there strangled. After the senate was satiated with blood, it committed the blasphemous mockery of dedicating a temple to Concord !

C. Gracchus was married to Licinia, the daughter of Licinius Crassus, who had been elected triumvir in the place of Tib. Gracchus. He had by her, as far as we know, only one son, but what became of the boy after his father's death is unknown. We possess numerous specimens and fragments of the oratory of C. Gracchus, which are collected in the work of Meyer, cited below. The people of Rome who had deserted him in the hour of danger were soon seized by feelings of bitter remorse ; statues were erected to the two brothers; the spots on which they had fallen were declared sacred ground, and sacrifices were offered there as in the temples of the gods. Both brothers had staked their lives for the noblest object that a statesman can propose to himself--the rights of the people ; and so long as these rights are preferred to the privileges of a few whom birth or wealth enable to oppress and tyrannise over the many, so long will the names of the Gracchi be hallowed in history. There are, as we have already observed, one or two points in their conduct and legislation in which we might wish that they had acted with more wisdom and circumspection, but errare humanum est, and the blame falls not so much upon the Gracchi, as upon those who irritated and provoked them with a bitterness and an insolence in the face of which it would have required an angel's forbearance to remain calm and prudent. (Plut. Vit. C. Gracchi ; Appian, App. BC 1.21_26; Liv. Epit. lib. 59-61; Vel. Pat. 2.6, &c.; Dio Cass. Fragm. Peir. 90; Oros. 5.12; Aur. Vict. de Vir. Illustr. 65; the passages of Cicero, collected in Orelli's Onomast. vol. ii. p. 533, &c.; comp. F. D. Gerlach, Tib. und C. Gracchus, p. 33, &c.; Meyer, Fragm. Orat. Rom. p. 224, &c., 2d edit.; Ahrens, Die drei Volkstribunen, &c.; Niebuhr, Lectures on Rom. Hist. vol. i. p. 341, &c., ed. Schmitz.)

Gracchus

9. (Sempronius) Gracchus, a run-away slave, who gave himself out as a son of Tib. Gracchus. His real name was L. Equitius. [Equitius.]

Gracchus

10. Semipronius) Gracchus, a paramour of Julia, the daughter of Augustus, while she was the wife of M. Agrippa. He continued his connection with her after she was married to Tiberius, and inflamed her hatred against her husband. On Julia's banishment, Gracchus was also banished to Cercina, an island off the African coast. There he lived till the accession of Tiberius, who had him put to death, A. D. 14 (Tac. Ann. 1.53; Vell. 1.100). There are several coins struck by a Tib. Sempronius Gracchus (see the specimen below), which are usually referred to the above-mentioned Gracchus. But as many of these coins were struck in the time of Julius Caesar, they belong more probably to the ancestor of the Gracchus put to death in A. D. 14.

[L.S]

Gracchus , T. Vetu'rius

with the agnomen Sempronianus, was appointed augur in B. C. 174. after the death and in the place of Tib. Sempronius Gracchus, No. 3. (Liv. 41.26.) [L.S]

Gracchus

(1) Tiberius Sempronius, the father of the Gracchi, married Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africanus the Elder. He died while his sons were young, having twice filled the office of consul, and, according to Plutarch, obtained two triumphs. He was censor in B.C. 169. As a soldier he carried on war with distinction against the Celtiberi in Spain (B.C. 181) and the Sardinians (177). He had twelve children by Cornelia. After the death of her husband, Cornelia refused all offers of marriage, and devoted herself to the charge and education of her children, who, as Plutarch tells us, were less the inheritors of manly virtue by being sprung from the noblest blood in Rome than they were its possessors from the careful nurture of their mother Cornelia ( Gracch.).

(2) Tiberius, elder son of the preceding, was born B.C. 163. Tiberius served his first campaign in Africa under his uncle Scipio, and having obtained the office of consul's quaestor, we find him next under Mancinus, the unfortunate commander in the Numantine War. His name, which the Numantines respected from remembering his father's virtues, is said to have procured the terms under which Mancinus obtained safety for his army; but the Senate, on his return, was so much displeased at the unfavourable nature of these conditions that it resolved on giving up all the principal officers to the Numantines. By the good-will, however, of the popular assembly, influenced, as it would seem, by the soldiers and their connections in the lower classes, it was decided to send Mancinus as the real criminal, and to spare the other officers for the sake of Gracchus. Treatment of this nature was likely to rouse Gracchus against the Senate, and make him the friend of the poor; and accordingly, in three years afterwards, we find him beginning his short career as a political agitator. He was elected tribune of the people B.C. 128, and immediately began to attempt the revival of the Licinian Rogations. (See Agrariae Leges; Rogationes Liciniae.) In so doing he appears to have had in view the two grand principles which that law involved—namely, the employment of freemen in preference to slaves in cultivating the soil, and especially the more generally recognized principle of the equitable division of the public land. Three commissioners were appointed to superintend the working of the new law which Gracchus had proposed, if Plutarch may be trusted, with the approval of some of the most eminent persons of the times, among whom were Mucius Scaevola and Crassus the orator. Such general interest was excited by the question, that crowds arrived from all parts of the country to support either side; and there appeared no doubt which way the matter would go when left to the tribes. The aristocracy, however, secured the veto of M. Octavius, one of the tribunes, and thereby quashed the proceedings whenever the law was brought on, which violent mode of opposition led Gracchus to exercise his veto on other questions, stop the supplies, and throw the government into the most complete helplessness.

Thus far the contest had been constitutional; but now, Gracchus, irritated by continual opposition, invited Octavius to propose his [Gracchus's] ejection from the office of tribune; and on his refusal, pleading the utter uselessness of two men so different in sentiment holding the same office, he put the question to the tribes that Octavius be ejected. When the first seventeen out of the thirty-five tribes had voted for it, Gracchus again implored him to resign; and, on his entreaty proving unsuccessful, polled another tribe, constituting a majority, and sent his officers to drag Octavius from the tribune's chair. The Agrarian Law was forthwith passed; and Gracchus himself, his brother Caius, and his father-in-law Appius Claudius, were appointed the commissioners. But the Senate, to show their opinion of the whole proceeding, withheld from him the usual allowance for a public officer. While things were in this state, Attalus, king of Pergamus, bequeathed his kingdom and treasures to the Roman people; and, to enhance his own popularity, Gracchus proposed to divide the treasure among the recipients of land under the new law, to enable them to stock their farms, and to commit the management of the kingdom of Pergamus to the popular assembly. This brought matters to a greater pitch of distrust than ever. Gracchus was accused by one senator of aspiring to tyranny, and by another of having violated the sanctity of the tribunitian office in deposing Octavius. On this point Gracchus strove to justify himself before the people, but his opponent seemed to have gained an advantage so great as to induce him to postpone the assembly. When at last he did make his defence, it rested, if Plutarch is correct, on false analogies, and on avoiding the question of the inviolability of a public officer. At this juncture Gracchus seems to have trembled for that popularity which alone preserved him from impeachment; and, lest it should fail, endeavoured to secure his own reëlection to the office of tribune. The other party had demurred as to his eligibility to the office two years in succession, and on the day of election this point occupied the assembly till nightfall. Next morning, accompanied by a crowd of partisans, he went to the Capitol; and, on hearing that the Senate had determined to oppose him by force, armed his followers with staves, and prepared to clear the Capitol. At this juncture, Publius Scipio Nasica, having in vain called on the consul to take measures for the safety of the State, issued from the Temple of Faith, where the Senate had assembled, followed by the whole nobility of Rome. He put the mob to flight, seized their weapons, and attacked all who fell in his way. About three hundred perished, and among the slain was Gracchus, who was killed by repeated blows on the head, B.C. 133 ( Tib. Gracch.). See Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. pp. 92-126 (American ed. 1888).

(3) Gaius, was nine years younger than his brother Tiberius, and at his death was left with Appius Claudius as commissioner for carrying out the Agrarian Law. By the death of Appius, and of Tiberius's successor, Licinius Crassus, the agrarian commission consisted of Fulvius Flaccus, Papirius Carbo, and himself; but he refrained from taking any part in public affairs for more than ten years after the death of Tiberius. During this time the provisions of his brother's law were carried out by Carbo and Flaccus; but Gaius does not seem to have begun his career as an independent political leader until the year B.C. 123, when, on his return from Sardinia, where he had been for two years, he was elected tribune of the people. His first act was to propose two laws, one of which, directed against the degraded tribune Octavius, disqualified all who had been thus degraded from holding any magistracy; and the other, having in view Pompilius, a prominent opponent of the popular party, denounced the banishment of a Roman citizen without trial as a violation of the Roman laws. The first was never carried through; to the latter was added a third, by which Pompilius was banished from Italy, or, according to technical phraseology, interdicted from fire and water. These measures were followed by others, by which he aimed at establishing his own popularity. One of them was a poor-law, by which a monthly distribution of corn was made to the people at an almost nominal price. (See Frumentariae Leges.) The effect of this law was to make the population of Rome paupers, and to attract all Italy to partake of the bounty. Next came organic changes, as they would now be called; and of these the most important was the transference of the judicial power from the senators, wholly or in part, to the equestrian order. This measure, according to Cicero, worked well; but, in weighing his opinion, we must remember his partiality for the equites, and add to this the fact that his eulogies occur in an advocate's speech (In Verr. Act. i.).

Gracchus now possessed unlimited power with the populace; and, at the end of the year, not more than ten candidates for the office of tribune having appeared, he was again elected. His second tribuneship was mostly employed in passing laws respecting the colonies, in which matter the aristocratic agent, Livius Drusus, outdid him; and, having won the confidence of the people by his apparent disinterestedness, ventured (being himself a tribune) to interpose his veto to one of Gracchus's measures. The appointment of Gracchus, soon after, to the office of commissioner for planting a colony near Carthage removed him from the scenes of his popularity; and, soon after his return, a proposal was made to repeal the very law which he had been engaged in carrying out, relative to the colony in Africa. This law was not his own measure, but that of one Rubrius, another of the tribunes, and was one of those enactments which had alienated from Gracchus the favour of the people, it having been represented by his opponents as an impious act to build again the walls of Carthage, which Scipio had solemnly devoted to perpetual desolation. Gracchus was now a private person, his second tribuneship having expired; but yet, as such, he opposed the proposition to repeal, and, unfortunately for himself, united with M. Fulvins Flaccus, one of the commissioners of the Agrarian Law, and a man whose character was respected by no party in the Republic. The reputation of Gracchus had already suffered from his connection with Fulvius; and now he took part with him in designs which could be considered as nothing less than treasonable. Charging the Senate with spreading false reports, in order to alarm the religious scruples of the people, the two popular leaders assembled a numerous body of their partisans armed with daggers, and, being thus prepared for violence, they proceeded to the Capitol, where the people were to meet in order to decide on the repeal of the law of Rubrius. Here, before the business of the day was yet begun, a private citizen, who happened to be engaged in offering a sacrifice, was murdered by the partisans of Fulvius and Gracchus for some words or gestures which they regarded as insulting. This outrage excited a general alarm; the assembly broke up in consternation; and the popular leaders, after trying in vain to gain a hearing from the people, while they disclaimed the violence committed by their followers, had no other course left than to withdraw to their own homes. There they concerted plans of resistance, which were considered by the people as an open rebellion against the government of the country. The consul Opimius, exaggerating, perhaps, the alarm which he felt from the late outrage, hastily summoned the Senate together; the body of the murdered man was exposed to the view of the people, and the Capitol was secured at break of day with an armed force. The Senate, being informed by Opimius of the state of affairs, proceeded to invest him with absolute power to act in defence of the commonwealth, in the usual form of a resolution, “that the consul should provide for the safety of the Republic.” At the same time Gracchus and Fulvius were summoned to appear before the Senate to answer for the murder laid to their charge. Instead of obeying, they occupied the Aventine Hill with a body of their partisans in arms, and invited the slaves to join them, promising them their freedom. Opimius, followed by the senators and the members of the equestrian order, who, with their dependants, had armed themselves by his directions, and accompanied by a body of regular soldiers, advanced against the rebels, who had made two fruitless attempts at negotiation, by sending to the consul the son of Fulvius. In the meantime the conduct of Gaius Gracchus was that of a man irresolute in the course which he pursued, and with too much regard for his country to engage heartily in the criminal attempt into which he had suffered himself to be drawn. He had left his house, it is said, in his ordinary dress; he had already urged upon Fulvius to propose the terms of a compromise to the Senate; and now, when the Aventine was attacked, he took personally no part in the action. The contest, indeed, was soon over. The rebels were presently dispersed. Fulvius was dragged from the place to which he had fled for refuge, and was put to death; while Gracchus, finding himself closely pursued, fled across the Tiber, and, taking shelter in a grove sacred to the goddess Furrina, was killed, at his own desire, by a servant who had accompanied his flight. His head, together with that of Fulvius, was cut off and carried to the consul, in order to obtain the price which had been set upon both by a proclamation issued at the beginning of the conflict; and the bodies, as well as those of all who had perished on the same side, were thrown into the Tiber. In addition to this, the houses of Gracchus and Fulvius were given up to plunder, their property was confiscated, and even the wife of Gracchus was deprived of her dowry. It is said that in this sedition there perished altogether of the partisans of the popular leaders about 3000, partly in the action and partly by summary executions afterwards, under the consul's orders.

There is little doubt that Gracchus aimed at monarchical power, but many writers, among them Mommsen, justify his purpose on the plea that an absolute monarchy is a less evil than an absolute oligarchy such as that which existed at Rome in the second century B.C. See Mommsen, Hist. of Rome, vol. ii. pp. 127-160 (American ed. 1888).

(4) Sempronius, a Roman nobleman, banished to Cercina, an island off the coast of Africa, for his adulterous intercourse with Iulia, the daughter of Augustus. After an exile of fourteen years, he was put to death by a party of soldiers sent for that purpose by Tiberius (Tac. Ann. i. 53).