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CONTENTS OF BOOK VII.

CHAP.

XXXI. THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL WAR AT ROME. -TIBERIUS AND CAIUS GRACCHUS.

XXXII.-RULE OF THE RESTORED OLIGARCHY.-WARS WITH JUGURTHA AND THE CIMBRI.

XXXIII.-FIRST PERIOD OF CIVIL WARS.-MARIUS AND SULLA.

XXXIV.

THE AGE OF POMPEY, CICERO, AND CÆSAR.

XXXV. THE GREAT CIVIL WAR: AND THE AUTOCRACY OF CÆSAR.

XXXVI. THE LAST CIVIL WAR: AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE

EMPIRE.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL WAR AT ROME-TIBERIUS AND CAIUS GRACCHUS. B.C. 133 TO B.C. 111.

"Et sane Gracchis cupidine victoriæ haud satis moderatus animus fuit: sed bono vinci satius est quam malo more injuriam vincere. Igitur eâ victoriâ nobilitas ex lubidine suâ usa multos mortalis ferro aut fugâ exstinxit, plusque in reliquum sibi timoris quam potentiæ addidit. Quæ res plerumque magnas civitatis pessum dedit, dum alteri alteros vincere quovis modo et victos acerbius ulcisci volunt."-SALLUST.

REVOLUTION IMPENDING AT ROME-FAMILY OF THE GRACCHI-CORNELIA AND HER SONS-
MARRIAGES OF TIBERIUS AND CAIUS-TIBERIUS IN SPAIN-HIS VIEW OF THE STATE
OF ITALY HE IS ELECTED TRIBUNE-HIS AGRARIAN LAW-ITS REAL CHARACTER
AND OBJECT-ITS DEFECTS OF PRINCIPLE-GROWTH OF THE ABUSES IN THE POSSES-
SION OF PUBLIC LAND-THEIR EFFECTS ON ITALY-REMEDY PROPOSED BY GRACCHUS
-DIFFICULTIES FROM BOTH PARTIES-OBJECTION TO THE FORM OF THE PROPOSAL-
OPPOSITION OF OCTAVIUS-HE IS DEPOSED FROM THE TRIBUNATE-PASSAGE OF THE
LAW-BEGINNING OF REVOLUTION-NEW PROPOSALS OF TIBERIUS-HE IS ATTACKED
BY THE NOBLES-HIS DEFENCE IN THE SENATE HE IS CHARGED WITH AIMING AT
THE CROWN ATTEMPT TO RE-ELECT GRACCHUS-TUMULT ON THE CAPITOL-THE
SENATE, SCEVOLA, AND SCIPIO NASICA-DEATH OF TIBERIUS GRACCHUS-BEGINNING
OF THE CIVIL WARS-PERSECUTION OF THE SEMPRONIAN PARTY-BANISHMENT OF
NASICA SCIPIO EMILIANUS AND THE MODERATE PARTY-CENSORSHIP OF METellus--
THE NEW TRIUMVIRS-EXECUTION OF THE LAW-ITS PRACTICAL FAILURE-COM-
PLAINTS OF THE ITALIANS-SCIPIO SUSPENDS THE DISTRIBUTION-ALIEN LAW OF
JUNIUS PENNUS, AND FAILURE OF THE PROPOSAL TO ENFRANCHISE THE ITALIANS-
REVOLT AND DESTRUCTION OF FREGELLÆ-CAIUS GRACCHUS DEVOTES HIMSELF TO FOLLOW
HIS BROTHER HIS QUESTORSHIP IN SARDINIA AND RETURN TO ROME-HIS ELECTION
TO THE TRIBUNATE HIS ELOQUENCE AND CHARACTER-BANISHMENT OF POPILLIUS—
THE SEMPRONIAN LAWS-THE CORN-LAW AND ITS EFFECTS-MILITARY BURTHENS
LESSENED REMODELLING OF THE JURY-LISTS-THE EQUESTRIAN ORDER-THE PRO-
VINCES AND THEIR REVENUES RE-ELECTION OF C. GRACCHUS-HIS PLANS
COLONIZATION
AND ENFRANCHISEMENT THE TRIBUNE DRUSUS OUTBIDS CAIUS-
ABSENCE OF CAIUS IN AFRICA-HIS DECLINING INFLUENCE-CONSULSHIP OF OPIMIUS
-DEATHS OF GRACCHUS AND HIS PARTISANS-HEROISM OF CORNELIA-ARISTOCRATIC
RE-ACTION-TRIALS OF PAPIRIUS AND CARBO-C. MARIUS TRIBUNE-THE PROVINCE
OF GAUL-SETTLEMENT OF THE AGRARIAN QUESTION-HUMAN SACRIFICES AT ROME.

OF

THE universal empire, into which it was the destiny of the civilized world to be consolidated, in preparation for the advent of the promised deliverer, was now virtually established by the conquests of Rome and her influence over the nations that were not yet conquered. But the process of the conquest itself had outgrown the constitution of the Republic. In the light of the event, we know that the only possible issue of the disorders of the state was in the supreme power of a single ruler. The men of that age could only look forward to a long and doubtful contest of the dominant oligarchy with the powers of patriotic devotion and personal ambition. Which of these was the ruling motive of the celebrated

brothers, who were the means of first bringing the conflict to the arbitrament of open force, is still one of the vexed questions of historical opinion.

The Sempronian House yielded to few of the Roman Gentes in antiquity. Twelve years after the foundation of the Republic (B.C. 497), the consulship was held by A. Sempronius Atratinus, a member of the only patrician family of the gens; all the rest— the Aselliones, Blæsi, Gracchi, Sophi, and Tuditani being plebeians. Of these families, the most celebrated was late in acquiring the lustre with which it shines above the rest. The career of the first Tiberius Gracchus was begun, so far as history records, with the Second Punic War; but he was already of sufficient note to be appointed master of the horse to the dictator, M. Junius Pera (B.c. 216). We have seen his exploits in Italy, down to his death at the battle of Campi Veteres in Lucania, and the honour paid by Hannibal to his remains (B.c. 212). His son, the second Tiberius Gracchus, inherited the liberal principles of which his father had given a proof by the emancipation of the slaves who had fought at Beneventum.* But, though he began his public life as an opponent of the Scipios, he came forward, when tribune of the plebs, to defend them from the party attack instigated by Cato (B.c. 187).† He was rewarded with the thanks of the whole aristocratic party, and with the hand of Cornelia, the youngest daughter of Africanus, whose title of "the Mother of the Gracchi" refers not more to the celebrity of her sons than to those high endowments which enabled her to give them a training that has become proverbial in history. The exploits of the father in Spain and Sardinia have already been related. He was censor in B.C. 169 with Appius Claudius Pulcher, when he enrolled the freedmen in the four city tribes. The last we hear of him is the mention of his second consulate in B.C. 163. Of his family of twelve children all died young, except two sons, Tiberius and Caius, and a daughter, Sempronia, who became the wife of the younger Africanus.

These three children were still infants when their father died; and Cornelia, who was much younger than her husband, refused an offer of marriage from the king of Egypt, in order to devote herself entirely to the education of the children, whom she is said. to have shown as her family jewels. For this task she had the highest moral and intellectual qualifications. The virtues of the ancient Roman matrons were united in her character with the Vol. II. p. 447. Vol. II. p. 559.

Hellenic culture which she shared with the other members of her illustrious house; and, while she was careful to provide them with the best masters in all the branches of Greek learning, her conversation and example ever set before her children the noblest patterns of heroism and goodness. Under such culture the two brothers surpassed all the youths of their own age in accomplishments; and while both proved worthy of the pains bestowed upon them, the merits of each were made the more conspicuous by differences in their powers and dispositions. The younger, Caius, excelled his brother in talent, in vehemence of feeling, and in the fervour of his eloquence; but Tiberius won higher esteem by his gentler virtues and simple dignity. His calm and graceful eloquence proved not less persuasive than the fervid harangues of his brother, whom he surpassed in deep enthusiasm, if less ardent in its outward exhibition. The difference of nine years in their ages gave the more temperate Tiberius an ascendancy beneficial to both, though the later entrance of Caius on public life deprived Tiberius of his brother's aid in the crisis of his fate. Such was the confidence inspired among the nobles by the early promise of Tiberius, that he was elected to the college of augurs as soon as he reached manhood; and at his installation banquet he received from Appius Claudius, the chief of the Senate, the offer of his daughter's hand. It is said that when Appius returned home with the tidings that he had betrothed his daughter, his wife exclaimed, "Why such haste, unless you have got Tiberius Gracchus for her husband?" Publius Mucius Scævola, whose legal acquirements marked him as the founder of scientific jurisprudence at Rome, afterwards conferred upon Caius Gracchus the hand of his daughter Mucia. By these alliances, added to the marriage of their sister to Scipio Emilianus, the Gracchi became closely connected not only with the noblest families at Rome, but with the leading men who were most deeply convinced of the necessity of a reform in the abuses that were undermining the state.

With such a cousin and brother-in-law as Scipio, the Gracchi could not want for opportunities of military distinction. Tiberius served, at the age of eighteen, as military tribune at the siege of Carthage, and was the first to mount the wall (B.c. 146). Nine years later, he was quæstor in Spain, and we have seen how his hereditary influence with the Iberians extricated the army of Mancinus from great peril (B.c. 137). The statement that Tiberius, on his return to Rome, resolved upon a revolutionary movement

for fear of being called to account for the repudiated treaty with the Numantines is doubtless a calumny of his enemies, perpetuated by the careless repetition of Plutarch. We know that he had far higher motives for undertaking the task, to which he was called not only by the voice of the people, but by the approval of such men as Appius Claudius, Metellus Macedonicus, Mucius Scævola, and his brother Publius Licinius Crassus Mucianus, whose character and legal learning gave him a weight second to no man at Rome.*

On his journey through Italy into Spain, and especially in Etruria, Tiberius Gracchus had viewed with his own eyes those evil effects of the administration of the public lands, which he had often heard deplored by his august friends at Rome. He saw the vast tracts, the possession of which had been usurped by the cupidity of nobles and speculators, turned into sheep-walks or wretchedly cultivated by gangs of slaves in chains, while the poor Roman citizens and Italians, for whom no employment was left, were reduced to abject want. His pity for the slaves, a great number of whom were Greeks, doubtless added to the indignation with which he beheld the condition of the Italian peasants. The only remedy for these evils appeared to be the creation of a middle class of small independent landholders, by means of a redistribution of the public domain, such as had been attempted by former agrarian laws.

The convictions thus impressed on the mind of Gracchus, and deepened by the meditations of many a leisure hour in the camp before Numantia, were shared by many of the wisest and most moderate statesmen at Rome. Caius Lælius, the friend of Scipio Emilianus, had proposed, in his consulship (B.c. 140), the resumption by the state of so much of the public land in Italy as had only been provisionally occupied, and not, like the bulk of the domain, virtually given away to hereditary possessors. But the Senate and the great landholders raised an opposition which would have needed revolutionary measures to overcome, and Lælius earned his surname of the Wise by retiring from the contest. He may have exercised a sound discretion, but the opportunity was lost of uniting the moderate party in a well-considered measure of reform, and the Scipios had placed themselves under a tacit pledge to resist energetic measures. Their conduct was openly censured by Appius Claudius; and his party seem to have re

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*This was the Crassus who was killed in the war with Aristonicus in Asia, B.C. See Vol. II. p. 551.

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