Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/306

Rh 292 GRACCHUS. Gracchus addressed the people in those days is preserved in Plutarch {Tib. Grace. 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 circum- stances, offered to indemnify Octavius out of his own purse, for the loss which he might sustain through tlie 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 theit 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 ar- rived, 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 pro- ceedings, and again implored Octavius to desist from his opposition ; but Octavius indignantly ex- claimed, " 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 mur- dered 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 in- justice was only of a formal nature, a mere irre- gularity ; and Tiberius, as Niebuhr {Lectures 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 irre- gularity ; 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 tri- luuvirs were appointed to superintend the measur- GRACCHUS. ing 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 Grac- chus, 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 ap- peared in public, he was surrounded by a body of friends, Avho formed a sort of body-guard. About this time a messenger arrived from Asia, with the will of king Attains, 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 Attains had bequeathed to the Romans should be distributed among the people. It is ge- nerally 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 industrious middle class of husbandmen ; 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. (Veil. Pat. ii. 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 de- vised. He further abridged the time that Roman citizens had to serve in the armies. Macrobius {Sat. ii. 10) mentions a leof judidaria 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 de- prive the senate of the administration, inasmuch as he declared that the senate had no right to de- cide 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 ad- dition 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, waa spread abroad by the contemptible Pompeius, with