Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/308

Rh 294 GRACCHUS. Dion Cass. Fragm. Peir. 86—88 ; Oros. v. 8, &c. ; Aur. Vict, de Vir. Illustr. 57 ; and the pas- sages of Cicero which are collected in Orelli's Ono- masticon, vol. ii. p. 531, &c. ; comp, F. D. Gerlach, Tib. und C. Gracchus^ pp. 1 — 30 ; Meyer, Fragm. Orat. Rom. p. 215, &c. 2d edit. ; Ahrens, Die drei Volkstribunen Tib. Gracchus, Drusus und Sidpicius ; Niebuhr, Lectures on Rom. Hist. vol. i. p. 223, &c., ed. Schmitz.) 8. C. Sempronius Gracchu8, the brother of No. 7, and son of No. 6, was, according to Plu- tarch, 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 oppor- tunity for displaying his abilities ; for, while the career of Tiberius lasted scarcely seven months, that of Cains extends over a series of years. At the time of his brother's murder, in B. c. 1 33, Caius was in Spain, where he received his first military training in the array of P. Scipio Africa- nus, 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 Avith 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 pre- sumed that he would follow. In B. c. 131, C Pa- pirius 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 de- livered 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 GRACCHUS. the enemy, just towards his inferiors, punctual in the discharge of his duties, and in temperance and frugality he excelled even his elders. His popu- larity 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, Avhich thereupon directed the con- sul 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 necessa- ries. 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 ac- count 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 Au- relius Orestes, he at once embarked, and appeared at Rome, to the surprise of all parties. The opti- mates 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 ene- mies, bent as they were upon destroying all his in- fluence, 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 in- justice, 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 be- come 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 <lesist from his scheme, and