Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/309

Rh GRACCHUS. 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 contem- poraries in eloquence ; and his misfortunes gave him ample scope for speaking freely, when he lamented the death of his brother, to which he re- curred as often as an opportunity was offered. He entered on his tribuneship on the 10th of De- cember, 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 mur- derers. The first law he proposed was aimed at the ex-tribune Octavius, and enacted that who- ever 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 di- rected 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 The former of these bills, however, was withdrawn by Caius at the re- quest of his mother ; and Laenas avoided the one aimed at him by voluntary exile. After these preliminary steps he renewed the agrarian law of his brother, which had not indeed been repealed ; but the proper way of carrying it into effect had been prevented and delayed by a variety of disputes, which belong to the period be- tween the death of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 exten- sive, and embraced nearly every branch of the ad- ministration ; 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 from their pay, as had heretofore been done ; another law ordained that no person under the age of seven- teen 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 neces- sary 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 iiie middle ages, but at present no trace of them GRACCHUS. 295 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 some labour, might be enabled to sup- port 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. Hitherto the judges in the case of judicia publica had been elected from and by the senators ; and these 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 consist- ing of 300 equites. We have three different de- scriptions of the enactments of this law ; but Manutius {de Leg. Rom. 15) has made it highly probable thivt two of them refer only to two different conciliatory proposals, and that 'as they were re- jected, 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 certiiin, 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 address- ing 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 di- rected against the arbitrary proceedings of the senate, though it was not felt as keenly aa the former. Hitherto the senate had assigned the pro- vinces to the consuls and praetors after their elec- tion, 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. Grac- chus 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 u 4