Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/312

Rh 298 GRACCHUS. 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 em- brace, 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 inno- cent 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 him- self 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 ad- vanced with a body of armed men towards the Aventine. An amnesty was at the same time pro- claimed 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 mis- siles of the enemy, soon dispersed the party of Gracchus. Fulvius took to flight, and was mur- dered 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 afftiir, 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 assist- ance. In the grove of the Furies the slave, Phi- locrates, 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 blood- money. 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 com- mitted 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 GRACILIS. 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. (Plat. Vit. a Gracchi; Appian, B.C. i. 21— 26; Liv. Epit. lib. 59—61 ; Vel. Pat. ii. 6, &c.; Dion Cass. Fragm, Peir. 90 ; Oros. v. 12 ; Aur. Vict, de Vir. Illusir. ^h ; 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. Oral. Rom. p. 224, «&c., 2d edit. ; Ahrens, Die drei Volkstribunen, &c. ; Niebuhr, Lectures oit Rom. Hist. vol. i. p. 341, &c., ed. Schniitz.) 9. (Sempronius) Gracchus, a run-away slave, who gave himself out as a son of Tib. Gracchus. His real name was L. Equitius. [Equitius.] 10. Sempronius 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. i. 53; Veil. Pat. i. 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 corns 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 ag- nomen Sempronianus, was appointed augur in b. c. 1 74, after the death and in the place of Tib. Sem- pronius Gracchus, No. 3. (Liv. xli. 26.) [L. S.] GRACILIA, VERULA'NA, a Roman lady who was besieged in the Capitol with Sabinus, the brother of Vespasian, during his contest with Vitel- lius, a. d. 70. (Tac. hist. iii. Q9.) The name should perhaps be written Gratilla, (Comp. Plin. ^/>. iii. 11, V. 1.) [W. B. D.] GRA'CiLIS,AE'LIUS,legatus in BelgicGaul, A. D. BQ. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 53.) [W. B. D.]