Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/44

 20 WORKMEN AND HEROES hereditary instincts lead him to approve of autocrats as against republics, Spartan discipline as against Attic freedom. Yet in himself he has shown a striking ex- ample how the latter could appreciate and embrace the former. As the simplest specimen of pure Attic prose he will ever be paramount in schools, neglected in universities the recreation rather than the occupation of mature scholars. He is a great worthy, a man of renown ; " nevertheless, he did not attain unto the first three " the two masters of his own day, and the colossal Demosthenes. THE GRACCHI Extracts from " Csesar, a Sketch." by JAMES ANTHONY FROUDE. LL.D. (164-133, I53-I2I B.C.) TIBERIUS GRACCHUS was born about the year 164 B.C. He was one of twelve children, nine of whom died in infancy, him- self, his brother Caius, and his sister Cornelia being the only survivors. His family was plebeian, but of high antiquity, his ancestors for several generations having held the high- est offices in the Republic. On the moth- er's side he was the grandson of Scipio Af- ricanus. His father, after a distinguished career as a soldier in Spain and Sardinia, had' attempted reforms at Rome. He had been censor, and in this capacity he had ejected disreputable senators from the Curia ; he had degraded offending Equites ; he had rearranged and tried to purify the Comitia. But his connections were aristocratic. His wife was the daughter of the most famous of them, Scipio African us the Younger. He had been himself in antag- onism with the tribunes, and had taken no part, at any time, in popular agitations. The father died when Tiberius was still a boy, and the two brothers grew up under the care of their mother, a noble and gifted lady. They early displayed remarkable talents. Tiberius, when old enough, went into the army, and served under his brother-in-law in the last Carthaginian campaign. He was first on the walls of the city in the final storm. Ten years later he went to Spain as quaestor, when he carried on his father's popularity, and by taking the people's side in some questions, fell into disagreement with his brother-in-law. His political views had perhaps already inclined to change. He was still of an age when