Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/544

 536 CAIUS GRACCHUS. honor of her, with this inscription, Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi. There are several expressions recorded, in which he used her name perhaps with too much rhetoric, and too little self-respect, in his attacks upon his adversaries. " How," said he, " dare you presume to reflect upon Cor- nelia, the mother of Tiberius ? " And because the person who made the reflections had been suspected of effeminate courses, " With what face," said he, " can you compare Cornelia with yourself? Have you brought forth children as she has done ? And yet all Rome knows, that she has refrained from the conversation of men longer than you yourself have done." Such was the bitterness he used in his language ; and numerous similar expressions might be adduced from his written remains. Of the laws which he now proposed, with the object of gratifying the people and abridging the power of the senate, the first was concerning the public lands, which were to be divided amongst the poor citizens ; another was concerning the common soldiers, that they should be clothed at the public charge, without any diminution of their pay, and that none should be obliged to serve in the army who was not full seventeen years old ; another gave the same right to all the Italians in general, of vot- ing at elections, as was enjoyed by the citizens of Rome ; a fourth related to the price of corn, which was to be sold at a lower rate than formerly to the poor ; and 'a fifth regulated the courts of justice, greatly reducing the power of the senators. For hitherto, in all causes senators only sat as judges, and were therefore much dreaded by the Roman knights and the people. But Caius joined three hundred ordinary citizens of equestrian rank with the senators, who were three hundred likewise in num- ber, and ordained that the judicial authority should be equally invested in the six hundred. While he was argu- ing for the ratification of this law, his behavior was