Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/545

 CAIUS GRACCHUS. 537 observed to show in many respects unusual earnestness, and whereas other popular leaders had always hitherto, when speaking, turned their faces towards the senate house, and the place called the comitium, he, on the con- trary, was the first man that in his harangue to the peo- ple turned himself the other way, towards them, and con- tinued after that time to do so. An insignificant movement and change of posture, yet it marked no small revolution in state affairs, the conversion, in a manner, of the whole government from an aristocracy to a democracy ; his action intimating that public speakers should address themselves to the people, not the senate. When the commonalty ratified this law, and gave him power to select those of the knights whom he approved of, to be judges, he was invested with a sort of kingly power, and the senate itself submitted to receive his advice in matters of difficulty; nor did he advise any- thing that might derogate from the honor of that body. As, for example, his resolution about the corn which Fabius the proprietor sent from Spain, was very just and honorable ; for he persuaded the senate to sell the corn, and return the money to the same provinces which had furnished them with it ; and also that Fabius should be censured for rendering the Roman government odious and insupportable. This got him extraordinary respect and favor among the provinces. Besides all this, he pro- posed measures for the colonization of several cities, for making roads, and for building public granaries ; of all which works he himself undertook the management and superintendence, and was never wanting to give neces- sary orders for the despatch of all these different and great undertakings ; and that with such wonderful expe- dition and diligence, as if he had been but engaged upon one of them ; insomuch that all persons, even those who hated or feared him, stood amazed to see what a capacity