Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/549

 CAIUS GRACCHUS. 541 that he had done nothing in favor and for the benefit of the commons, without their advice and approbation. But the greatest credit which Drusus got for kindness and justice towards the people was, that he never seemed to propose any law for his own sake, or his own advan- tage ; he committed the charge of seeing the colonies rightly settled to other commissioners ; neither did he ever concern himself with the distribution of the moneys; whereas Caius always took the principal part in any im- portant transactions of this kind. Rubrius, another tribune of the people, had proposed to have Carthage again inhabited, which had been demolished by Scipio, and it fell to Caius's lot to see this performed, and for that pur- pose he sailed to Africa. Drusus took this opportunity of his absence to insinuate himself still more into the peoples' affections, which he did chiefly by accusing Fulvius, who was a particular friend to Caius, and was appointed a commissioner with him for the division of the lands. Fulvius was a man of a turbulent spirit, and notoriously hated by the senate ; and besides, he was suspected by others to have fomented the differences between the citi- zens and their confederates, and underhand to be inciting the Italians to rebel ; though there was little other evi- dence of the truth of these accusations, than his being an unsettled character, and of a well-known seditious temper. This was one principal cause of Caius's ruin ; for part of the envy which fell upon Fulvius, was extended to him. And when Scipio Africanus died suddenly, and no cause of such an unexpected deatli could be assigned, only some marks of blows upon his body seemed to intimate that he had suffered violence, as is related in the history of his life, the greatest part of the odium attached to Fulvius, because he was his enemy, and that very day had reflected upon Scipio in a public address to the people. Nor was Caius himself clear from suspicion. However, this great