Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/554

 546 CAIUS GRACCHUS. to know the occasion of it, and, standing about the corpse, uttered exclamations against the inhuman and barbarous act. The people meantime could not but feel resentment and hatred for the senators, remembering how they them- selves had not only assassinated Tiberius Gracchus, as he was executing his office in the very capitol, but had also thrown his mangled body into the river ; yet now they could honor with their presence and their public lamen- tations in the forum the corpse of an ordinary hired at- tendant, (who, though he might perhaps die wrongfully, was, however, in a great measure the occasion of it him- self,) by these means hoping to undermine him who was the only remaining defender and safeguard of the peo- ple. The senators, after some time, withdrew, and presently ordered that Opimius, the consul, should be invested with extraordinary power to protect the commonwealth and suppress all tyrants. This being decreed, he presently commanded the senators to arm themselves, and the Roman knights to be in readiness very early the next morning, and every one of them to be attended with two servants well armed. Fulvius, on the other side, made his preparations and collected the populace. Caius at that time returning from the market-place, made a stop just before his father's statue, and fixing his eyes for some time upon it, remained in a deep contemplation ; at length he sighed, shed tears, and departed. This made no small impression upon those who saw it, and they began to upbraid themselves, that they should desert and betray so worthy a man as Caius. They therefore went directly to his house, remaining there as a guard about it all night, though in a different manner from those who were a guard to Fulvius ; for they passed away the night with shouting and drinking, and Fulvius himself, being the first to get drunk, spoke and acted many things very un-