Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.4, 1865).djvu/558

 550 CAIUS GRACCHUS. vius, should, as a reward, receive its weight in gold. Sep- timuleius, therefore, having fixed Caius's head upon the top of his spear, came and presented it to Opimius. They presently brought the scales, and it was found to weigh above seventeen pounds. But in this affair, Septimuleius gave as great signs of his knavery, as he had done before of his cruelty ; for having taken out the brains, he had filled the skull with lead. There were others who brought the head of Fulvius too, but, being mean, inconsiderable persons, were turned away without the promised reward. The bodies of these two persons, as well as of the rest who were slain, to the number of three thousand men, were all thrown into the river ; their goods were confiscated, and their widows forbidden to put themselves into mourn- ing. They dealt even more severely with Licinia, Caius's wife, and deprived her even of her jointure ; and as an addition still to all their inhumanity, they barbarously murdered Fulvius's youngest son ; his only crime being, not that he took up arms against them, or that he was present in the battle, but merely that he had come with articles of agreement; for this he was first imprisoned, then slain. But that which angered the common people beyond all these things was, because at this time, in memory of his success, Opimius built the temple of Concord, as if he gloried and triumphed in the slaughter of so many citizens. Somebody in the night time, under the inscrip- tion of the temple, added this verse : — Folly and Discord Concord's temple built. Yet this Opimius, the first who, being consul, presumed to usurp the power of a dictator, condemning, without any trial, with three thousand other citizens, Caius Grac- chus and Fulvius Flaccus, one of whom had triumphed, and been consul, the other far excelled all his contempo-