Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/176

162 Revolutionary Proceedings of Tiberius Gracchus. — Tiberius Gracchus imagined that the justice of his cause would insure success; but the senate, as the organ of the landowners, employed the old method of checking one tribune by means of another. Marcus Octavius, a colleague of Tiberius, vetoed the bill when it was about to be voted upon. Relying on his inviolability, Tiberius suspended the business of the state until his bill should be passed, and put his seal on the public treasury in the temple of Saturn. The government acquiesced. As Octavius persistently used his veto, Gracchus finally caused the plebeian assembly to decide by vote whether his colleague should be ousted from office. The decision was almost unanimous in the affirmative, and Gracchus had him removed from the tribunician bench (subsellium). The bill was then carried, and Tiberius, his younger brother Gaius, and Appius Claudius were elected commissioners. The very important power of deciding what land was public belonged, according to precedent, to the consuls or other magistrates, but was now by law conferred on this family commission. The nobles were exasperated, threats were uttered, and Quintus Pompeius announced publicly that he would impeach Tiberius at the expiration of his tribunate. In such a trial justice could not be expected, and the fate of Spurius Cassius might be looked for. Tiberius believed his life was in danger, and no longer appeared in public without an escort of from three to four thousand adherents. To maintain his popularity, he proposed that the Pergamene treasures, bequeathed to the Roman state, should be distributed among the new tenants, perhaps for procuring implements and stock. He claimed further that the people, not the senate, had the power to decide the fate of the new province, the kingdom of Pergamus.

Canvass for Reëlection, and Death of Tiberius Gracchus. — Tiberius probably saw that his only chance of safety lay in