Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/183

Rh Law respecting Appeal. — Two of the early measures of Gaius Gracchus formed connecting links between the past and the present, and were in part aimed against the opponents of his brother. He proposed that those who had been deprived of an office by a popular decree should thenceforth be incapable of holding any office. Perhaps he intended simply to declare the removal of Octavius to be constitutional. At all events, he abandoned this measure.

He brought forward a second bill, enacting that no Roman citizen was to be sentenced to loss of life or citizenship (caput) except by decree of the people, and that a magistrate who had violated this law should be punished with exile. He intended to forbid the institution of special commissions or of investigations merely by the decree of the senate (cf. p. 163), although appeal was not granted to those condemned. He wished also to prohibit the exercise of the powers conferred on the consuls by the declaration of martial law (senatus consultum ultimum), and perhaps to check the direct violations of the previous laws concerning appeal, of which the magistrates were still guilty. He would, moreover, in this way protect his own followers, in so far as it could now be done by law. The bill passed, and Publius Laenas, the surviving consul of 132, went into exile.

Law on the Distribution of Grain. — Gaius Gracchus needed above all to win lasting popularity. To this end he carried a law in regard to the distribution of grain. Members of the oligarchy had on several occasions distributed grain to the city multitude at less than the market price, the state treasury paying the difference (p. 150). Gracchus went farther, and proposed that every citizen who presented himself in Rome should be granted a monthly allowance of perhaps five pecks at about nine cents a peck (a modius at 6⅓ asses), or less than one-half the usual price. He taught the people to derive profit from their position and to reward themselves