Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/185

Rh life. The chief result was, perhaps, that a provincial governor would now, if prosecuted on his return to Rome, face a jury of whom he could expect but scant justice in that corrupt age, if he had not connived at the unscrupulous practices of the knights and their agents. The old antipathies, the ever recurring rivalries and jealousies, could find an easy expression in the verdicts of jurymen. The law gave rise to almost constant discord and struggles. Truly might Gracchus say that he had thrown daggers into the Forum, that the citizens, or the noble and the rich, might lacerate one another with them.

In connection with this law the Acilian plebiscite was passed, which organized the court for cases of extortion, according to the new principles. The panel of the court was to consist of four hundred and fifty jurymen; senators, and the fathers and sons of senators, were to be excluded; and a successful prosecutor, whether Latin or foreigner, was to obtain citizenship, or, if he preferred, the right of appeal.

Law respecting the Province of Asia. — Partly to gratify the knights and partly to reimburse the public treasury for the distribution of grain, Gracchus, by another law, greatly increased the taxation of the province of Asia, and left the collection of the various dues to the large associations of knights. A partial or entire remission of the rents was in certain cases to be granted the knights, not by senatorial decree, but by law, in order that they might be less dependent on the senate.

Law on Consular Provinces. — By the last law in particular, Gracchus had encroached on the administrative sphere of the senate; he went still farther in carrying plebiscites respecting consular provinces, colonies, and roads. The senate had in exceptional cases left the assignment of provinces to the assembly, but as a rule it decided what provinces