Tiberius and Caius Gracchus

The enemies of Caius also effected the election of Opimius as consul, and then proceeded to revoke many of the laws which Caius had secured and to meddle with the organization of the colony at Carthage. This was by way of irritating Caius, that he might furnish ground for resentment, and so be got rid of. At first he endured all this patiently, but at last, under the instigations of his friends, and especially of Fulvius, he set out to gather a fresh body of partisans for opposition to the consul.

Here, we are told, his mother also took active part in his seditious measures, by secretly hiring from foreign parts and sending to Rome men who were ostensibly reapers; for to this matter there are said to have been obscure allusions in her letters[*](Cf. Cicero, Brutus, 58, 211. ) to her son. Others, however, say that Cornelia was very much displeased with these activities of her son.

Be that as it may, on the day when Opimius and his supporters were going to annul the laws, the Capitol had been occupied by both factions since earliest morning, and after the consul had offered sacrifice, one of his servants, Quintus Antyllius, as he was carrying from one place to another the entrails of the victims, said to the partisans of Fulvius: Make way for honest citizens, ye rascals! Some say, too, that along with this speech Antyllius bared his arm and waved it with an insulting gesture.

At any rate he was killed at once and on the spot, stabbed with large writing styles said to have been made for just such a purpose. The multitude were completely confused by the murder, but it produced an opposite state of mind in the leaders of the two factions. Caius was distressed, and upbraided his followers for having given their enemies ground for accusing them which had long been desired; but Opimius, as though he had got something for which he was waiting, was elated, and urged the people on to vengeance.