Tiberius and Caius Gracchus

Moreover, the people made a rush at him, and though the men of wealth ran in a body to his assistance and spread out their hands against the crowd, it was with difficulty that Octavius was snatched away and safely rescued from the crowd; and a trusty servant of his who stood in front of his master and protected him, had his eyes torn out, against the protest of Tiberius, who, when he perceived what was going on, ran down with great haste to appease the tumult.

After this the agrarian law was passed, and three men were chosen or he survey and distribution of the public land, Tiberius himself, Appius Claudius his father-in-law, and Caius Gracchus his brother, who was not at Rome, but was serving under Scipio in the expedition against Numantia.

These measures were carried out by Tiberius quietly and without opposition, and, besides, he procured the election of a tribune in the place of Octavius. The new tribune was not a man of rank or note, but a certain Mucius, a client of Tiberius. The aristocrats, however, who were vexed at these proceedings and feared the growing power of Tiberius, heaped insult upon him in the senate. When he asked for the customary tent at public expense, for his use when dividing up the public land, they would not give it,

although other men had often obtained one or less important purposes; and they fixed his daily allowance for expenses at nine obols.[*](That is, in Roman money, nine sestertii, equivalent to about twenty pence, or forty cents.) These things were done on motion of Publius Nasica, who surrendered completely to his hatred of Tiberius. For he was a very large holder of public land, and bitterly resented his being forced to give it up.