Tiberius and Caius Gracchus

Tiberius, accordingly, decided to do this, both because he set great store by his tablets, and because he feared to exasperate the Numantines by showing them distrust. After he had entered the city, in the first place the Numantines set out a meal for him, and entreated him by all means to sit down and eat something in their company; next, they gave him back his tablets, and urged him to take whatever he wanted of the rest of his property. He took nothing, however, except the frankincense which he was wont to use in the public sacrifices, and after bidding them farewell with every expression of friendship, departed.

When he came back to Rome, the whole transaction was blamed and denounced as a terrible disgrace to the city, although the relatives and friends of the soldiers, who formed a large part of the people, came flocking to Tiberius, imputing the disgrace in what had happened to his commander, but insisting that it was due to Tiberius that the lives of so many citizens had been saved.