A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

8. C.SemproniusGracchus, the brother of No. 7, and son of No. 6, was, according to Plutarch, nine years younger than his brother Tiberius, but he enjoyed the same careful education. He was unquestionably a man of greater power and talent than his brother, and had also more opportunity for displaying his abilities; for, while the career of Tiberius lasted scarcely seven months, that of Caius extends over a series of years.

At the time of his brother's murder, in B. C. 133, Caius was in Spain, where he received his first military training in the army of P. Scipio Africanus, who, although his wife was the sister of the Gracchi, exclaimed, on receiving the intelligence of the murder of Tiberius, " So perish all who do the like again! " It was probably in the year after his brother's murder, B. C. 132, that Caius returned with Scipio from Spain. The calamity which had befallen his brother had unnerved him, and an inner voice dissuaded him from taking any part in public affairs. The first time that he spoke in public was on behalf of his friend Vettius, who was under persecution, and whom he defended. On that occasion he is said to have surpassed all the other Roman orators. The people looked forward with great anticipations to his future career, but the aristocracy watched him with jealousy, seeing that he promised greater talent, energy, and passion than his brother, in whose footsteps it was presumed that he would follow. In B. C. 131, C. Papirius Carbo, a friend of the Gracchi, brought forward a bill to enable a person to hold the office of tribune for two or more consecutive years. C. Gracchus supported the bill, but it was rejected. The speech he delivered on that occasion appears again to have made a deep impression upon both parties; but after this time Caius obeyed the calling of his inner voice, and for a number of years kept altogether aloof from public affairs. During that period it was even rumoured that he disapproved of his brother's measures. Some circumstance or other, of which, however, we have no distinct record, seems again to have excited the fears of the optimates, and plans were devised for preventing Caius from obtaining the tribuneship. It is not impossible that this fear of the aristocracy may have been excited by Caius's speech against M. Pennus, which at any rate must have been delivered shortly before his quaestorship, B. C. 126. (Cic. Brut. 28; Fest. s. v. respublicas.) Chance seemed to favour the schemes of the optimates, for in B. C. 126 the lot fell upon C. Gracchus to go as quaestor to Sardinia, under the consul L. Aurelius Orestes; and since he was fond of military life, for which he was as well qualified and disciplined as for speaking in public, he was pleased with the opportunity of leaving Rome.

For a time Caius was thus removed from the jealous and envious eyes of the nobles, but in his province he soon attracted the greatest attention ; he gained the approbation of his superiors and the attachment of the soldiers. He was brave against the enemy, just towards his inferiors, punctual in the discharge of his duties, and in temperance and frugality he excelled even his elders. His popularity in the province is attested by two occurrences. As the winter in Sardinia had been very severe and unhealthy, and as the soldiers were suffering in consequence, the consul demanded clothing for his men from the allied towns of the island. The towns sent a petition against this demand to the senate at Rome, which thereupon directed the consul to get what he wanted by other means. But as he was unable to do this, Caius went round to the towns, and prevailed upon them voluntarily to supply the army with clothing and other necessaries. About the same time ambassadors of king Micipsa arrived at Rome to inform the senate, that out of regard for C. Gracchus, the king would send a supply of corn for the Roman army in Sardinia. These proofs of the great popularity and reputation of Caius were the cause of fresh fear and uneasiness to the optimates. He had now been absent in Sardinia for two years, and his return was dreaded. In order to prevent this, fresh troops were sent to Sardinia to replace the old ones; and Orestes was ordered to remain in the island, it being intended by this measure to keep Caius there also, on account of his office. But he saw through their scheme, and thwarted it. It appears that during the latter period of his stay in Sardinia he had altered his mind, and that his vocation had become clear to him. It is reported that the shade of his brother appeared to him in his dreams, and said, " Caius, why dost thou linger? There is no escape, thou must die, like myself, in defending the rights of the people." It is attested by Cicero and Plutarch that Caius was not a demagogue, and that he was drawn into his political career by a sort of fatality or necessity rather than by his own free will, and that had it not been for the exhortation of his brother's shade, he would never have sought any public office. But when he heard the call of Tiberius, and was at the same time informed of the command issued by the senate respecting Aurelius Orestes, he at once embarked, and appeared at Rome, to the surprise of all parties. The optimates were enraged at this conduct, and even his friends thought it a strange thing for a quaestor to quit the camp without a special leave of absence. He was taken to account before the censors, but he defended himself so ably, and proved so clearly that he had not violated any law or custom, that he was declared perfectly innocent. But his enemies, bent as they were upon destroying all his influence, annoyed him with various other accusations, one of which was, that he had participated in the recent revolt of Fregellae. These prosecutions, however, were nothing but foul and ill-devised schemes to deprive Gracchus of the popular favour: none of the charges was substantiated by evidence, and all of them only served to place his innocence in a more conspicuous light. C. Gracchus, who was thus irritated and provoked by acts of glaring injustice, encouraged by the desire of the people to come forward as their patron, filled with confidence in his own powers and in the justice of the people's demands, and, above all, stimulated by the manes of his murdered brother, at once determined to become a candidate for the tribuneship, and to carry out the plans of his brother. When his mother heard of this resolution, she implored him in the most moving terms to desist from his scheme. and

not to deprive her of her last comfort and support in her old age. But it was too late; Caius had already gone too far; his hatred of his brother's murderers, and the enthusiasm of the people, who flocked to Rome from all parts to choose him as the defender of their rights, did not allow him to retrace his steps. The whole of the aristocracy, without exception, opposed his election, but in vain; and all they could effect was that Caius was not elected first, as he had anticipated, but only fourth. Caius, however, as Plutarch remarks, soon made himself first, for he surpassed all his contemporaries in eloquence; and his misfortunes gave him ample scope for speaking freely, when he lamented the death of his brother, to which he recurred as often as an opportunity was offered.

He entered on his tribuneship on the 10th of December, B. C. 123. The first steps he took as a legislator may be regarded as an expiatory sacrifice which he offered to the shade of his brother, for they were directed against his enemies and murderers. The first law he proposed was aimed at the ex-tribune Octavius, and enacted that whoever had been deprived by the people of one office should never be allowed to offer himself again as a candidate for another; the second, which was directed against the murderers of his brother and friends, and more especially against Popillius Laenas, enacted that whoever had put to death or banished a Roman citizen without a trial should be liable to a public prosecution. The former of these bills, however, was withdrawn by Caius at the request of his mother; and Laenas avoided the one aimed at him by voluntary exile.

After these preliminary steps he renewed the agrarian law of his brother, which had not indeed been repealed; but the proper way of carrying it into effect had been prevented and delayed by a variety of disputes, which belong to the period between the death of Tiberius and the tribuneship of Caius. The remaining part of his legislation had two great and distinct objects: first to ameliorate the condition of the poor, and secondly to weaken the power of the senate, and with it that of the aristocracy generally. His plan was most extensive, and embraced nearly every branch of the administration ; but the details are very little known, some of his laws being only slightly alluded to ; but if we may judge from those of which we have any accounts, we are led to conclude that his legislation was of the wisest and most salutary kind; and that, if his plans had not been thwarted by the blind and greedy aristocracy, the Roman republic might have derived infinite blessings from it. He carried a law enacting that the soldiers should be equipped at the expense of the republic, without any deduction being made on this account front their pay, as had heretofore been done; another law ordained that no person under the age of seventeen should be drafted for the army. A third law enacted that every month corn should be sold at a low and fixed price to the poor. The republic had thus to purchase large supplies of grain; and out of the public granaries the people were to receive the bushel (modius) of corn at five-sixths of an as. To carry this law into proper effect, it was necessary to build extensive granaries, which Caius superintended and conducted with the most minute care and unwearied vigilance. The ruins of these extensive public granaries existed at Rome through-out the middle ages, but at present no trace of them is visible. This measure, which may be regarded as a kind of poor-law, has been censured by writers of all ages, because, it is said, it drained the public treasury, because it led the people to idleness and indolence, and because it paved the way for that unruly democracy in which the republic perished. But in the first place, it must be borne in mind, that C. Gracchus did not give away the grain for nothing, but only sold it at so low a price that the poor, with sone labour, might be enabled to support themselves and their children; and secondly, that Rome was a republic with immense revenues, which belonged to the sovereign, that is, to the people; and a large class of this sovereign people was suffering from want and destitution. There was no other remedy; the state was obliged to support these poor; and it is, as Niebuhr justly remarks, the duty of a free and proud nation to provide for those members of the community who are unable to provide for themselves.

The power of Caius's oratory was irresistible, and carried victory with it in all he undertook; and on the wings of popular favour he was carried from triumph to triumph. He now resolved to direct the weapons he had hitherto wielded on behalf of the poor against the power of the senate, which had excited his indignation by systematically opposing and disturbing his proceedings with the people. witherto the judges in the case of judicia publica had been elected from and by the senators; and whese judges being generally men of the same class as those who were brought before them to be tried, they had outraged justice in every possible way; the governors of provinces extorted money not only to enrich themselves, but also to bribe their judges, who made their function a lucrative traffic. Caius now carried a law by which the judicia publica were transferred from the senate to a court consisting of 300 equites. We have three different descriptions of the enactments of this law; but Manutius (de Leg. Rom. 15) has made it highly probable that two of them refer only to two different conciliatory proposals, and that as they were rejected, the law, as stated above, was the final result. This law on the one hand inflicted a severe blow upon the power of the senate, and on the other it raised the equites, who formed a wealthy class of citizens between the nobility and the poor, as a powerful counterpoise to the senate. It may be questioned whether the rivalry which was thus created between the senate and the equites was salutary in its consequences or not; but thus much is certain, that the equites soon discovered as many motives for a bad administration of justice as the senators had had before. It is said that in the discussions upon this law, Gracchus, while addressing the people, turned his face towards the forum, whereas all orators before that time had turned their faces towards the senate and the comitium. Another constitutional measure was likewise directed against the arbitrary proceedings of the senate, though it was not felt as keenly as the former. Hitherto the senate had assigned the provinces to the consuls and praetors after their election, and thus had it in its power to gratify this or that person's wish, by assigning to him the province which he particularly desired, and from which he hoped to derive most advantage or honour. Gracchus remedied this evil by a law enacting that the provinces into which consuls or praetors were to be sent should be determined upon previous to the

election of those magistrates. The province of Asia, which had for many years been left unsettled, and had thus given to the governors ample scope for plunder and extortion, received at length a regular organisation, for which it is indebted to C. Gracchus. In all his measures relating to the administration he took great care of the interests of the republic; and although he acted with justice towards the provincials and the people, to whom lands were assigned, yet he always tried to secure to the republic her revenues. For the purpose of facilitating the commerce and intercourse between the several parts of Italy, and at the same time giving assistance and employment to the poor, he made new roads in all directions, and repaired the old ones; milestones also were erected throughout Italy. Notwithstanding his great and numerous undertakings, he conducted and superintended everything himself, and each particular point was managed with a care and strictness as if he had nothing else to engage his attention. His skill and tact in his intercourse with persons of all classes with whom he was thus brought into connexion, and his talent for winning their affections, excited the admiration of every one. His favour with the people far and near, as well as with the equites, thus rose to the utmost height.

While things were thus in the most prosperous progress, and shortly before the election of the consuls for the next year took place, he once told the people that he was going to ask them a favour, which he would value above every thing, if they granted it; but he added, that he would not complain if they refused it. The people gladly promised to do anything he might desire; and every one believed that he was going to ask for the consulship: but on the day of the consular election, Gracchus conducted his friend C. Fannius into the assembly, and canvassed with his friends for him. Fannius was accordingly elected consul in preference to Opimius, who had likewise offered himself as a candidate. C. Gracchus himself was elected tribune for the next year (B. C. 122) also, although he had not asked for it. M. Fulvius Flaccus, a friend of Caius, who had been consul in B. C. 125, had caused himself to be elected tribune, for the purpose of being able to give his support to one important measure which Caius had in contemplation, viz. that of extending the Roman franchise. The plan was to grant the Roman franchise to all the Latins, and to make the Italian allies step into the relation in which the Latins had stood until then. This measure, though it was the wisest and most salutary that could have been devised, was looked forward to by the senate with the greatest uneasiness and alarm. The Latins and Italian allies had for some time been aspiring to the privilege of the Roman franchise; and Fregellae, being disappointed in its expectations, had revolted, but had been destroyed by the praetor Opimius. But it is uncertain whether Gracchus did actually bring forward a bill about the extension of the franchise, or whether he merely contemplated to do so. The senate, instead of endeavouring to allay the ill feelings of those who thought that a right was withheld from them, provoked them still more by an edict forbidding any one who was not a Roman citizen to stay in the city or its vicinity so long as the discussions on the bills of C. Gracchus were going on. At the same time the senate had recourse to the meanest and most contemptible stratagem to check Cains in the progress of his excellent legislation. The course which the aristocrats now began to pursue shows most clearly that the good of the republic was not the thing for which they were struggling, and that they looked upon it merely as a contest for power and wealth; they cared little or nothing about the demoralisation of the people, or the ruin of the republic, so long as they could but preserve their power undiminished.

Among the colleagues of C. Gracchus was M. Livius Drusus, a man of rank, wealth, and eloquence ; he was gained over by the senatorial party, and under their directions, and with their sanction, he endeavoured to outbid Caius in the proposal of popular measures. He acted the part of a real demagogue, for the purpose of supplanting the sincere friend of the people; and the people, who at all times prize momentary gain more than solid advantages, which work slowly and almost imperceptibly, allowed themselves to be duped by the treacherous agent of the aristocracy. Drusus proposed a series of measures which were of a far more democratic nature than those of Caius. Caius had proposed the establishment of two colonies at Tarentum and Capua, consisting of citizens of good and respectable character; but Drusus proposed the establishment of twelve colonies, each of which was to consist of 3000 needy Roman citizens. Caius had left the public land distributed among the poor, subject to a yearly payment to the treasury: Drusus abolished even this payment, and thus deprived the state of a large portion of its revenue. Gracchus contemplated granting the franchise to the Latins, but Drusus brought forward a measure that the Latins should be exempt from corporal punishment even while they served in the armies. The people thus imposed upon by Drusus, who assured them that the senate sanctioned his measures from no other desire than that of serving the poor citizens, gradually became reconciled to the senate; and the recollection of past sufferings was effaced by hypocritical assurances and demagogic tricks. Another means by which Drusus insinuated himself into the people's confidence was, that he asked no favour for himself, and took no part in carrying his laws into effect, which he left entirely to others; while Caius, with the most unwearied activity, superintended and conducted every thing in person. In proportion as the ill feeling between the people and the senate abated, the popularity of Caius decreased, and his position between the two became more and more perilous. Gracchus had proposed the establishment of a colony on the ruins of Carthage, and he himself was appointed one of the triumvirs to conduct the colonists. He settled every thing in Africa with the utmost rapidity; and after an absence of seventy days, he returned to Rome, shortly before the time at which the consuls for the next year were to be elected. Drusus had availed himself of the absence of Caius for making various attacks on his party and his friends, especially on Fulvius Flaccus, who began openly to stir up the Italian allies to demand the Roman franchise. It was in vain that Caius, after his return, endeavoured to restore what his enemies and his sanguine and passionate friend had destroyed. Fannius, who had obtained the consulship through the influence of Caius, had soon after treated him with indifference, and in the end even made common cause with his enemies. Opimius, who had never forgiven

Caius for having procured the election of Fannius to the consulship, which he himself had coveted, now offered himself again as a candidate for that office; and it was generally reported that he was determined to abolish the laws of C. Gracchus. The latter had endeavoured to obtain the tribuneship for the third time, but in vain, either because he had really lost the popular favour through the intrigues of Drusus, or because his colleagues, whom he had offended by some arrangements during the public games in favour of the people, acted illegally and fraudulently in the proclamation and return of the votes. How much Caius had lost confidence in himself as well as in his supporters is clear from the following circumstance. By the command of the senate, and in pursuance of the above-mentioned edict, the consul Fannius drove out of the city all those who were not Roman citizens; and Caius, although he had promised them his assistance, if they would defy the edict and remain at Rome, yet allowed persons of his own acquaintance to be dragged off before his eyes by the lictors of the consul, without venturing to help them. The object of Gracchus undoubtedly was to avoid violence and prevent civil bloodshed, in order that his enemies might not obtain any just ground for attacking him, which was, in fact, the very thing they were looking for. But the people, who were unable to appreciate such motives, looked upon his forbearance as an act of cowardice.

The year of his second tribuneship, B. C. 122, thus came to its close. After Opimius had entered on his consulship, the senate, which had hitherto acted rather on the defensive, and opposed Gracchus with intrigues, contrived to lead Caius into wrong steps, that he might thus prepare his own ruin. His enemies began to repeal several of his enactments. The subject of the colony of Carthage was discussed afresh merely to provoke Gracchus, who, in establishing the colony, had disregarded the curse pronounced by P. Scipio upon the site of Carthage, and had increased the number of colonists to 6000. This and various other annoyances, which still more estranged the people from him, he endured for a time with forbearance and without making any resistance, probably because he did not believe that his legislation could be really upset. But as the movements of the hostile faction became more and more threatening, he could no longer resist the entreaties of Fulvius Flaccus, and once more he resolved to rally his friends around him, and take an active part in the public assembly. A day was appointed to decide upon the colony of Carthage, or, according to Plutarch, to abolish the laws of Caius. A number of country people flocked to Rome to support Caius and his friends; and it was said that they had been sent by his mother, Cornelia. Flaccus with his friends occupied the capitol early in the morning, and was already haranguing the people, when Caius arrived with his followers. But he was irresolute and desponding, and had a presentiment that blood would be shed. He took no part in the proceedings, and in silence he walked up and down under an arcade, watching the course of events. A common man of the name of Antyllius there approached him, touched his shoulder, and bade him spare his country. Caius, who was taken by surprise, gazed at the man as if he had suddenly been charged with a crime of which he could not deny his guilt. Some one of Caius's friends took this look for a significant hint, and slew Antyllius on the spot. According to Plutarch, Antyllius was one of the attendants of the consul Opimius, and while carrying a sacrifice through the arcade, insolently provoked the anger of the bystanders by calling out, " Make way for honest men, you rascals ! " But however this may be, Gracchus took no part in the proceedings on that morning, and the murder of Antyllius was committed wholly against his wish. It produced the greatest alarm and consternation, and Caius was deeply grieved, for he saw at once that it injured his party, and served to promote the hostile schemes of his enemies. He therefore immediately descended to the forum, to allay the terror and explain the unfortunate occurrence; but nobody would listen to him, and he was shunned by everybody as if he had been an accursed man. The assembly broke up, the people dispersed, and Gracchus and Fulvius Flaccus, lamenting the event, returned home, accompanied each by a number of friends. Opimius, on the other hand, who had now got the opportunity he wanted, triumphed and urged the people to avenge the murder. The next day he convoked the senate, while large crowds of the people were assembled in the forum. He garrisoned the capitol, and with his suite he himself occupied the temple of Castor and Pollux, which commanded the view of the forum. At his command the body of Antyllius was carried across the forum with loud wailings and lamentations, and was deposited in front of the senate-house. All this was only a tragic farce to excite the feelings of the people against the murderer and his party. When Opimius thought the minds of the people sufficiently excited, he himself entered the senate, and by a declamatory exposition of the fearful crime that had been committed, he prevailed upon the senate to confer on himself unlimited power to act as he thought best for the good of the republic. By virtue of this power, Opimius ordered the senate to meet again the next day in arms, and each eques was commanded to bring with him two armed slaves. Civil war was thus declared. These decrees, framed as they were with apparent calmness, for the purpose of clothing the spirit of party vengeance in the forms of legal proceedings, completely paralysed the mass of the people. That the equities, who as an order had been raised so much by Gracchus, deserted him in the hour of danger, is accountable only by the cowardice which is always displayed on such occasions by capitalists. On the second day Gracchus had been in the forum, but he had left the assembly, and as he went home he was seen stopping before the statue of his father ; he did not utter a word, but at last he sighed deeply, burst into tears, and then returned home. A large multitude of people, who seemed to feel the silent reproach of their ingratitude and cowardice, followed him to his house, and kept watch there all night.

Fulvius Flaccus, who had been filled with rage and indignation at the decree of the senate and the conduct of Opimius, called on his friends to arm themselves, and with them he spent the night in drinking and rioting. On the morning he was with difficulty roused from his drunken sleep to give the necessary orders, and organise his men for resistance. Amid shouts he and his band seized on the Aventine, where they took up a strong position, in the hope of thus compelling the senate to yield. Caius refused to arm: he left his house

in the morning, dressed in his toga, and without any weapon save a dagger, which he concealed under his toga. It was in vain that his wife, Licinia, with her child in her arms, implored him to remain at home; he freed himself from her embrace, and went away with his friends without saying a word. When he arrived on the Aventine, he prevailed on Fulvius to send his younger son as a deputy to the senate, to propose a reconciliation. The appearance of the beautiful boy and his innocent request moved many of the senators; but Opimius haughtily declared, that the rebels ought not to attempt any thing through the medium of a messenger, but that they must lay down their arms, and surrender at discretion. Gracchus himself was ready to comply with this demand, but all his friends refused, and Fulvius sent his son a second time to negotiate. Opimius, who longed to bring the matter to a decision by force, ordered the boy to be thrown into prison, and forthwith he advanced with a body of armed men towards the Aventine. An amnesty was at the same time proclaimed for all those who would at once lay down their arms. This amnesty, the want of a regular plan of action on the part of Fulvius, and the missiles of the enemy, soon dispersed the party of Gracchus. Fulvius took to flight, and was murdered with his elder son. Gracchus, who took no part in the struggle, and was altogether dissatisfied with the manner in which his friends had conducted the affair, withdrew into the temple of Diana, with a view of making away with himself; but he was prevented by two faithful friends, Pomponius and Laetorius (others call him Licinius). Before leaving the temple he is said to have sunk on his knees, and to have pronounced a fearful curse upon the ungrateful people who had deserted him and joined his enemies. He then followed his friends towards the Tiber; and as they arrived at the wooden bridge leading to the Janiculus, he would have been overtaken by his pursuers and cut down, had not his friends resolutely opposed them, until they were killed. Caius, in the meantime, had reached the grove of the Furies, accompanied only by a single slave. He had called out for a horse, but no one had ventured to afford him any assistance. In the grove of the Furies the slave, Philocrates, first killed his master, Gracchus, and then himself. A proclamation had been issued at the beginning of the struggle, that those who brought the heads of Gracchus and Fulvius should receive their weight in gold. One Septimuleius cut off the head of Gracchus; and in order to increase its weight, filled it with melted lead, and thus carried it on a spear to Opimius, who paid him his bloodmoney. The bodies of the slain, whose number is said to have amounted to 3000, were thrown into the Tiber, their property was confiscated, and their houses demolished. All the other friends of Gracchus who fell into the hands of their enemies were thrown into prison, and there strangled. After the senate was satiated with blood, it committed the blasphemous mockery of dedicating a temple to Concord !

C. Gracchus was married to Licinia, the daughter of Licinius Crassus, who had been elected triumvir in the place of Tib. Gracchus. He had by her, as far as we know, only one son, but what became of the boy after his father's death is unknown. We possess numerous specimens and fragments of the oratory of C. Gracchus, which are collected in the work of Meyer, cited below. The people of Rome who had deserted him in the hour of danger were soon seized by feelings of bitter remorse ; statues were erected to the two brothers; the spots on which they had fallen were declared sacred ground, and sacrifices were offered there as in the temples of the gods. Both brothers had staked their lives for the noblest object that a statesman can propose to himself--the rights of the people ; and so long as these rights are preferred to the privileges of a few whom birth or wealth enable to oppress and tyrannise over the many, so long will the names of the Gracchi be hallowed in history. There are, as we have already observed, one or two points in their conduct and legislation in which we might wish that they had acted with more wisdom and circumspection, but errare humanum est, and the blame falls not so much upon the Gracchi, as upon those who irritated and provoked them with a bitterness and an insolence in the face of which it would have required an angel's forbearance to remain calm and prudent. (Plut. Vit. C. Gracchi ; Appian, App. BC 1.21_26; Liv. Epit. lib. 59-61; Vel. Pat. 2.6, &c.; Dio Cass. Fragm. Peir. 90; Oros. 5.12; Aur. Vict. de Vir. Illustr. 65; the passages of Cicero, collected in Orelli's Onomast. vol. ii. p. 533, &c.; comp. F. D. Gerlach, Tib. und C. Gracchus, p. 33, &c.; Meyer, Fragm. Orat. Rom. p. 224, &c., 2d edit.; Ahrens, Die drei Volkstribunen, &c.; Niebuhr, Lectures on Rom. Hist. vol. i. p. 341, &c., ed. Schmitz.)