The Historians' History of the World 05

On this, Fulvius Flaccus left the senate, informed Gracchus of the speech of Nasica, and told him that his death was resolved upon. Then the friends of Gracchus girded up their gowns and armed themselves with staves, for the purpose of repelling force by force. In the midst of the uproar Gracchus raised his hand to his head. His enemies cried that he was asking for a crown. Exaggerated reports were carried into the senate house, and Nasica exclaimed, “The consul is betraying the republic: those who would save their country, follow me!” So saying, he drew the skirt of his gown over his head, after the manner used by the pontifex maximus in solemn acts of worship. A number of senators followed, and the people respectfully made way. But the nobles and their partisans broke up the benches that had been set out for the assembly, and began an assault upon the adherents of Gracchus, who fled in disorder. Gracchus abandoned all thoughts of resistance; he left his gown in the hands of a friend who sought to detain him, and made towards the temple of Jupiter. But the priests had closed the doors; and in his haste he stumbled over a bench and fell. As he was rising, one of his own colleagues struck him on the head with a stool; another claimed the honour of repeating the blow; and before the statues of the old kings at the portico of the temple the tribune lay dead. Many of his adherents were slain with him; many were forced over the wall at the edge of the Tarpeian rock, and were killed by their fall. Not fewer than three hundred lost their lives in the fray.

Caius had just returned from Spain,[78] and asked leave to bury his brother’s corpse. This was refused. The triumphant party ordered the bodies of Tiberius and his friends to be thrown into the Tiber before morning. Thus flowed the first blood that was shed in civil strife at Rome.

Tiberius Gracchus must be allowed the name of Great, if greatness be measured by the effects produced upon society by the action of a single mind, rather than by the length of time during which power is held, or the success that follows upon bold enterprises. He held office not more than seven months; and in that short time he so shook the power of the senate, that it never entirely recovered from the blow. His nature was noble; his views and wishes those of a true patriot. But he was impatient of opposition, and by his abrupt and violent conduct provoked a resistance which he might have avoided. When the moment of action came, his temper was too gentle, or his will too irresolute, to take the bold course which his own conduct and that of the senate had rendered necessary.

When Scipio, in the camp before Numantia, heard of his kinsman’s end, he exclaimed in the words of Homer:

“So perish all and every one who dares such deeds as he!”

But the sequel will show that it was not so much of the political measures of Gracchus that Scipio disapproved, as of the impatience which he had shown and the violence which he had used in carrying them. Such defects of character were of all most displeasing to a soldier and a stoic.

RETURN AND DEATH OF SCIPIO THE YOUNGER

[133-132 B.C.]

The struggle had now commenced between the oligarchy and the democracy. This struggle was to last till the dictator Sulla for a time restored the senate to sovereignty, which was wrested from them again by a dictator yet more potent than Sulla. But we should be wrong to assume that the senate and the oligarchy were always identical. At times they were so, for at times the violent party among the nobles were in command of a majority in the senate; but a moderate party always existed, who stood between the nobility and the democracy. It was the violent party, headed by Nasica, not the body itself, which was responsible for the death of Gracchus. The senate did not support them.

The people were allowed to proceed quietly to the election of a new commissioner in the place of Gracchus, and their choice fell on P. Licinius Crassus, brother by blood of the consul Scævola, who had been adopted into the family of the Crassi. His daughter had lately been married to young Caius Gracchus, and he now became the acknowledged leader of the party.

Nor did the senate attempt to shield Nasica from popular indignation. He was branded as the murderer of Gracchus, and his friends advised him to quit Italy, though, as chief pontifex, he was prohibited from doing so. No long time after he died at Pergamus, and Crassus succeeded him in the pontificate.

But in the course of the next year (132 B.C.) the senate was induced to give the new consuls a commission to inquire into the conduct of those who had abetted Gracchus. They began their proceedings by associating with themselves C. Lælius, a man of known moderation. Before the inquiry commenced, Lælius sent for Blossius, and questioned him privately as to his part in the late disturbances. He excused himself on the ground that he had only followed the tribune’s orders.