181 



GRACCHUS, TIBERIUS. 



GRACCHUS, CAIUS. 



168 



him to go to England, where he would find a clergy which derived 

 their right to the ministry from apostolical succession. In accordance 

 with their advice he came to England, where he was well received by 

 William III., who settled a pension upon him. He took orders iu the 

 Church of England, and was made D.D. by the University of Oxford, 

 April 26, 1706. He died in London, November 13, 1711, in his forty- 

 fifth year, and was interred io Westminster Abbey. Dr. Hickea has 

 given an interesting account of the life of Dr. Grabe, from which we 

 learn that he was in favour of prayer for the souls of the dead who 

 died in faith, for anointing the sick with oil, for confession and 

 sacerdotal absolution, and that he used to lament that the Reformed 

 churches had discarded many primitive customs which were retained 

 in the Roman Catholic Cnurch. 



Dr. Grabe published many works, of which the most celebrated is 

 his edition of the Septuagiut, printed at Oxford in 4 vols. fol. and S 

 vols. 8vo., 1707-1720. The text of this edition was founded upon the 

 Alexandrian manuscript no-.v iu the British Museum. He only lived 

 to superintend the publication of the first and fourth volumes ; the 

 second and third, published after his death, were edited respectively 

 by Dr. Lee and Mr. Wigan. Among hU other works, the principal are, 

 ' Spicilfgium S3. Patrum,' 2 vols. 8vo. Oxf. 1698-9 ; ' Justiui Apologia 

 Prima,' Svo. Oxf. 1700; ' Iren;ei ad versus Hoereses Libri V.' fol. Oxf. 

 1702; 'Epistola ad Millium,' 4to. Oxf. 1705, to show that the 

 Alexandrian manuscript of the Septuagiut coataius the best version 

 of the Book of Judges, and that the ver.-ion in the Vatican manuscript 

 is almost a new one, made in the third century; ' Au Essay upon two 

 Arabic manuscripts of the Bodleian Library, and the book called the 

 Doctrine of the Apostles,' Svo. Oxf. 1711 ; ' De Forma Consecrationis 

 Eucharistue, hoc cat, Defensio Ecclcsue Grteca; contra Romauam,' Svo. 

 Lond. 1721. 



GRACCHUS, TIBERIUS, was born B.C. 163, and was the son of 

 Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, a man of some celebrity in the annals 

 hU country, and of Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africauus. 



T. Gracchus the elder died while his sons were yet young ; having 

 twice served the office of consul, and, according to Plutarch, obtained 

 two triumphs. Two anecdotes remain regarding him which seem to 

 exhibit him as a Roman of the old class, atfectionate, high-spirited, and 

 religious. After the death of her husband, Cornelia refused all offers 

 of marriage, and devoted herself to the charge and education of her 

 children, who, as Plutarch tells us, were less the iuheritors of manly 

 virtue by being sprung from the noblest blood in Rome, than they 

 were its possessors from the careful nurture of their mother Cornelia. 

 Tiberius served his first campaign in Africa under his uncle Scipio, 

 and having obtained the office of consul's qutestor, we find him next 

 under Mancinus, the unfortunate commander in the Numantino war. 

 His name, which the Nuiuantines respected from remembering bis 

 father's virtues, is said to have procured the terms under which Man- 

 cinua obtained safety for his army ; but the senate on his return was 

 so much displeased at the unfavourable nature of the terms, that they 

 resolved on giving up all the principal officers to the Numantines. By 

 the good-will however of the popular assembly, influenced, as it should 

 seem, by the soldiers and their connections in the lower classes, it was 

 decided to send Mancinus as the real criminal, and to spare the other 

 officers for the sake of Gracchus : treatment of this nature was likely 

 to rouse Gracchus against the senate, and make him the friend of the 

 poor, and accordingly in three years afterwards we find him beginning 

 his short career aa a political agitator. He was elected tribune of the 

 Plebs, B.c. 138. 



The long wars in which the Romans had been engaged led to the 

 introduction of an enormous number of slaves into Italy. These 

 slaves had taken the place of the regular inhabitants of the country, 

 and tilled the large estates of the rich to the exclusion of the regular 

 labourers. In Sicily they mustered so strong as to maintain them- 

 elves upwards of two years against their masters, backed by the 

 power of Rome ; and in Italy itself the scene which presented itself to 

 T. Gracchus as he returned from Spain was that of a whole country 

 whose only cultivators were foreign slaves. Nor did he find less cause 

 for compl tint in the city, crowded as it appears to have been with 

 needy soldiers, whose services had found no remuneration adequate to 

 their expectations. 



These causes, acting on a disposition at once ambitious and humane, 

 and aided by the suggestions of a mother, who could not help reminding 

 her sons that she was still called, not ' mother of the Gracchi,' bu! 

 ' daughter of Scipio,' and by the general voice of the people expressed 

 in placards and memorial* addressed to him as to their preserver anc 

 champion, combined in inducing Tiberius Gracchus to attempt the 

 revival of the Licinian Rogations. In so doing he appears to have 

 had in view the two grand principles which that law involved, namely, 

 the employment of freemen in preference to slaves, and the more 

 generally recognised principle of the equitable division of the public: 

 land. 



Three commissioners were to be appointed to superintend the 

 working of the new lw, which Gracchus proposed, if we may trusl 

 Plutarch, with the approval of several of the most eminent persons of 

 the time, among whom were Mutius Scievola and Crassus. 



Such general interest was excited by the question, that crowd: 



arrived from all parts of the country to support cither side ; anc 



there appeared no doubt which way the matter would go when left to 



moo. Div. VOL. in. 



he tribes. The aristocracy however secured the veto of M. Octavius, 

 me of the tribunes, and thereby quashed the proceedings whenever 

 ;he law was brought on, which violent mode of opposition led Gracchus 

 xi exercise his veto on other questions, stop the supplies, and throw 

 he government into the most complete helplessness. 



Thus far the contest had been lawful, but at this juncture Gracchus, 

 rritated by continued opposition, invited Octavius to propose his 

 Gracchus's) ejection from the office of tribune, and on his refusal, 

 ileading the utter uselessness of two men so different holding the 

 ame office, he put the que-tiou to the tribes, that Octavius be ejected. 

 When the first seventeen out of the thirty-five tribes had voted for it, 

 Gracchus again implored him to resign, and on his entreaty proving 

 unsuccessful, polled another tribe, constituting a majority, and sent 

 lis officers to drag Octavius down from the tribune's chair. The 

 Agrarian law was forthwith passed, and Gracchus himself, his brother 

 Cuius, and his father-in-law Appius Claudius, were appointed the 

 commissioners ; but the senate, to show their opinion of the whole 

 >roceeding, withheld from him the usual allowance of a public officer, 

 ;iving him only about ona shilling a day. While things were iu this 

 state, Attalus, king of Pergatnus, bequeathed his dominions and 

 .reasure to the Roman people ; and to enhance his own popularity, 

 Gracchus proposed to divide the treasure among the recipients of land 

 under the uew law, to enable them to stock their farms, aud to commit 

 the management of the kingdom of Pcrgamus to the popular assembly. 



This brought matters to a greater pitch of distrust than ever. 



racchus was accused by one senator of aspiring to tyranny, and by 

 another of having violated the sanctity of the tribune's office in 

 deposing Octavius. On this point Gracchus strove to justify himself 

 jet'ore the people, but his opponent seems to have gained an advantage 

 so great as to induce him to postpone the assembly. When at last he did 

 make his defence, it rested, if Plutarch is correct, on false analogies, 

 and on blinking the question of the inviolability of a public officer. 



At this juncture Gracchus seems to have trembled for that popu- 

 larity which alone preserved him from impeachment; aud, lest it 

 should fail, endeavoured to secure his own re-electiou to the office of 

 tribune. The other party had demurred as to his eligibility to the 

 office two years in succession, and on the day of election this point 

 occupied the assembly till nightfall. Next morning, accompanied by 

 a crowd of partisans, he went to the capitol ; aud on hearing that the 

 senate had determined to oppose him by force, armed his followers 

 with staves, aud prepared to clear tho capitol. At this juncture, 

 Scipio Na-ica, having in vain called on the consul to take measures 

 for the safety of the state, issued from the Temple of Faith, where the 

 senate had assembled, followed by the whole nobility of Rome, awed 

 the mob into flight, seized their weapons, and attacked all who fell 

 in their way. About three hundred fell, and among the slain was 

 Gracchus, who was killed by repeated blows on the head, B.C. 133. 



GRACCHUS, CAIUS, was nine years younger than Tiberius 

 Gracchus, at whose death he was left with Appius Claudius as 

 commissioner for currying out the Agrarian law. By the death of 

 Appius, and of Tiberius's successor, Licinius Cra?sus, the commission 

 was composed of Fulvius Flaccus, Papirius Carbo, aud himself; but 

 he refrained from taking any part in public affairs for more than ten 

 years alter that event. 



During this time the provisions of his brother's law were beiug 

 carried out by Carbo and Flaccus, but he docs not seem to have begun 

 hi-i career as an independent political leader until the year E.O. 123, 

 when, on his return from Sardinia, where he had been for two years, 

 he was elected tribune of the Plebs. His first act was to propose 

 two laws, one of which, directed against the degraded tribune Octavius, 

 disqualified all who had been thus degraded from holding any magis- 

 tracy ; and the other, having in view Popilius, a prominent opponent 

 of the popular party, denounced the banishment of a Roman citizen 

 without trial. The first was never carried through ; to the latter was 

 added a third, by which Popilius was banished Italy (forbidden fire 

 and water). These measures of offence were followed by others, by 

 which he aimed at establishing his own popularity. One of these was 

 a poor-law, by which a monthly distribution of corn was made to the 

 people at an almost nominal price. The effect of this law was to make 

 the population of Rome paupers, and to attract all Italy to partake of 

 the bounty. 



Next came organic changes, as they would now be called; aud of these 

 the most important was the transference of the judicial power from the 

 senators, wholly or in part, to the equestrian order. This measure, 

 according to Cicero, worked well ; but iu taking his opinion we must 

 remember his partiality to the ' equites,' and add to this the fact that 

 his eulogium occurs in an advocate's speech. (' In Verrem,' actio i.) 



Gracchus now possessed unlimited power with the populace ; and 

 at the end of the year, not more than ten candidates having started 

 for the office of tribune, ho was again choseu. His second tribunes-hip 

 was mostly employed in passing laws respecting the colonies, iu which 

 matter the aristocratic*! agent, Livius Drueus, outbid him ; and having 

 won the confidence of the people by bis apparent disinterestedness, 

 ventured (being himself a tribune) to interpose bis veto on one of 

 Uracchus's measures. His appointment soon after to the office of 

 commissioner for planting a colony near Carthage took him away from 

 the scenes of his popularity, and soon after his return a proposal was 

 made to repeal the v<ry law which ho had been engaged iu carrying 



