The Republic. R O 
seal encouraged him to add a new clause to the law, viz.: 
that the commissioners should likewise inquire what lands 
had been usurped from the republic. This was touching the 
senators in a most tender point; for most of them had appro¬ 
priated to themselves lands belonging to the republic. After 
all, the tribune, upon a strict inquiry, found that the lands 
taken from the rich would not be enough to content all the- 
poor citizens. But the following accident eased him of this 
difficulty, and enabled him to stop the murmurs of the mal¬ 
contents among the people. 
Attains Philometer, king of Pergamus, having bequeathed 
his dominions and effects to the Romans, Eudemus the Per- 
gamean brought his treasures to Rome at this time; and 
Gracchus immediately got a new law passed, enacting, that 
this money should be divided among the poor citizens who 
could not have lands; and that the disposal of the revenues 
of Pergamus should not be in the senate, but in the comitia. 
By these steps Gracchus most effectually humbled the senate; 
who, in order to discredit him among the people, gave out 
that Eudemus, who had brought the king’s will to Rome, 
had left with Gracchus the royal diadem and mantle of 
Attalus, which the tribune was to use when he should be 
proclaimed king of Rome. But these reports only served to 
put Gracchus more upon his guard, and to inspire the people 
with an implacable hatred against the rich who were the 
authors of them. 
When the day appointed for the election of new tribunes 
came, the people were ordered to assemble in the capital in 
the great court before the temple of Jupiter. The tribes 
being met, Gracchus produced a petition, intreating the 
people to continue him one year longer in the office of 
tribune, in consideration of the great danger to which he was 
exposed, the rich having vowed his destruction as soon as 
his person should be no longer sacred. This was indeed an 
unusual request, it having been long customary not to con¬ 
tinue any tribune in his office above a year. However, the 
tribes began to vote, and the two first declared for Gracchus. 
Hereupon the rich made great clamours; which terrified 
Rubrius Varro, who presided in the college of tribunes that 
day, to such a degree, that he resigned his place to Q. Mum- 
mius, who offered to preside in his room. But this raised 
a tumult among the tribunes themselves ; so that Gracchus 
wisely dismissed the assembly, and ordered them to meet 
again the next day. 
Next morning by break of day, Gracchus having assembled 
.his friends, led them from his house, and posted one half of 
them in the comitium, while he went up himself with the 
other to the capitol. As soon as he appeared, the people 
saluted him him loud acclamations of joy. But scarcely was 
he placed in his tribunal, when Fulvius Flaccus, a senator, 
and friend to Gracchus, breaking through the crowd, came 
up to him, and gave him notice, that the senators, who were 
assembled in the temple of Faith, which almost touched that 
of Jupiter Capitolinus, had conspired against his life, and 
were resolved to attack him openly on his very tribunal. 
Hereupon Gracchus tucked up his robe, as it were, to prepare for 
a battle ; and, after his example, some of his party seizing the 
staves of the apparitors, prepared to defend themselves, and 
to repel force by force. These preparations terrified the other 
tribunes; who immediately abandoned their places in a 
cowardly manner, and mixed with the crowd; while the 
priests ran to shut the gates of the temple, for fear of its 
being profaned. On the other hand, the friends of Grac¬ 
chus, who were dispersed by parties in different places, cried 
out. We arc ready ; What must vie do ? Gracchus, whose 
voice could not be heard by all his adherents on account of 
the tumult, the clamours, and the- confused cries of the dif¬ 
ferent parties, put his hand to his head; which was the signal 
agreed on to prepare for battle. But some of his enemies, 
putting a malicious construction upon that gesture, imme¬ 
diately flew to the senate, and told the fathers, that the 
seditious tribune had called for the crown to be put upon his 
head. Hereupon the senators, fancying they already saw the 
king of Pergamus’s diadem on the tribune’s head, and the 
M E. The Republic. 243 
royal mantle on his shoulders, resolved to give the consul 
leave to arm his legions, treat the friends of Gracchus as 
enemies, and turn the comitium into a field of battle! 
But the consul Mutius Scsevola, who was a prudent and 
moderate man, refused to be the instrument of their rash 
revenge, and to dishonour his consulate with the massacre of 
a disarmed people. In consequence of this, Scipio Nasica 
exclaimed, “ Since we are betrayed by our consul, let the 
friends of the republic follow us.” Quitting the temple 
with many of the senators,’he was joined by the friends of 
the patricians, armed with staves. Nasica at length came up 
with Gracchus, who, in his anxiety to escape, made a false 
step and fell down; but, in attempting to rise, he received a 
blow upon his head, and his enemies taking advantage of the 
accident, rushed in and put an end to his life. About 300 
of his friends fell in this ferment, and their bodies, along 
with that of the tribune, were thrown into the Tiber. The 
rest of his abettors were either slain or banished, and Cains 
Billius, one of his most staunch adherents, was enclosed in a 
cask, along with snakes and vipers, where he was allowed to 
perish. The senate acquitted Nasica and his assistants, and 
justified by a decree the cruelties which had on this occasion 
been exercised. 
These disturbances were for a short time interrupted by a 
revolt of the slaves in Sicily, occasioned by the cruelty of 
their masters; but they being soon reduced, the contests 
about the Sempronian law, as it was called, again took 
place. Both parties were determined not to yield; and, 
therefore, the most fatal effects ensued. The first thing of 
consequence, was the death of Scipio Africanus the Second, 
who was privately strangled in his bed by some of the parti¬ 
sans of the plebeian party, about 129 B. C. Caius Grac¬ 
chus, brother to him who had been formerly killed, not 
only undertook the revival of the Sempronian law, but pro¬ 
posed a new one, granting the rights of Roman citizens to 
all the Italian allies, who could receive no share of the lands 
divided in consequence of the Sempronian law. The con¬ 
sequences of this were much worse than the former; the 
flame spread through all Italy; and the nations who had 
made war with the republic in its infancy, again commenced 
enemies more formidable than before. Frege Use, a city of 
the Volsci, revolted; but being suddenly attacked, was 
obliged to submit, and was razed to the ground; which 
quieted matters for the present. Gracchus, however, still 
continued his attempts to humble the senate and the rest of 
the patrician body : the ultimate consequence of which was, 
that a price was set on his head, and that of Fulvius, his 
confederate, no less than their weight in gold, to any one 
who should bring them to Opimius, the chief of the patri¬ 
cian party. Thus the custom of proscription was begun by 
the patricians, of which they themselves soon had enough. 
Gracchus and Fulvius were sacrificed, but the disorders of 
the republic were not so easily cured. The intestine com¬ 
motions were unexpectedly checked by a horde of barba¬ 
rians from the north of Europe. 
The Cimbri and Teutanes, who inhabited the southern 
shores of the Baltic, left their own country in search of 
more genial settlements. Being repulsed by the Boii, a tribe 
of Gauls who lived near the Hercynian forest, they were 
thus driven towards the Roman provinces. The consul, 
Papirius Carbo, advanced against them with a powerful 
army, but he sustained a signal defeat, and was obliged to 
seek for shelter in the neighbouring forests. The victorious 
Cimbri carried their devastations into Transalpine Gaul, and 
after remaining there five or six years, they defeated another 
Roman army under the Consul Silanus. The Roman empire 
was now threatened with total destruction, and a new army 
was sent out under the Consul Mallius, and the Proconsul 
S. Csepio. In consequence of a quarrel between these two 
generals, they divided their army, and thus exposed it to the 
most imminent danger. A detachment of Mallius’ army was 
cut off by the Cimbri; and as soon as the disunion between 
the two generals became known to their enemies, it was 
resolved that the camp of Caepio should be attacked by the 
Cimbri, 
