Caius Gracchus : born 154 B.C. in Rome, died in 121 B.C. in Rome

A Roman tribune who, for a short time, enjoyed great power, by heading the population against the nobility; and who, with about three thousand other persons, was slain during an insurrection, in the year 632 of the city, and 123 year before the birth of Christ.

The contentions between the nobility and the people did not terminate with the death of Tiberius Gracchus. For some time afterwards his brother Caius lived chiefly in retirement; but whenever an opportunity occurred in which he could, with safety, attack the nobility, and lower them in the estimation of the people, he did so.

Gaius Gracchus
Silvestre David Mirys (1742-1810)

In the year of the city 627, and about seven years after the death of his brother, he was appointed to attend the consul Aurelius Orestes into Sardinia, in the capacity of quaestor. This appointment gave much satisfaction to his enemies, as they imagined he would thus be prevented from heading the population against them. He was not much displeased at it himself; for he was not only gratified by having an appointment in the army, but he was glad to be excused from taking any part in the administration, at a time when he knew he should be personally exposed to the most imminent danger.

Some writers have imagined that Caius Gracchus was desirous of altogether avoiding the course which his brother had pursued. Cicero says that he was anxious to live in retirement, but that many persons believed he had been roused to action, by a dream, in which his brother had appeared to him and exclaimed: Caius, why lingerest thou? There is no alternative. The Fates have decreed to us the same life and the same death, in asserting and vindicating the rights of the people.

His employment in Sardinia gave him an opportunity of acquiring great popularity among the Roman soldiers. During a severe and sickly winter, they were much in want of clothing and provisions. The consul applied, but in vain, to such of the cities as had continued faithful to the Romans. Gracchus, who was both eloquent and enterprising, went to these cities, and prevailed with them to furnish the troops with clothes; and he obtained, from Micipsa, king of Numidia, a supply of corn. The senate would have been delighted with so important a service, had it been obtained by any other person. But, in Caius Gracchus, they imagined that it would be a prelude to his obtaining an undue degree of favour among the soldiers. To counteract this, they sent fresh troops to the island, and recalled the greatest number of those who had thus been benefited. Gracchus, well aware of the cause of the change, and greatly offended at it, immediately embarked from Sardinia; and, most unexpectedly, made his appearance in Rome.

His enemies, of course, censured his conduct for so doing; and even the Roman population were inclined to consider it very extraordinary that the quaestor should presume to return before his general. He was accused before the censors, for a conduct which was so irregular. In his defence, however, he convinced the people that he had been deeply injured, by the charges which his enemies had made against him. In the government of Sardinia (said he) I have invariably conducted myself, not as consulting my own ambition, but your interest. I have now served in twelve campaigns; and, as quaestor, I have attended my general three years, although the law would have allowed me to return at the end of one. I have not sought to enrich myself. Others have carried out casks full of wine, and have brought them home filled with gold. I am almost the only man who have gone out with a full purse, and returned with an empty one. He was subsequently accused of having excited disaffection among the allies of the Romans, and, in particular, of having been concerned, with the inhabitants of Fregellae, a city of Latium, in a conspiracy against the Roman government; but he was acquitted.

The failure of his opponents in substantiating his guilt, tended to elevate him in the estimation of the people; so that, on subsequently offering himself a candidate for the tribunerhip, he succeeded in the election, although nearly the whole body of patricians was united to oppose him- It is stated that, on this occasion, the multitudes which assembled to vote for him were so great, that the Campus Martius could not contain them; and that many of them gave their votes, by acclamation, from the tops of the adjacent houses.

As tribune he endeavoured to follow the steps of his brother. In his public orations he incessantly reminded the people of the fatal occurrence by which they had been deprived of so eloquent a leader; and he occasioned several laws to be passed, which had a tendency to increase the authority of the people, and to lessen that of the senate. Among others, was one which took from the senate the power of acting as judges, and vested this power in three hundred knights. Another law ordained that, every month, a certain quantity of corn should be distributed to each citizen, at a very low price. He also procured decree for sending out colonies, and dividing the public lands among the poor; for making roads, and building public granaries; and for clothing the army at the public expence, which had not before been done.

In matters not connected with the government, Caius Gracchus undoubtedly effected many useful works. In particular, he extremely benefited the country by the improvement of the public roads. These he caused to be conducted, in straight lines, through the country, and to be either paved with hewn stone, or covered with a hard and binding sand. He filled up the narrow valleys, or formed bridges across them. He also occasioned all the roads to be measured, and he set up pillars of stone to mark the distances.

So great was, at this time, his ascendency over the people, that only the regal title seemed wanting, to his being their sovereign. So much were they pleased with the regulations which he introduced, that they would not have refused him any favour he chose to ask. He did not declare himself a candidate for the office, and they almost unanimously though illegally, chose him tribune for the second year.

The senate, fearful lest his power might become uncontrolable, adopted a very extraordinary mode of seducing the people from him; a mode which, in the end, succeeded even beyond their expectations. They resolved to load the people with favours. In the contests which took place, personal interests and animosity alone seemed to actuate all parties : the true interests of the state, and the happiness of the country, were wholly neglected. Faction was set against faction. The senate engaged in their cause Livius Drusus, another of the tribunes; and, in nearly every instance, where Gracchus proposed a favour to the people, Drusus had directions to propose an increase or an extension of it. For instance, Gracchus proposed to establish two colonies, which should be peopled by some of the most deserving citizens: Drusus, in opposition to him, obtained a decree for twelve colonies, each to consist of three hundred of the lowest persons in the state. This tended strongly to turn the tide of popular feeling against the former favourite: it was supported by the whole mass of the people, for each hoped to derive an advantage from it. Gracchus had caused the public lands to be divided among the poorer classes, on condition that they should each pay, into the treasury, a small rent for them; but Drusus occasioned them to be discharged even from that payment.

With so much apparent disregard to his own interests, or to any desire of personal aggrandizement, or any wish of obtaining personal influence with the people, did Drusus act, that he would not allow himself, as Gracchus had done, to be appointed a commissioner for executing any of the laws which he proposed. In pecuniary affairs, particularly, he would have no personal concern; whereas Gracchus, in all the most important affairs of the state, chose to place himself at the head.

With great apparent disinterestedness, he proposed that Gracchus should be nominated one of three commissioners for the rebuilding of Carthage, and settling a Roman colony there. But it was an object of considerable importance with Drusus and his party, to obtain the removal of their opponent from Rome. Gracchus accepted the commission; and, during his absence, his enemies unremittingly employed themselves in working his destruction.

On his return, about ten weeks afterwards, he found that Drusus had engrossed the affection of the plebeians. Gracchus now solicited their favour by means that were more servile than any which he had before adopted. He left the mansion of his ancestors, and took a little lodging in the most populous part of the city, that he might be in the midst of his partisans. Scaffolds had been erected in the public forum, for the purpose of more conveniently viewing the exhibition of the gladiators. These, he pretended, were injurious to the common people, who were unable to pay for the hire of places upon them; and he consequently ordered them to be pulled down.

His colleagues in office were so much offended by his conduct respecting these scaffolds, and by the violent manner in which, of late, he had attempted to carry all his measures, that, when the election of the new tribunes took place, the old ones, whose business it was to collect the votes, contrived to have him excluded. Gracchus bore his disappointment with excessive impatience; and, in all the subsequent public debates, he was more clamorous than ever.

In the year 632, Lucius Opimius was elected consul. He had an inveterate dislike to Gracchus, and obtained a repeal of many of those laws which Gracchus had proposed. In this procedure his design was to provoke his opponent to some act of violence, and thus obtain a pretext for destroying him; and he succeeded. A commotion was excited by a virulent speech of Gracchus, and, in the tumult which ensued, one of the lictors of Opimius was killed. The senate, on an allegation that the state was in danger, armed the consul with absolute power to protect the commonwealth from injury. Gracchus, sincerely grieved at the death of the lictor, reaproached his adherents for their imprudence. He was anxiously desirous to make every possible reparation for the injury, but Opimius would admit of none. On the contrary, he assembled the senate, for the purpose of publicly discussing the subject; and, whilst he was in the act of addressing them, the body of the lictor was brought, with loud shouts, through the forum, to the senate-house. There can be no doubt that Opimius had been well acquainted with the intention of his party thus to exhibit the body; but he pretended to be much surprised at seeing it. The senate went out, and, placing themselves around it, expressed their grief in terms so strong, that it might have been imagined some dreadful calamity had befallen the state. This was evidently a manoeuvre, intended to rouse the indignation of those who had not been immediately concerned in the affray.

On the other hand, Gracchus, in passing from the forum, stopped before the statue of his father, and stood there weeping. The population, seeing him thus affected, exclaimed that they never would abandon so estimable a man to the fury of his enemies. A considerable number of them accompanied him home, and guarded his house through the night. In the morning he again went to the forum, though his wife entreated that he would not expose himself to the danger with which he was threatened. She even caught hold of his robe, with the intention of detaining him; but he forced himself away, and left her speechless upon the ground.

Tumult and confusion now raged through every part of the city. The consular troops were drawn up, by order of the senate; and the partisans of Gracchus armed themselves, and prepared for a dreadful encounter. The former, headed by the consul, occupied the capital; and the others posted themselves on Mount Aventine. Opimius commenced the engagement, by approaching the mount and ordering a body of Cretan archers to discharge their arrows among the multitude. The battle became general; but it was soon terminated by a proclamation of the consul, offering a free pardon to such of the adherents of Gracchus as should desert him; and a reward of their weight in gold, for the heads of Gracchus and his friend Marcus Fulvius. The majority of the population, induced either by fears for their personal safety, or by hopes of the promised reward, ceased from further contention. The friends of Gracchus advised him to seek for safety in fight. He did so, but was closely pursued into a grove sacred to the Furies, where he was slain.

His head was brought to the consul by Lucius Septimuleius. This man, formerly one of his most zealous adherents, had snatched it from the hands of the soldier who had cut it off. On being put into the scales to be weighed, it was ascertained that, for the purpose of enhancing his reward, Septimuleius had taken out the brain, and had filled the cavity with melted lead.

In this affray, and in the executions which afterwards took place, more than three thousand persons lost their live. The bodies of most of them were thrown into the Tiber; and their relations were for bidden to wear mourning for them.

Caius Gracchus perished about ten years after the death of his brother. With him expired the Agrarian law; and most of the laws proposed by the Gracchi were subsequently repealed. In the ensuing year, Opimius was accused, before the people, by the tribune Publius Duilius, for having put to death a great number of Roman citizens, without observing the requisite forms of justice; but he was acquitted, in consequence, it is imagined, of the eloquence of the consul Papirius Carbo, who undertook his defence.

The people afterwards consecrated the places where the Gracchi had fallen, and erected statues to their memory, in one of the most public parts of the city. Some persons are said to have even sacrificed and paid devotions to them as gods. To the memory of Cornelia, their mother, who survived them, and who sustained her affliction with great magnanimity, the Romans erected a statue, with this simple inscription: Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi.

The Roman history, of this period, affords an instructive lesson to all nations. Until the times of the Gracchi, its party struggles, and the almost incessant disunion which prevailed betwixt the higher and lower classes, caused great unhappiness; but they had not been attended by much bloodshed. But civil discord now occasioned the most fatal contentions. These did not cease with the death of the persons who had excited them; but they more or less prevailed until the total overthrow of a government, which has been boasted, by some writers, the most perfect that ever existed.

Authorities-Livy, and Plutarch.