of one of the speeches, from the beginning of that speech probably which Caius spoke from the Rostra at Rome: "The opportunity which for years you have passionately sought and desired, if you shall now carelessly reject, you must be charged either with once being only moved by passion to seek it or with now throwing it away from mere caprice." Popillius did not wait for the result of the popular vote, but he left Rome and retired into exile, as the Romans named it. After the death of Caius he was restored in B.c. 121, through the exertions of L. Bestia.

It was probably in this year (B.c. 123) that Caius made a speech of which a large fragment has been preserved by Gellius (xi. 10). We know nothing of the occasion on which the speech was delivered, except what we can collect from the words of the orator. Something was proposed to be done at Rome which concerned Nicomedes King of Bithynia and Mithridates King of Pontus. Ariarathes, the fifth of the name, Philopator, King of Cappadocia, had died in the war against Aristonicus (B.c. 130), in which he was an ally of the Romans; and it has been conjectured that Nicomedes and Mithridates wished to profit by this opportunity and to occupy part of Cappadocia. Others have supposed that the matter on which Caius spoke related to the settlement of Asia by Manius Aquillius after the defeat of Aristonicus; and as the object of Gracchus appears from his own words to have been the increase of the public revenue, he may have wished to unsettle the arrangements of Aquillius with respect to Phrygia (Chap. xiv.). Whatever may have been the occasion of this speech, the fragment is valuable as showing the character of Caius and his style of speaking. "If, Quirites, you would make use of your understanding and your good sense, and take the trouble to inquire, you would find that none of us come forward to address you without being paid for it. All of us who speak to you want something, nor does any one among us come here for any other reason than to get something from you. I myself, who am now advising you to increase the public revenue, that you may be the better enabled to look after your interests and administer the state, do not come here for nothing. It is true that it is not

money that I ask of you, but your good opinion and honour. Those who come here to advise you not to accept this law, do not ask for honour at your hands, but they look for money from Nicomedes. As for those who advise you to vote for the law, they also do not seek your good opinion, but they look to Mithridates for some improvement in their pecuniary affairs and some reward. But those who are in the same station and rank and say nothing, they are the greediest, for they take bribes from all, and they deceive all. If you suppose that they have nothing to do with these affairs, you certainly form a good opinion of them; but the ambassadors from the kings, while they suppose that these men keep quiet in order to please them, are supplying their expenses and giving them large sums of money. Just so in Greece, when a Greek tragedian thought it a glorious thing to have received one great talent for a single play, the most eloquent man in the state, Demades, is said to have made this reply to the tragedian's boast: Do you think it such a wonderful thing to have got a talent by speaking? I have received ten talents from the king for holding my peace.-So these people of yours are now receiving the highest pay for saying nothing."

CHAPTER XIX.

CAIUS GRACCHUS TRIBUNE.

B.C. 123-121.

THE legislation of Caius Gracchus is one of the most perplexed subjects in the history of Rome. We know in a general way what he did and attempted to do, but the particulars are vaguely reported by such authorities as we have, and the authorities do not always agree.

In the first year of his tribunate Caius carried a Lex Frumentaria, the object of which was to supply the citizens of Rome with corn at a low price. It is sometimes said that the purpose was to relieve the poor only. This was probably the practical effect of the law; but as far as we know the terms of it, the law was general, and it affected to supply the people of Rome with corn at a fixed price, which was 63 asses the modius or about one-half of the usual price. The loss by selling below the market price, or what would have been the market price if the trade had been left to private enterprise, fell to the charge of the Aerarium or public treasury. When this system was fully established, it was necessary for the state to keep on hand a large supply of grain, and public warehouses called Horrea were built; and some in the time of Caius, as Plutarch reports. Such Horrea may have existed already, for we read of grain being kept in stock on the public account before the time of Caius. But there is no authority for affirming that the Horrea named Galbiana and Aniciana in the Notitia were built by Caius. It is supposed that these Horrea were between the Aventine, the river, and the artificial hill named Monte Testaccio, but there is no trace of these storehouses now. At a later period

public Horrea were established in different parts of the Empire, and the remains of some of them exist with inscriptions which prove the purpose for which these buildings were made.

L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, he who had carried the Lex de Repetundis, spoke against this Lex Frumentaria, and Caius replied to him in abusive language. When the law was enacted, Piso, though he had been consul, came to demand some grain at the low price which was fixed by the law. If this anecdote is true, it proves what I have suggested, that nominally it was a general law for fixing the price of corn, but that practically it was for the relief of the poor. Caius, while he was addressing the people, saw Piso in the crowd, and asked how it was consistent for a man to apply for corn after he had spoken against the Lex Frumentaria. "I should have been better content," said Piso, "if you had not chosen to distribute my property among the Roman citizens, but if you will do it, I shall demand my share." The meaning of the reproof was plain. Caius was distributing the public money.

This law then was no doubt intended for the relief of the poor citizens of Rome. The price of bread has been regulated at Paris with the same view. The law of Caius was a kind of poor-law. As its terms, we assume, comprehended all Roman citizens, any poor Roman citizen might have the benefit of it by removing to Rome, for the sale of corn at the rate fixed by law was only made in Rome, so far as we know. Every Roman citizen's name would be entered on the censors' lists at the last census, and it would only be necessary for a man to prove his identity in order to be entitled to such relief as the law gave. This law was well adapted to attract poor citizens from the country to Rome and to increase the number of Caius' partizans; and we may infer from this circumstance that it was one of the earliest as it was also one of the worst of his measures. Appian has certainly made a mistake in speaking of this Lex Frumentaria, when he says that " as soon as Caius was elected a tribune, he began his designs against the Senate by fixing a monthly allowance of corn to be given to every citizen from the public stores, a

thing which had never been used to be done before." The word which he uses for citizen (Ɛnuórns) is an ambiguous expression in a Greek writer on Roman history under the empire; but perhaps he means any citizen, not a senator or eques, who chose to apply for the allowance. "The designs against the Senate" mean, if the writer meant any thing, that the object of Caius was to make himself popular. But the assertion that the corn was a gift is contradicted by all other evidence; and if it be said that the words which I have translated "from the public stores," do not necessarily signify "at the public cost," I would admit that it is so, but still the tenour of the whole passage seems to be that Appian thought that the corn was given. If he did, the mistake may be explained by supposing that he confounded the Lex Frumentaria of Caius with the later practice.

Plutarch, whom we must often use for want of a better authority, speaks thus of the legislation of Caius: "Of the laws which he promulgated with the view of gaining the popular favour and weakening the Senate, one was for the establishment of colonies and the distribution of Public Land among the poor; another provided for supplying the soldiers with clothing at the public expense, without any deduction on this account being made from their pay, and exempted youths under seventeen years of age from being drafted for the army; a third was in favour of the allies (Socii), and put the Italians on the same footing as the citizens with respect to the suffrage; another related to grain, and had for its object the lowering of the price for the poor; the last related to the Judices, a measure which most of all encroached on the privileges of the Senate, for the Senate alone supplied Judices for the trials, and this privilege rendered the Senate formidable both to the people and the Equites. The law of Gracchus added three hundred Equites to the Senate, who were also three hundred in number, and it made the Judices eligible out of the whole six hundred." Besides these measures some modern critics, relying on a passage in Sallust's letter (De Re Publica Ordinanda ii. 8), state that Caius carried a law by which the order of voting in the Comitia Centuriata was changed. The old practice was for the five classes to