Translated by John Dryden
When he returned to Rome, he found the whole transaction censured and reproached, as a
proceeding that was base and scandalous to the Romans. But the relations and friends of
the soldiers, forming a large body among the people, came flocking to Tiberius, whom they
acknowledged as the preserver of so many citizens, imputing to the general all the
miscarriages which had happened. Those who cried out against what had been done, urged for
imitation the example of their ancestors, who stripped and handed over to the Samnites not
only the generals who had consented to the terms of release, but also all the quaestors,
for example, and tribunes, who had in any way implicated themselves in the agreement,
laying the guilt of perjury and breach of conditions on their heads. But, in this all the
populace, showing an extraordinary kindness and affection for Tiberius, indeed voted that
the consul should be stripped and put in irons, and so delivered to the Numantines; but,
for the sake of Tiberius, spared all the other officers. It may be probable, also, that
Scipio, who at that time was the greatest and most powerful man among the Romans,
contributed to save him, though indeed he was also censured for not protecting Mancinus
too, and that he did not exert himself to maintain the observance of the articles of peace
which had been agreed upon by his kinsman and friend Tiberius. But it may be presumed that
the difference between them was for the most part due to ambitious feelings, and to the
friends and reasoners who urged on Tiberius, and, as it was, it never amounted to anything
that might not have been remedied, or that was really bad. Nor can I think that Tiberius
would ever have met with his misfortunes, if Scipio had been concerned in dealing with his
measures; but he was away fighting at Numantia when Tiberius, upon the following occasion,
first came forward as a legislator.
Of the land which the Romans gained by conquest from their neighbours, part they sold
publicly, and turned the remainder into common; this common land they assigned to such of
the citizens as were poor and indigent, for which they were to pay only a small
acknowledgment into the public treasury. But when the wealthy men began to offer larger
rents, and drive the poorer people out, it was enacted by law that no person whatever
should enjoy more than five hundred acres of ground. This act for some time checked the
avarice of the richer, and was of great assistance to the poorer people, who retained
under it their respective proportions of ground, as they had been formerly rented by them.
Afterwards the rich men of the neighbourhood contrived to get these lands again into their
possession, under other people's names, and at last would not stick to claim most of them
publicly in their own. The poor, who were thus deprived of their farms, were no longer
either ready, as they had formerly been, to serve in war or careful in the education of
their children; insomuch that in a short time there were comparatively few freemen
remaining in all Italy, which swarmed with workhouses full of foreign-born slaves. These
the rich men employed in cultivating their ground of which they dispossessed the citizens.
Caius Laelius, the intimate friend of Scipio, undertook to reform this abuse; but meeting
with opposition from men of authority, and fearing a disturbance, he soon desisted, and
received the name of the Wise or the Prudent, both which meanings belong to the Latin word
Sapiens.
But Tiberius, being elected tribune of the people, entered upon that design without
delay, at the instigation, as is most commonly stated, of Diophanes, the rhetorician, and
Blossius, the philosopher. Diophanes was a refugee from Mitylene, the other was an
Italian, of the city of Cuma, and was educated there under Antipater of Tarsus, who
afterwards did him the honour to dedicate some of his philosophical lectures to him.
Some have also charged Cornelia, the mother of Tiberius, with contributing towards it,
because she frequently upbraided her sons, that the Romans as yet rather called her the
daughter of Scipio, than the mother of the Gracchi. Others again say that Spurius
Postumius was the chief occasion. He was a man of the same age with Tiberius, and his
rival for reputation as a public speaker; and when Tiberius, at his return from the
campaign, found him to have got far beyond him in fame and influence, and to be much
looked up to, he thought to outdo him, by attempting a popular enterprise of this
difficulty and of such great consequence. But his brother Caius has left it us in writing,
that when Tiberius went through Tuscany to Numantia, and found the country almost
depopulated, there being hardly any free husbandmen or shepherds, but for the most part
only barbarian, imported slaves, he then first conceived the course of policy which in the
sequel proved so fatal to his family. Though it is also most certain that the people
themselves chiefly excited his zeal and determination in the prosecution of it, by setting
up writings upon the porches, walls, and monuments, calling upon him to reinstate the poor
citizens in their former possessions.
However, he did not draw up his law without the advice and assistance of those citizens
that were then most eminent for their virtue and authority; amongst whom were Crassus, the
high-priest, Mucius Scaevola, the lawyer, who at that time was consul, and Claudius
Appius, his father-in-law. Never did any law appear more moderate and gentle, especially
being enacted against such great oppression and avarice. For they who ought to have been
severely punished for trangressing the former laws, and should at least have lost all
their titles to such lands which they had unjustly usurped, were notwithstanding to
receive a price for quitting their unlawful claims, and giving up their lands to those fit
owners who stood in need of help. But though this reformation was managed with so much
tenderness that, all the former transactions being passed over, the people were only
thankful to prevent abuses of the like nature for the future, yet, on the other hand, the
moneyed men, and those of great estates, were exasperated, through their covetous feelings
against the law itself, and against the lawgiver, through anger and party-spirit. They
therefore endeavoured to seduce the people, declaring that Tiberius was designing a
general redivision of lands, to overthrow the government, and cut all things into
confusion.
But they had no success. For Tiberius, maintaining an honourable and just cause, and
possessed of eloquence sufficient to have made a less creditable action appear plausible,
was no safe or easy antagonist, when, with the people crowding around the hustings, he
took his place, and spoke in behalf of the poor. "The savage beasts," said he,
"in Italy, have their particular dens, they have their places of repose and refuge;
but the men who bear arms, and expose their lives for the safety of their country, enjoy
in the meantime nothing more in it but the air and light and, having no houses or
settlements of their own, are constrained to wander from place to place with their wives
and children." He told them that the commanders were guilty of a ridiculous error,
when, at the head of their armies, they exhorted the common soldiers to fight for their
sepulchres and altars; when not any amongst so many Romans is possessed of either altar or
monument, neither have they any houses of their own, or hearths of their ancestors to
defend. They fought indeed and were slain, but it was to maintain the luxury and the
wealth of other men. They were styled the masters of the world, but in the meantime had
not one foot of ground which they could call their own.
An harangue of this nature, spoken to an enthusiastic and sympathizing audience, by a
person of commanding spirit and genuine feelings, no adversaries at that time were
competent to oppose.
Source:
Plutarch, Lives, translated by John Dryden.
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