|
The civil wars originated in the seditions which the Gracchi excited
regarding the agrarian laws; for they were minded to divide among the
people the lands which were wrongfully possessed by the nobility. But
to reform an abuse of so long standing was an enterprise full of peril,
or rather, as the event proved, of destruction. For what disasters
accompanied the death of the older Gracchus! what slaughter ensued
when, shortly after, the younger brother met the same fate! For
noble and ignoble were indiscriminately massacred; and this not by
legal authority and procedure, but by mobs and armed rioters. After
the death of the younger Gracchus, the consul Lucius Opimius, who
had given battle to him within the city, and had defeated and put to
the sword both himself and his confederates, and had massacred many of
the citizens, instituted a judicial examination of others, and is
reported to have put to death as many as 3000 men. From this it
may be gathered how many fell in the riotous encounters, when the
result even of a judicial investigation was so bloody. The assassin of
Gracchus himself sold his head to the consul for its weight in gold,
such being the previous agreement. In this massacre, too, Marcus
Fulvius, a man of consular rank, with all his children, was put to
death.
|
|