Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 2.pdf/45

This page has been validated.

THE GRACCHI

II

(ABOUT 122 B.C.)

Born about 161 B.C.; served in Spain with Scipio Africanus Minor; Questor in Sardinia in 126–123; elected Tribune of the people in 123, when he secured a renewal of the Agrarian Law passed in the time of his brother, built and improved roads, and sought to establish democratic government in Rome; reelected Tribune in 122; failed of reelection in 121; killed in a disturbance in Rome in 121.

My life in the province was not planned to suit my ambition, but your interests. There was no gormandizing with me, no handsome slaves in waiting, and at my table your sons saw more seemliness than at headquarters. No man can say without lying that I ever took a farthing as a present or put anyone to expense. I was there two years; and if a single courtezan ever crossed my doors, or if proposals from me were ever

↑ Caius Gracchus was the greatest orator of his time in Rome. Dion Cassius, the historian, who lived 300 years later than Caius, has preserved for us the tradition that was still extant in his time. He says Caius "far surpassed Tiberius in his gift of language" and "was the first to walk up and down in the assemblies which he haranged, and the first to bear his arms; hence neither of these practises has been thought improper since he employed them." Plutarch confirms this testimony: "When he entered upon his office he soon became the leading tribune, partly by means of his eloquence, in which he was greatly superior to the rest, and partly on account of the misfortunes of his family, which gave him opportunity to bewail the cruel fate of his brothers." Cicero, born sixteen years after the death of Caius, said he "was the first man who, in an old literature, appeared with a new language."

35

[1] Caius Gracchus was the greatest orator of his time in Rome. Dion Cassius, the historian, who lived 300 years later than Caius, has preserved for us the tradition that was still extant in his time. He says Caius "far surpassed Tiberius in his gift of language" and "was the first to walk up and down in the assemblies which he haranged, and the first to bear his arms; hence neither of these practises has been thought improper since he employed them." Plutarch confirms this testimony: "When he entered upon his office he soon became the leading tribune, partly by means of his eloquence, in which he was greatly superior to the rest, and partly on account of the misfortunes of his family, which gave him opportunity to bewail the cruel fate of his brothers." Cicero, born sixteen years after the death of Caius, said he "was the first man who, in an old literature, appeared with a new language."

[1]