d'Ibn Kaldun;" and "Speechio geographica e statistico dell' Impero di Marocco."—M. H.
GRACCHUS, Tiberius Sempronius, commanded the cavalry under M. Junius Pera, the dictator, in the second Punic war. Being elected consul for the following year, 215 b.c., he routed a large body of Hannibal's Campanian allies in the neighbourhood of the Carthaginian camp, and retiring into Cumæ, effectually resisted a vigorous attempt to capture that important maritime city. Proconsul in the next year, he defeated Hanno near Beneventum; and having obtained his second consulship, 213 b.c., he commanded in Lucania, where he sustained his military reputation in a number of engagements. But in the following year he was betrayed with a small detachment of his troops into an ambuscade, and perished.—W. B.
GRACCHUS, Tiberius Sempronius, the father of the two celebrated tribunes aftermentioned, was born 210 b.c., and at the age of twenty won the confidence of L. Cornelius Scipio, who intrusted him with a mission to Philip of Macedon. He was tribune of the people, 187 b.c., and refused to join his colleagues in the impeachment of Scipio Africanus. Lucius Scipio also was saved from imprisonment by his interference, though he maintained his opposition to the political principles and influence of the family. Having been employed as triumvir in planting the colony at Saturnia, he was sent with the rank of prætor to carry on the war in Spain. He captured Munda, surprised the camp of the enemy near Alce, reduced the city also, and having ultimately crushed the power of the rebels in a sanguinary battle, which lasted for three days, he confirmed their submission by a kindly treatment, and returned home to be rewarded with a triumph, 178 b.c. His first consulship followed, and was distinguished by new successes in Sardinia. He was continued in his command there for another year, and having completed the subjugation of the island, was welcomed at Rome, 175 b.c., with another triumph. The number of captives was so great that the trifling price at which they were sold gave rise to the proverb, "Sardi venales." He subsequently held the censorship, and effected a change in the tribal position of the freedmen, which was highly applauded. His second consulship dates 163 b.c. He was married to Cornelia, a daughter of Scipio Africanus, and the virtues by which she added to her husband's influence, sowed the seeds of the fame subsequently acquired by her sons.—W. B.
GRACCHUS, Tiberius Sempronius, son of the preceding and of Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio—(see Cornelia)—was born 168 b.c. Of Cornelia's twelve children, nine died at an early age. Those who survived were Tiberius, Caius, and Cornelia Sempronia. This sister of the Gracchi, who have become so illustrious in history, married the second Scipio Africanus. The mother of the Gracchi bestowed the utmost care on the education of her greatly-gifted sons. In his seventeenth year, Tiberius Gracchus accompanied his brother-in-law to Africa, where, in the assault on Carthage, he displayed the most brilliant valour. A few years after he took part in the disastrous expedition of Mancinus against Numantia in Spain, though, through the sagacity of Tiberius Gracchus, and his influence with the Numantines, it proved less ignominious and unfortunate than it otherwise might have been. On his return to Rome, Tiberius Gracchus, inspired alike by patriotism, by humanity, and by justice, began that stupendous agitation, by resisting which the Roman patricians ruined both their order and their country. Nothing in modern days has such an evil sound as an agrarian law; but the agrarian law, as proposed by Tiberius Gracchus, was eminently wise. The opposite extremes in reference to land are alike perilous—that of minute subdivision, as in France, and that of accumulation in a few hands, as in Great Britain. In Italy much of the soil was public property. Gradually the aristocratic classes contrived to make this a monopoly of their own. For, though every Roman was entitled to a share in the public lands, it was difficult for the poor to acquire, and still more difficult to keep possession. The rich, therefore, greedily seized on the public lands, to the exclusion of the poor, and sent as cultivators, lazy, corrupt, and lawless slaves. The consequence was, that while the public lands, under such wretched husbandly, became gradually barren, the whole agriculture of Italy, which had once been so flourishing, began to decline. There was frightful famine, along with rapid depopulation. The mischief had long been felt; and, two centuries before Tiberius Gracchus, a law had been passed called, from the name of its author, the Licinian law, whereby the possession by any individual of more than five hundred Roman acres was forbidden. But the law was evaded in a thousand ways, and proved utterly worthless; at which we cannot be astonished, as the force of every law which a state passes depends on a deeper moral law, and this moral law the Roman aristocracy, once so pure and patriotic had been learning to forget. In order to achieve his noble scheme—a scheme approved by some of the best and wisest of the aristocracy, such as his father-in-law, Appius Claudius—Tiberius Gracchus offered himself as a candidate for the office of tribune. He had no sooner entered on his duties than he proceeded with the utmost vigour and promptitude. By the ignorant he is classed with demagogues; but if he had been a demagogue his task would have been much easier. The plan of reform which he presented to the assemblies of the people was, in its essential features, a revival of the Licinian law, with many modifications and unquestionable improvements. It was called, from the family of the Sempronii, to which Tiberius Gracchus belonged, the Sempronian law. The senate determined that the law should not pass. Once voted in the assemblies of the people, the senate would have had no power to interfere with it. The senate, therefore, resolved that it should never come before the people as a definite proposal. It found a convenient tool in a tribune, Marius Octavius, who, by himself holding a vast extent of the public domain, was interested in the existence of that flagrant iniquity which Tiberius Gracchus was striving to overthrow. Octavius then, using his legal right, notwithstanding the strenuous, passionate remonstrances of Gracchus declared his condemnation of the agrarian law, and forbade its presentation to the votes of the people. This obstruction Tiberius Gracchus vanquished by a bold measure; he convoked the assemblies of the people, and induced them to pronounce the deposition of Octavius. The Sempronian law was adopted, and Appius Claudius, Tiberius Gracchus, and Caius Gracchus were intrusted with its execution. And now began a grand battle for life or death between the Roman aristocracy and the author of the Sempronian law. One main weapon of the aristocracy was the bitterest, most boundless calumny. Every falsehood was propagated regarding Tiberius Gracchus; and it was even said that he was ambitious to get himself proclaimed king. The desperate resistance of the patricians provoked Tiberius Gracchus to a more desperate onslaught. To the perfect fulfilment of his plans, it was indispensable that he should be continued in the tribunate. He therefore came before the assemblies of the people for re-election. The vote was proceeding in his favour, when the turbulent nobles that were present cried that the election was illegal, and excited a tumult; the result of which was the postponement of the election to the morrow. Gracchus recognized all the peril of his position. He felt, therefore, as if he were marching to his doom when on the morrow he repaired to the capitol, where the Romans had met. The crowd was agitated by the wildest and most various passions; and fierce were the clamours of the hirelings and partisans of the patricians. Pretending to be alarmed for the safety of the state, the senators had assembled. The more moderate among them, with the consul, Mutius Scævola, at their head, were disposed to conciliation. But the rest had resolved on the destruction of one who was odious, from his love of justice, to men who had ceased to be just. Gracchus had attempted in vain to address the multitude; and, either as a gesture of impatience, or to indicate that his life was in danger, he raised his hand to his head. His reckless, envious, envenomed adversaries immediately exclaimed that he was demanding to be crowned as monarch. This scandalous untruth was at once conveyed to the senate, the more violent members of which used it to kindle the uproar to madness. Rushing out, they gathered round them as they went the rabble of Rome. This vile mob, seizing as arms whatever came in the way, hurled itself on the defenceless people. Only the immediate and more devoted followers of Gracchus resisted. Three hundred of them were massacred. He himself was murdered, and his mutilated body thrown into the Tiber. On frivolous pretexts his chief friends were some days after put to death. Tiberius Gracchus was the hero of a great idea, the martyr for a great cause. But there are seasons in the history of a nation, as in the history of humanity, when heroisms and martyrdoms are useless, at least for the immediate object sought for: useless they are not as examples for brave and true men in all ages to follow. It is easy for us, severed from the
