Under these circumstances the Senate assembled at the temple of Fides. The temple to the goddess of
							Public Faith was on the Capitoline hill. It is astonishing to me
						that they never thought of appointing a dictator in this emergency, although
						they had often been protected by the government of a single ruler in such
						times of peril. Although this resource had been found most useful in former
						times few people remembered it, either then or later. After reaching the
						decision that they did reach, they marched up to the Capitol, Cornelius
						Scipio Nasica, the pontifex maximus, leading the way and calling out with a
						loud voice, "Let those who would save the country follow me." He wound the
						border of his toga about his head either to induce a greater number to go
						with him by the singularity of his appearance, or to make for himself, as it
						were, a helmet as a sign of battle for those who looked on, or in order to
						conceal from the gods what he was about to do. When he arrived at the temple
						and advanced against the partisans of Gracchus they yielded to the
						reputation of a foremost citizen, for they saw the Senate following with
						him. The latter wrested clubs out of the hands of the Gracchans themselves,
						or with fragments of broken benches or other apparatus that had been brought
						for the use of the assembly, began beating them, and pursued them, and drove
						them over the precipice. The
							Capitoline hill was flanked by the Tarpeian Rock. In the tumult
						many of the Gracchans perished, and Gracchus himself was caught Reading a(lw/menos, which Mendelssohn prefers instead of ei)lou/menos. near the temple, and was
						slain at the door close by the statues of the kings. All the bodies were
						thrown by night into the Tiber . So perished on the Capitol, and while still tribune, Gracchus, the son of the
						Gracchus who was twice consul, and of Cornelia, daughter of that Scipio who
						subjugated Carthage . He lost
						his life in consequence of a most excellent design, which, however, he
						pursued in too violent a manner. This shocking affair, the first that was
						perpetrated in the public assembly, was seldom without parallels thereafter
						from time to time. On the subject of the murder of Gracchus the city was
						divided between sorrow and joy. Some mourned for themselves and for him, and
						deplored the present condition of things, believing that the commonwealth no
						longer existed, but had been supplanted by force and violence. Others
						considered that everything had turned out for them exactly as they wished.
						These things took place at the time when Aristonicus was contending with the
						Romans for the government of Asia . CHAPTER III Litigation under the Law of Gracchus--Scipio æmilianus employed
							in it -- His Mysterious Death -- Gaius Gracchus elected Tribune -- He
							gives the Judicial Power to Knights--Demands Roman Citizenship for
							Italian Allies--Sails to Africa 
							with Fulvius Flaccus--Rioting in Rome after his Return--Death of Gracchus and
							Flaccus Y.R. 622 After Gracchus was slain Appius Claudius died, and Fulvius Flaccus and
						Papirius Carbo were appointed, in conjunction with the younger Gracchus, to
						divide the land. As the persons in possession neglected to hand in lists of
						their holdings, a proclamation was issued that informers should furnish
						testimony against them. Immediately a great number of embarrassing lawsuits
						sprang up. Wherever a new field had been bought adjoining an old one, or
						wherever a division of land had been made with allies, the whole district
						had to be carefully inquired into on account of the measurement of this one
						field, to discover how it had been sold and how divided. Not all owners had
						preserved their contracts, or their allotment titles, and even those that
						were found were often ambiguous. When the land was resurveyed some owners
						were obliged to give up their fruit-trees and farm-buildings in exchange for
						naked ground. Others were transferred from cultivated to uncultivated lands,
						or to swamps, or pools. In fact, the measuring had not been carefully done
						when the land was first taken from the enemy. As the original proclamation
						authorized anybody to work the undistributed land who wished to do so, many
						had been prompted to cultivate the parts immediately adjoining their own,
						till the line of demarkation B.C. 132 between them had faded from
						view. The progress of time also made many changes. Thus the injustice done
						by the rich, although great, was not easy of ascertainment. So there was
						nothing but a general turn-about, all parties being moved out of their own
						places and settled down in other people's. Y.R. 625 
					 The Italian allies who complained of these disturbances, B.C. 129 and
						especially of the lawsuits hastily brought against them, chose Cornelius
						Scipio, the destroyer of Carthage , to defend them against these grievances. As he
						had availed himself of their very valiant services in war he was reluctant
						to disregard their request. So he came into the Senate, and although, out of
						regard for the plebeians, he did not openly find fault with the law of
						Gracchus, he expatiated on its difficulties and held that these causes ought
						not to be decided by the triumvirs, because they did not possess the
						confidence of the litigants, but should be turned over to others. As his
						view seemed reasonable, they yielded to his persuasion, and the consul
						Tuditanus was appointed to give judgment in these cases. But when he took
						hold of the work he saw the difficulties of it, and marched against the
						Illyrians as a pretext for not acting as judge, and since nobody brought
						cases for trial before the triumvirs they relapsed into idleness. From this
						cause hatred and indignation arose among the people against Scipio because
						they saw him, in whose favor they had often opposed the aristocracy and
						incurred their enmity, electing him consul twice contrary to law, now taking
						the side of the Italian allies against them. When Scipio's enemies observed
						this, they cried out that he was determined to abolish the law of Gracchus
						utterly and was about to inaugurate armed strife and bloodshed for that
						purpose. When the people heard these charges they were in a state of alarm until
						Scipio, after placing near his couch at home one evening a tablet on which
						he intended to write during the night the speech he intended to deliver
						before the people, was found dead in his bed without a wound. Whether this
						was done by Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi (aided by her daughter,
						Sempronia, who was married to Scipio, and was unloved and unloving because
						she was deformed and childless), lest the law of Gracchus should be
						abolished, or whether, as some think, he committed suicide because he saw
						plainly that he could not accomplish what he had promised, is not known.
						Some say that slaves, who were subjected to torture, testified that unknown
						persons were introduced through the rear of the house by night who
						suffocated him, and that those who knew about it hesitated to tell because
						the people were angry with him still and rejoiced at his death. So died
						Scipio, and although he had been of immense service to the Roman power he
						was not honored with a public funeral; so much does the anger of the present
						moment outweigh gratitude for the past. And this event, sufficiently
						important in itself, took place as an incident of the sedition of
							Gracchus. It is uncertain
							whether Scipio was murdered or not. Cicero alludes to the event in one
							of his letters ( Ad Fam. ix. 21), in which, speaking of
							one Gaius Carbo, he says that he was thought to have laid violent hands
							upon Africanus. Velleius says that marks of strangulation were found on
							his neck, yet adds in the same paragraph that most people thought he
							died a natural death.