Part 22 (2/2)

[396] No mention is made of the appeal in five cases in which criminal commissions had been established by the senate. The dates of these commissions are B.C. 331 (Liv. viii. 18; Val. Max. ii. 5. 3), 314 (Liv.

ix. 26), 186 (Liv. x.x.xix. 8-19), 184 (Liv. x.x.xix. 41) and 180 (Liv.

xl. 37).

[397] Vellei. ii. 2 (Tiberius Gracchus) pollicitus toti Italiae civitatem.

[398] Cicero is perhaps stating the result, rather than the intention, of the Gracchan legislation when he says (_de Rep_. iii. 29. 41) Ti.

Gracchus perseveravit in civibus, sociorum nominisque Latini jura neglexit ac foedera. No point in the Gracchan agrarian law is more remarkable than its strict, perhaps inequitable, legality. That its author consciously violated treaty relations is improbable.

[399] App. _Bell. Civ_. i. 14.

[400] For the qualifications at this period see Mommsen _Staatsr_. i. p.

505.

[401] Dio Ca.s.s. _frg_. 88 [Greek: _epecheiraese kai es to epion etos meta tou adelphou daemarchaesai kai ton pentheron hypaton apodeixai_].

[402] App. l.c.

[403] Mommsen _Staatsr_. i. p. 523. Dio Ca.s.sius indeed says (_fr_. 22) [Greek: _koluphen to tina dis taen archaen lambanein_]; but tradition held that the proviso had been violated in the early plebeian agitations.

[404] App. _Bell. Civ_. 1. 14.

[405] App. l.c.; Plut. _Ti. Gracch_. 13. The scene is thus described by Asellio (a contemporary):--Orare coepit, id quidem ut se defenderent liberosque suos, eumque, quem virile secus tum in eo tempore habebat, produci jussit populoque commendavit prope flens (Gell. ii. 13. 5).

Appian also speaks of a son, Plutarch of children.

[406] Plut. _Ti. Gracch_., 16.

[407] App. _Bell. Civ_. 1. 15.

[408] [Greek: _prostataes de tou Rhomaion daemou_] (Plut. _Ti. Gracch_.

17).

[409] App. _Bell. Civ_. i. 16.

[410] Richter _Topographie_ p. 128.

[411] Plut. _Ti. Gracch_. 18.

[412] Plut. _Ti. Gracch_. 19.

[413] App. _Bell. Civ_. i. 15.

[414] Ibid. 16.

[415] The dictator was usually nominated by the consul between midnight and morning (Liv. viii. 23), for the purpose of the avoidance of unfavourable omens.

[416] Tradition ultimately carried it back to the fourth century B.C. In the revolution threatened by Manlius Capitolinus (384 B.C., Liv. vi. 19) the phrase Ut videant magistrates ne quid ... res publica detrimenti capiat was believed to have been employed.

[417] Plut. _Ti. Gracch_. 19 [Greek: _epei ... prodidosin ho archon taen polin, oi boulomenoi tois nomois boaethein akoloutheite_.] The most specific and juristically exact account of these proceedings (one probably drawn from Livy) is preserved by Valerius Maximus (iii. 2. l7): --In aedem Fidei publicae convocati patres conscripti a consule Mucio Scaevola quidnam in tali tempestate faciendum esset deliberabant, cunctisque censentibus ut consul armis rem publicam tueretur, Scaevola negavit se quicquam vi esse acturum. Tum Scipio Nasica Quoniam, inquit, consul dum juris ordinem sequitur id agit ut c.u.m omnibus legibus Romanum imperium corruat, egomet me privatus voluntati vestrae ducem offero....

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