Plutarch, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, Caius.6

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

View: By Section

← Previous Next →

[1] ἐπεὶ δὲ οὐ μόνον ἐδέξατο τὸν νόμον τοῦτον ὁ δῆμος, ἀλλὰ κἀκείνῳ τοὺς κρίνοντας ἐκ τῶν ἱππέων ἔδωκε καταλέξαι, μοναρχική τις ἰσχὺς ἐγεγόνει περὶ αὐτόν, ὥστε καὶ τὴν σύγκλητον ἀνέχεσθαι συμβουλεύοντος αὐτοῦ. συνεβούλευε δὲ ἀεί τι τῶν ἐκείνῃ πρεπόντων εἰσηγούμενος·

[2] οἷον ἦν καὶ τὸ περὶ τοῦ σίτου δόγμα μετριώτατον καὶ κάλλιστον, ὃν ἔπεμψε μὲν ἐξ Ἰβηρίας Φάβιος ἀντιστράτηγος, ἐκεῖνος δʼ ἔπεισε τὴν βουλὴν ἀποδομένην τὸν σῖτον ἀναπέμψαι ταῖς πόλεσι τὸ ἀργύριον, καὶ προσεπαιτιάσασθαι τὸν Φάβιον ὡς ἐπαχθῆ καὶ ἀφόρητον ποιοῦντα τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐφʼ ᾧ μεγάλην ἔσχε δόξαν μετὰ εὐνοίας ἐν ταῖς ἐπαρχίαις.

[3]
ἔγραψε δὲ καὶ πόλεις ἀποικίδας ἐκπέμπεσθαι καὶ τὰς ὁδοὺς ποιεῖσθαι καὶ κατασκευάζεσθαι σιτοβόλια, τούτοις ἅπασι πραττομένοις αὑτὸν ἄρχοντα καὶ διοικητὴν ἐφιστάς, καὶ πρὸς οὐδὲν ἀποτρυόμενος τῶν τοσούτων καὶ τηλικούτων, ἀλλὰ καὶ θαυμαστῷ τινι τάχει καὶ πόνῳ τῶν γινομένων ὡς μόνον ἕκαστον ἐξεργαζόμενος, ὥστε καὶ τοὺς πάνυ μισοῦντας αὑτὸν καὶ δεδοικότας ἐκπλήττεσθαι τὸ διὰ πάντων ἀνύσιμον καὶ τελεσιουργόν.

[4] οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ καὶ τὴν ὄψιν αὐτὴν ἐθαύμαζον, ἐξηρτημένον ὁρῶντες αὐτοῦ πλῆθος ἐργολάβων, τεχνιτῶν, πρεσβευτῶν, ἀρχόντων, στρατιωτῶν, φιλολόγων, οἷς πᾶσιν ἐντυγχάνων μετὰ εὐκολίας καὶ τὸ σεμνὸν ἐν τῷ φιλανθρώπῳ διαφυλάττων, καὶ νέμων αὐτοῦ τὸ ἁρμόττον οἰκείως ἑκάστῳ, χαλεποὺς ἀπεδείκνυε συκοφάντας τοὺς φοβερὸν αὑτὸν ἢ φορτικὸν ὅλως ἢ βίαιον ἀποκαλοῦντας. οὕτω δεινότερος ἦν ἐν ταῖς ὁμιλίαις καὶ ταῖς πράξεσιν ἢ τοῖς ἀπὸ τοῦ βήματος λόγοις δημαγωγός.

Tiberius and Caius Gracchus. Plutarch. Cambridge, MA. 1921.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Tιβέριος καὶ Γάιος Γράκχοι (Greek) (Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. X. Perrin, Bernadotte, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1921.)

Translations (1)

Tiberius and Caius Gracchus Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. X. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1921.) — Tiberius.6 focus

[1] However, all the property captured in the camp was retained by the Numantines and treated as plunder. Among this were also the ledgers of Tiberius, containing written accounts of his official expenses as quaestor. These he was very anxious to recover, and so, when the army was already well on its way, turned back towards the city, attended by three or four companions.

[2] After summoning forth the magistrates of Numantia, he asked them to bring him his tablets, that he might not give his enemies opportunity to malign him by not being able to give an account of his administration. The Numantines, accordingly, delighted at the chance to do him a favour, invited him to enter the city; and as he stood deliberating the matter, they drew near and clasped his hands, and fervently entreated him no longer to regard them as enemies, but to treat and trust them as friends.

[3] Tiberius, accordingly, decided to do this, both because he set great store by his tablets, and because he feared to exasperate the Numantines by showing them distrust. After he had entered the city, in the first place the Numantines set out a meal for him, and entreated him by all means to sit down and eat something in their company; next, they gave him back his tablets, and urged him to take whatever he wanted of the rest of his property. He took nothing, however, except the frankincense which he was wont to use in the public sacrifices, and after bidding them farewell with every expression of friendship, departed.

[1] The people not only adopted this law, but also entrusted to its author the selection of the judges who were to come from the equestrian order, so that he found himself invested with something like monarchical power, and even the senate consented to follow his counsel. But when he counselled them, it was always in support of measures befitting their body;

[2] as, for instance, the very equitable and honourable decree concerning the grain which Fabius the pro-praetor sent to the city from Spain. Caius induced the Senate to sell the grain and send the money back to the cities of Spain, and further, to censure Fabius for making his government of the province intolerably burdensome to its inhabitants. This decree brought Caius great reputation as well as popularity in the provinces.

[3]
He also introduced bills for sending out colonies, for constructing roads, and for establishing public granaries, making himself director and manager of all these undertakings, and showing no weariness in the execution of all these different and great enterprises; nay, he actually carried out each one of them with an astonishing speed and power of application, as if it were his sole business, so that even those who greatly hated and feared him were struck with amazement at the powers of achievement and accomplishment which marked all that he did.

[4] And as for the multitude, they were astonished at the very sight, when they beheld him closely attended by a throng of contractors, artificers, ambassadors, magistrates, soldiers, and literary men, with all of whom he was on easy terms, preserving his dignity while showing kindliness, and rendering properly to every man the courtesy which was due from him, whereby he set in the light of malignant slanderers those who stigmatised him as threatening or utterly arrogant or violent. Thus he was a more skilful popular leader in his private intercourse with men and in his business transactions than in his speeches from the rostra.

Plutarch Tiberius and Caius Gracchus Caius.6

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Current edition Perseus

Stable identifiers