It may have been so, or the law may have been so violated as to be no more valid than the Licinian law, which, though never abrogated, had never much force. [Sidenote:  Tactics of the Senate.] To fasten on some technical flaw in his procedure was precisely in keeping with the rest of the acts of the opposition.  But those writers who accuse Tiberius of being guilty of another illegal act in standing fail to observe the force of the fact, that it was not till the first two tribes had voted that the aristocracy interfered.  This shows that their objection was a last resort to an invalid statute, and a deed of which they were themselves ashamed.  However, the president of the tribunes, Rubrius, hesitated to let the other tribes vote; and when Mummius, Octavius’s substitute, asked Rubrius to yield to him the presidency, others objected that the post must be filled by lot, and so the election was adjourned till the next day.

It was clear enough to what end things were tending, and Tiberius, putting on mourning committed his young son to the protection of the people.  It need hardly be said that the father’s affection and the statesman’s bitter dismay at finding the dearest object of his life about to be snatched from him by violence need not have been tinged with one particle of personal fear.  A man of tried bravery like Gracchus might guard his own life indeed, but only as be regarded it as indispensable to a great cause.  That evening he told his partisans he would give them a sign next day if he should think it necessary to use force at his election.  It has been assumed that this proves he was meditating treason.  But it proves no more than that he meant to repel force forcibly if, as was only too certain, force should be used, and this is not treason.  No other course was open to him.  The one weak spot in his policy was that he had no material strength at his back.  Even Sulla would have been a lost man at a later time, if he had not had an army at hand to which he could flee for refuge, just as without the army Cromwell would have been powerless.  But it was harvest-time now, and the rural allies of Gracchus were away from home in the fields. [Sidenote:  Murder of Gracchus.] The next day dawned, and with it occurred omens full of meaning to the superstitious Romans.  The sacred fowls would not feed.  Tiberius stumbled at the doorway of his house and broke the nail of his great toe.  Some crows fought on the roof of a house on the left hand, and one dislodged a tile, which fell at his feet.  But Blossius was at his side encouraging him, and Gracchus went on to the Capitol and was greeted with a great cheer by his partisans. [Sidenote:  Different accounts given by Appian and Plutarch.] Appian says that when the rich would not allow the election to proceed, Tiberius gave the signal.  Plutarch tells us that Fulvius Flaccus came and told him that his foes had resolved to slay him, and, having failed to induce the consul Scaevola to act, were arming their friends