Plutarch's Lives, Volume I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 629 pages of information about Plutarch's Lives, Volume I.

Plutarch's Lives, Volume I eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 629 pages of information about Plutarch's Lives, Volume I.
who favoured the people, calling them demagogues and betrayers of their own order, alleging that by such gratification they did but cherish that spirit of boldness and arrogance which had been spread among the people against the patricians, which they would have done well to crush upon its first appearance, and not suffer the plebeians to grow so strong by giving so much power to the tribunes of the people.  Now, he urged, they had become formidable because every demand they made had been agreed to, and nothing done against their wishes; they contemned the authority of the consuls, and lived in defiance of the constitution, governed only by their own seditious ringleaders, to whom they gave the title of tribunes.  For the Senate to sit and decree largesses of corn to the populace, as is done in the most democratic States in Greece, would merely be to pay them for their disobedience, to the common ruin of all classes.  “They cannot,” he went on to say, “consider this largess of corn to be a reward for the campaign in which they have refused to serve, or for the secession by which they betrayed their country, or the scandals which they have been so willing to believe against the Senate.  As they cannot be said to deserve this bounty, they will imagine that it has been bestowed upon them by you because you fear them, and wish to pay your court to them.  In this case there will be no bounds to their insubordination, and they never will cease from riots and disorders.  To give it them is clearly an insane proceeding; nay, we ought rather, if we are wise, to take away from them this privilege of the tribuneship, which is a distinct subversion of the consulate, and a cause of dissension in the city, which now is no longer one, as before, but is rent asunder in such a manner that there is no prospect of our ever being reunited, and ceasing to be divided into two hostile factions.”

XVII.  With much talk to this effect Marcius excited the young men, with whom he was influential, and nearly all the richer classes, who loudly declared that he was the only man in the State who was insensible both to force and to flattery.  Some of the elders, however, opposed him, foreseeing what would be the result of his policy.  Indeed, no good resulted from it.  The tribunes of the people, as soon as they heard that Marcius had carried his point, rushed down into the forum and called loudly upon the people to assemble and stand by them.  A disorderly assembly took place, and on a report being made of Marcius’s speech, the fury of the people was so great that it was proposed to break into the senate house; but the tribunes turned all the blame upon Marcius alone, and sent for him to come and speak in his own defence.  As this demand was insolently refused, the tribunes themselves, together with the aediles, went to bring him by force, and actually laid hands upon him.  However, the patricians rallied round him, thrust away the tribunes of the people, and even beat the aediles,

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Plutarch's Lives, Volume I from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.