16.  Ca’ius Gracchus was but twenty-one upon the death of Tibe’rius his brother; and as he was too young to be much dreaded by the great, so he was at first unwilling to incur their resentment by aims beyond his reach; he therefore lived in retirement, unseen and forgotten. 17.  But, while he thus seemed desirous of avoiding popularity, he was employed in his solitude in the study of eloquence, which was the surest means to obtain it. 18.  At length, when he thought himself qualified to serve his country, he offered himself a candidate for the quaestorship to the army in Sardin’ia, which he easily obtained.  His valour, affability, and temperance in this office were remarked by all. 19.  The king of Numid’ia sending a present of corn to the Romans, ordered his ambassadors to say, that it was a tribute to the virtues of Ca’ius Gracchus. 20.  This the senate treated with scorn, and ordered the ambassadors to be treated with contempt, as ignorant barbarians, which so inflamed the resentment of young Gracchus, that he immediately came from the army to complain of the indignity thrown upon his reputation, and to offer himself for the tribuneship of the people. 21.  It was then that this youth, who had been hitherto neglected, proved a more formidable enemy than even his brother had been.  Notwithstanding the warmest opposition from the senate, he was declared tribune by a very large majority; and he now prepared for the career which his brother had run before him.

22.  His first effort was to have Pompil’ius, one of the most inveterate of his brother’s enemies, cited before the people; but rather than stand the event of a trial, he chose to go into voluntary banishment. 23.  He next procured an edict, granting the freedom of the city to the inhabitants of La’tium, and soon after to all the people on the hither side of the Alps. 24.  He afterwards fixed the price of corn at a moderate standard, and procured a monthly distribution of it among the people. 25.  He then proceeded to an inspection into the late corruptions of the senate; in which the whole body being convicted of bribery, extortion, and the sale of offices (for at that time a total degeneracy seemed to have taken place,) a law was made, transferring the power of judging corrupt magistrates from the senate to the knights, which made a great alteration in the constitution.

26.  Gracchus, by these means, being grown not only popular, but powerful, was become an object at which the senate aimed all their resentment. 27.  But he soon found the populace a faithless and unsteady support.  They began to withdraw all their confidence from him, and to place it upon Drusus, a man insidiously set up against him by the senate. 28.  It was in vain that he revived the Licin’ian law in their favour, and called up several of the inhabitants of the different towns of Italy to his support; the senate ordered all to depart from Rome, and even sent one stranger to prison whom Gracchus had invited to live with him, and honoured with his table and friendship. 29.  To this indignity was shortly after added a disgrace of a more fatal tendency; for, standing for the tribuneship a third time, he was rejected.  It was supposed that the officers, whose duty it was to make the return, were bribed to reject him, though fairly chosen.