7.  What was the consequence of this outrage?

8.  What news did he hear on his arrival?

9.  Did he attempt to conciliate his enemies, and were his attempts successful?

10.  Was this offer accepted?

11.  What was the conduct of the consul?

12.  What was the fate of the chiefs?

13.  Did Gracchus effect his escape?

14.  Did he fall into the hands of his enemies?

15.  What artifice did avarice contrive?

16.’  Was the conduct of Gracchus deserving of praise or blame?

17.  By what motives were the Gracchi supposed to be actuated?

18.  What was the character of the senate at this period?

19.  What was the character of their adherents?

20.  What was the nature of their government?

31.  What concurred to perpetuate this tyranny?

FOOTNOTE: 

[1] From the death of Gracchus until the first consulship of Marius, Rome was governed by a venal and profligate oligarchy, formed from a coalition of the most powerful families.  Shame was unknown to this body; the offices of state were openly sold to the highest bidder, redress of grievances was to be obtained only by paying a heavier sum for vengeance than the oppressor would give for impunity:  advocacy of popular rights was punished as treason, and complaints were treated as criminal acts of sedition.  The young patricians, under such a system, became the scourge of the state, for nothing remained safe from their violence or their lust, when the monopoly of judicial office by their friends and relatives insured them impunity for every excess, however flagrant or disgraceful.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XVIII.

SECTION I.

FROM THE SEDITION OF GRACCHUS TO THE PERPETUAL DICTATORSHIP OF SYLLA, WHICH WAS THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS THE RUIN OF THE COMMONWEALTH.—­U.C. 634.

  By brutal Marius, and keen Sylla, first
  Effused the deluge dire of civil blood,
  Unceasing woes began.—­Thomson.

1.  While the Romans were in this state of deplorable corruption at home, they nevertheless were very successful in their transactions with foreign powers.

2.  Among other victories, a signal one was gained over Jugur’tha, king of Numid’ia.  He was grandson to Massinis’sa, who sided with Rome against Hannibal, and educated with the two young princes, who were left to inherit the kingdom. 3.  Being superior in abilities to both, and greatly in favour with the people, he murdered Hiemp’sal, the eldest son, but Adher’bal, the younger, escaped, and fled to the Romans for succour. 4.  Jugur’tha, sensible how much avarice and injustice had crept into the senate, sent his ambassadors to Rome with large presents, which so successfully prevailed, that the senate decreed him half the kingdom thus