O NASICA,
the uncle of Tiberius. Africanus, when he heard of the murder of his
brother-in-law, exclaimed, "Justly slain."

The agrarian law, however, which had passed, was too evidently just to
be openly ignored. The remaining two commissioners continued their work,
until, within two years, 40,000 families were settled on tracts of
the public land which the patricians were compelled to vacate. But the
commissioners became unpopular, for those who received lands were not
always satisfied, and those who were obliged to leave them were enraged.
The commissioners were suspended, and the law repealed.

The mantle of Tiberius fell on GAIUS GRACCHUS. For a time after his
brother's death he retired from politics, and served in the army in
Africa and Sardinia, where he was Quaestor. His valor, wisdom, and
justice made him justly popular, but caused him to be regarded with
suspicion at Rome. In 123 he was elected Tribune, and twice re-elected.
He revived his brother's agrarian law, and became at once the avowed
enemy of the Senate. As a means of increasing his popularity, he
endeavored to admit all the Italians to the privileges of Roman
citizenship, and to limit the price of bread.

Gains gained the favor of the _Equites_ (Knights), the commercial class,
by carrying through the assembly a law by which all judicial functions
were taken from the Senate and intrusted to the Knights. Heretofore
all civil and criminal cases of importance had been tried before a jury
chosen from the Senate. These juries were often venal and corrupt, and
it was a notorious fact that their verdicts could be bought.

The transferring of the juries to the Equites made Gaius for a time
very powerful. He caused another law to be passed, to the effect that no
Roman citizen should be put to death without legal trial and an appeal
to the assembly of the people.

But the plan of Gaius to extend the franchise to all the Italians ruined
his popularity. The Roman citizens had no desire to share their rights
with the Etruscans and Samnites. Riots again broke out, as ten years
before. The aristocracy again armed itself. Gaius with 3,000 of his
friends was murdered in 121, and the Senate was once more master of the
situation.

However, the results obtained by the Gracchi still remained. Forty
thousand peasants had been settled on public land. The jury law was in
force. No Roman citizen could be put to death without trial, unless the
state was held to be in dan