nds of
the Commissioners and transferred to the Consuls. This would have been
equivalent to an abrogation of the law, and accordingly the three
Commissioners offered the most vehement opposition to his proposal. In
the forum he was attacked by Carbo, with the bitterest invectives, as
the enemy of the people; and upon his again expressing his approval of
the death of Tiberius, the people shouted out, "Down with the tyrant!"
In the evening he went home accompanied by the Senate and a great number
of the Italians. He retired to his sleeping-room with the intention of
composing a speech for the following day. Next morning Rome was thrown
into consternation by the news that Scipio was found dead in his room.
The most contradictory rumors were circulated respecting his death, but
it was the general opinion that he was murdered. Suspicion fell upon
various persons, but Carbo was most generally believed to have been the
murderer. There was no inquiry into the cause of his death (B.C. 129).

Scipio was only 56 at the time of his death. To the Republic his loss
was irreparable. By his last act he had come forward as the patron of
the Italians. Had he lived he might have incorporated them in the Roman
state, and by forming a united Italy have saved Rome from many of the
horrors and disasters which she afterward suffered.

The leaders of the popular party perceived the mistake they had made in
alienating the Italians from their cause, and they now secured their
adhesion by offering them the Roman citizenship if they would support
the Agrarian Law. As Roman citizens they would, of course, be entitled
to the benefits of the law, while they would, at the same time, obtain
what they had so long desired--an equal share in political power. But
the existing citizens, who saw that their own importance would be
diminished by an increase in their numbers, viewed such a proposal with
the utmost repugnance. So strong was their feeling that, when great
numbers of the Italians had flocked to Rome in B.C. 126, the Tribune M.
Junius Pennus carried a law that all aliens should quit the city. Caius
Gracchus spoke against this law, and his friends still remained faithful
to the cause of the Italians. In the following year (B.C. 125), M.
Fulvius Flaccus, who was then Consul, brought forward a Reform Bill,
granting the Roman citizenship to all the Italian allies. But it was
evident that the Tribes would reject this law, and the Senate got rid of
the p