A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

-298 GRACCHUS- GRACILIS.
in the morning, dressed in his toga, and without the work of Meyer, cited below. The people of
any weapon save a dagger, which he concealed Rome who had deserted him in the hour of danger
under his toga. It was in vain that his wife, were soon seized by feelings of bitter remorse;
Licinia, with her child in her arms, implored him statues were erected to the two brothers; the spots
to remain at home; he freed himself from her em- on which they had fallen were declared sacred
brace, and went away with his friends without ground, and sacrifices were offered there as in the
saying a word. When he arrived on the Aventine, temples of the gods. Both brothers had staked
he prevailed on Fulvius to send his younger son as their lives for the noblest object that a statesman
a deputy to the senate, to propose a reconciliation. can propose to himself-the rights of the people
The appearance of the beautiful boy and his inno- and so long as these rights are preferred to the
cent request moved many of the senators; but privileges of a few whom birth or wealth enable to
Opimius haughtily declared, that the rebels ought oppress and tyrannise over the many, so long will
not to attempt any thing through the medium of a the names of the Gracchi be hallowed in history.
messenger, but that they must lay down their There are, as we have already observed, one or
arms, and surrender at discretion. Gracchus him- two points in their conduct and legislation in which
self was ready to comply with this demand, but all we might wish that they had acted with more
his friends refused, and Fulvius sent his son a wisdom and circumspection, but errare humanuns
second time to negotiate. Opimius, who longed to est, and the blame falls not so much upon the
bring the matter to a decision by force, ordered the Gracchi, as upon those who irritated and provoked
boy to be thrown into prison, and forthwith he ad- them with a bitterness and an insolence in the
vanced with a body of armed men towards the face of which it would have required an angel's
Aventine. An amnesty was at the same time pro- forbearance to remain calm and prudent. (Plut.
claimed for all those who would at once lay down Vit. C. Gracchi; Appian, B. C.i. 21-26; Liv.
their arms. This amnesty, the want of a regular Epit. lib. 59-61; Vel. Pat. ii. 6, &c.; Dion Cass.
plan of action on the part of Fulvius, and the mis- Fragm. Peir. 90; Oros. v. 12; Aur. Vict. de Vir.
siles of the enemy, soon dispersed the party of Illustr. 65; the passages of Cicero, collected in
Gracchus. Fulvius took to flight, and was mur- Orelli's Onomast. vol. ii. p. 533, &c.; comp. F.D.
dered with his elder son. Gracchus, who took no Gerlach, Tib. und C. Gracchus, p. 33, &c.; Meyer,
part in the struggle, and was altogether dissatisfied Fragm. Oral. Rom. p. 224, &c., 2d edit.; Ahrens,
with the manner in which his friends had conducted Die drei Volkstribunen, &c.; Niebuhr, Lectures on
the affair, withdrew into the temple of Diana, Rom. Hist. vol. i. p. 341, &c., ed. Schmitz.)
with a view of making away with himself; but he 9. (SEMPRONIUS) GRACCHUS, a run-away slave,
was prevented by two faithful friends, Pomponius who gave himself out as a son of Tib. Gracchus.
and Laetorius (others call him Licinius). Before His real name was L. Equitius. [EQUITIUS.]
leaving the temple he is said to have sunk on his 10. SEMPRONIUS GRACCHUS, a paramour of
knees, and to have pronounced a fearful curse upon Julia, the daughter of Augustus, while she was the
the ungrateful people who had deserted him and wife of M. Agrippa. He continued his connection
joined his enemies. He then followed his friends with her after she was married to Tiberius, and
towards the Tiber; and as they arrived at the inflamed her hatred against her husband. On
wooden bridge leading to the Janiculus, he would Julia's banishment, Gracchus was also banished
have been overtaken by his pursuers and cut down, to Cercina, an island off the African coast. There
had not his friends resolutely opposed them, until he lived till the accession of Tiberius, who had him
they were killed. Caius, in the meantime, had put to death, A. D. 14 (Tac. Ann. i. 53; Vell.
reached the grove of the Furies, accompanied only Pat. i. 100). There are several coins struck by a
by a single slave. He had called out for a horse, Tib. Sempronius Gracchus (see the specimen below),
but no one had ventured to afford him any assist- which are usually referred to the above-mentioned
ance. In the grove of the Furies the slave, Phi- Gracchus. But as many of these coins were
locrates, first killed his master, Gracchus, and then struck in the time of Julius Caesar, they belong
himself. A proclamation had been issued at the more probably to the ancestor of the Gracchus put
beginning of the struggle, that those who brought to death in A. D. 14. [L. S.]
the heads of Gracchus and Fulvius should receive
their weight in gold. One Septimuleius cut off the
hea.d of Gracchus; and in order to increase its Iooo-D.'..p,
weight, filled it with melted lead, and thus carried
it on a spear to Opimius, who paid him his blood- f
money. The bodies of the slain, whose number is
said to have' amounted to 3000, were thrown into E I
the Tiber, their property was confiscated, and their -
houses demolished. All the other friends of
Gracchus who fell into the hands of their enemies GRACCHUS, T. VETU'RIUS, with the agwere thrown into prison, and there strangled. nomen Sempronianus, was appointed augur in B.C.
After the senate was satiated with blood, it com- 174, after the death and in the place of Tib. Semmitted the blasphemous mockery of dedicating a pronius Gracchus No. 3. (Liv. xli. 26.) [L. S.]
temple to Concord! GRACILIA, VERULA'NA, a Roman lady
C. Gracchus was married to Licinia, the daughter who was besieged in the Capitol with Sabinus, the
of Licinius Crassus, who had been elected triumvir brother of Vespasian, during his contest with Vitelin the place of Tib. Gracchus. He had by her, lius, A. D. 70. (Tac. Iuist. iii. 69.) The name
as far as we know, only one son, but what became should perhaps be written Gratilla. (Comp. Plin.
of the boy after his father's death is unknown. Ep. iii. 11, v. l.) [W. B. D.]
We,' possess numerous specimens and fragments of GRAICILIS, AE/LIUS, legatus in Belgic Gaul,
the oratory of C. Gracchus, which are collected in A. D. 59. (Tac. Ann. xiii. 53.) [W. B. D.]