FOOTNOTES
[74] [The number of sons qualified to hold public property was two.]
[75] [George Long[d] defends their authenticity, saying: “The critics whose eyes are so sharp that they cannot see what is before them and see what is not, tell us that these fragments are rhetorical inventions. Now Gracchus’ speeches were read in Cicero’s time and later; and it is as reasonable to suppose that Appian and Plutarch used these speeches, as to suppose that they invented speeches or copied from those who invented them. The speeches are like genuine stuff.”]
[76] [The difficulty in the way of the first alternative here suggested is that in all probability Octavius would have vetoed any proposal for reform. The second alternative was impracticable because Tiberius was constitutionally ineligible to re-election. It is doubtful whether any constitutional means of reform existed.]
[77] Piso, the other consul, was employed in extinguishing the Slave War in Sicily.
[78] [George Long[d] doubts this, saying that Caius was still in Spain.]
[79] [It is now generally agreed that various classes of poor people should be supported by the government; the question is whether the Romans were wise in supporting so many and in such a way.]
[80] [Appian,[g] the authority for this matter, more probably means that before the tribuneship of Caius a law had been passed permitting the re-election of a tribune in case of a lack of candidates.]
[81] [“This,” says Long,[d] “is the first instance in Roman history of head-money being offered and paid, but it was not the last.”]
Roman Tweezers
(In the British Museum)
