[762] Valerius Maximus (vi. 5. 6) tells the story that a slave of Carbo's brought Crassus a letter-case (scrinium) full of compromising papers. Crassus sent back the case still sealed and the slave in chains to Carbo.
[763] Mommsen, Hist. of Rome bk. iv. c. 4.
[764] Cic. in Verr. iii. i. 3 Itaque hoc, judices, ex … L. Crasso saepe auditum est, cum se nullius rei tam paenitere diceret quam quod C. Carbonem unquam in judicium vocavisset.
[765] Cic. ad Fam. ix. 21. 3 (C. Carbo) accusante L. Crasso cantharidas sumpsisse dicitur. Valerius Maximus (iii. 7. 6) implies that Carbo was sent into exile. But the two stories are not necessarily inconsistent.
[766] Appian (Bell. Civ. i. 35) says that the younger Livius Drusus (91 B.C.) [Greek: ton daemon … hypaegeto apoikiais pollais es te taen Italian kai Sikelian epsaephismenais men ek pollou, gegonuiais de oupo]. These colonies could only have been those proposed by his father.
[767] Mommsen in C.I.L. 1 pp. 75 ff. Cf. p. 227. We have no record of the tenure by which Romans held their lands in such settlements as Palma and Pollentia (p. 189). They too may have been illustrations of what was known later as the jus Italicum.
[768] We know that the corn law of C. Gracchus was repealed or modified by a lex Octavia. Cic. Brut. 62. 222 (M. Octavius) tantum auctoritate dicendoque valuit, ut legem Semproniam frumentariam populi frequentis suffragiis abrogaverit. Cf. de Off. ii. 21. 72. But the date of this alteration is unknown and it may not have been immediate. If it was a consequence of Gracchus's fall, as is thought by Peter (Gesch. Roms. ii. p. 41), the distributions may have been restored circa 119 B.C. (see p. 287). We shall see that in the tribunate of Marius during this year some proposal about corn was before the people (Plut. Mar. 4).
[769] App. Bell. Civ. i. 27 [Greek: nomos te ou poly hysteron ekyrhothae, taen gaen, hyper haes dietheronto, exeinai pipraskein tois echousin.]
[770] App. l.c. [Greek: kai euthus oi plousioi para ton penaeton eonounto, hae taisde tais prophasesin ebiazonto.]
[771] The law permitting alienation may have been in 121 B.C. The year 119 or 118 B.C. ([Greek: pentekaideka maliosta etesin apo taes Grakchou nomothesias]) is given by Appian (l.c.) for one of the two subsequent laws which he speaks of. It is probably the date of the first of these, the one which we are now considering.