[412] Plut. Ti. Gracch. 19.
[413] App. Bell. Civ. i. 15.
[414] Ibid. 16.
[415] The dictator was usually nominated by the consul between midnight and morning (Liv. viii. 23), for the purpose of the avoidance of unfavourable omens.
[416] Tradition ultimately carried it back to the fourth century B.C. In the revolution threatened by Manlius Capitolinus (384 B.C., Liv. vi. 19) the phrase Ut videant magistrates ne quid … res publica detrimenti capiat was believed to have been employed.
[417] Plut. Ti. Gracch. 19 [Greek: epei … prodidosin ho archon taen polin, oi boulomenoi tois nomois boaethein akoloutheite.] The most specific and juristically exact account of these proceedings (one probably drawn from Livy) is preserved by Valerius Maximus (iii. 2. l7): —In aedem Fidei publicae convocati patres conscripti a consule Mucio Scaevola quidnam in tali tempestate faciendum esset deliberabant, cunctisque censentibus ut consul armis rem publicam tueretur, Scaevola negavit se quicquam vi esse acturum. Tum Scipio Nasica Quoniam, inquit, consul dum juris ordinem sequitur id agit ut cum omnibus legibus Romanum imperium corruat, egomet me privatus voluntati vestrae ducem offero…. Qui rem publicam salvam esse volunt me sequantur.
[418] App. Bell. Civ. i. 16; Plut. l.c. Appian speculates as to the meaning of the act. It may have been meant to attract the attention of his supporters, it may have been a signal of war, it may have been intended to veil the impending deed of horror from the eyes of the gods. Cf. Vellei. ii. 3.
[419] Plut. Ti. Gracch. 19.
[420] [Cic.] ad Herenn, iv. 55. 68.
[421] In the highly rhetorical exercise contained in [Cic.] ad Herenn. iv. 55. 68 is to be found the following picture:—Iste spumans ex ore scelus, anhelans ex infirmo pectore crudelitatem, contorquet brachium et dubitanti Graccho quid esset, neque tamen locum, in quo constiterat, relinquenti, percutit tempus.