[88] As thirty-one was the age at which according to a law (Lex Annalis Villia) a man could become Quæstor, Tiberius, who was Quæstor before he was tribune, must have been older than Plutarch says that he was; unless he was elected Quæstor before the legal age.
[89] The island of Sardinia was made a Roman province B.C. 235.
[90] Lucius Aurelius Orestes and M. Æmilius Lepidus were consuls B.C. 126.
[91] This dream is mentioned by Cicero, De Divinatione, i. 26. C. Gracchus told his dream to many persons, before he was elected tribune. It happened while he was a candidate for the quæstorship.
[92] Micipsa, King of Numidia, was the son of Massinissa, who was the firm ally of the Romans in their contest with the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War. At the close of this war, his territory was greatly enlarged by the addition of the dominions of Syphax and a large part of the Carthaginian territory. He was succeeded by Micipsa, who died B.C. 118. The Carthaginian territory which subsequently formed a large part of the Roman province of Africa was a rich corn country, and one of the granaries of Rome under the latter Republic and the Empire.
[93] Gracchus made his defence before the Censors Cn. Servilius Cæpio and L. Cassius Longinus B.C. 124. Gracchus belonged to the class of Equites, and as such he had a Public horse. The censors summoned him to account for leaving his province, and, if he was not able to justify himself, he would be deprived of his horse and marked with the Nota Censoria, in the lists of the Censors, the consequence of which was what the Romans called Ignominia, or temporary civil incapacity.
If Caius was born B.C. 154 and had now (B.C. 124) served twelve years, he entered the army B.C. 136, when he was eighteen. It is true as he here says, that he was only required to serve ten years. This fragment of his speech is preserved by Aulus Gellius (xv. 12), and it is expressed with all the vigour of the best Roman style. A comparison of this fragment with the passages from the speeches of Tiberius Gracchus, which are given by Plutarch, is sufficient to show that Plutarch’s extracts are genuine. There appears to be an error in Plutarch as to the “three years.” Gellius makes Caius say: “Biennium fui in Provincia;” “I was two years in the province:” and one MS. is said to have “two years” (διετία), which Coraes has adopted in his edition of Plutarch.
[94] Fregellæ was a subject city in the territory of the Volsci. The people wished to have the Roman citizenship, and as it was refused they rebelled. Fregellæ was destroyed by L. Opimius the Prætor B.C. 125. Caius Gracchus was tried B.C. 124 before the Prætor Opimius on the charge of conspiring with the people of Fregellæ. (Velleius, 2, c. 6.)
[95] Plutarch simply says the Plain (τὸ πέδιον): but he means the Campus Martius, or Field of Mars. Compare Marius c. 34. The Roman writers often call the Campus Martius simply Campus.
The people did not mount on the house-tops to vote, as Amyot and Kaltwasser say, if I understand them right. Crowds came to Rome, who had no votes; they came to see and to affect the elections if they could. Caius was elected tribune B.C. 123, just ten years after his brother’s tribunate. The consuls were Quintus Cæcilius Metellus Balearicus, a son of Metellus Macedonicus, an opponent of Tiberius Gracchus, and Titus Quinctius Flamininus. (See Tiberius Gracchus, [c. 14] notes.)