The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-05-12

That IL Why Caius Gracious modified his
brothers programme. The Roman Empire.
as II wal ultimately founded ny Julius and
Augustus Cesar, wan really built upon the
ideas Of Caius Gracchus. No sooner wal he
elected Tribune Of the People In 12s b. G.
than he undertook 20 isolate the landlord
party by depriving them Of the support OF
their natural allies and dependents. Hith-
erto the plebeian capitalists and the Sena-
tors had always worked together harmoni-
ously in filling their pockets at the expense
Of the State, but OF late the capitalists had
been growing restless. Caius proposed a
bill providing that the permanent COM
mission which tried accusations against
Governors Of provinces. and other crimes
Of a political nature, should be composed
not OF Senators but Of Knights. He threw
n still moro tempting bait to the ~nanoie
by providing that the collection OF taxes In
the kingdom OF Pergamus. which Rome had
inherited ten years before and which was
now termed the province Of Asia, should he
leased out not to local capitalists but for
the exclusive benefit Of the Roman finan-
ciers. Caius hoped to use the great sums
that the State would draw from these leases
aud from an increase In the customs dues
levied on all objects OF luxury imported
from the East. in buying the support OF the
poorer classes for his reforms. He intended
7 TO insure them once and for all against any
repetition OF the partial famines from which
already Rome, even In good years. was
never entirely immune He therefore pro-
posed that the provision OF grain should be-
come a State obligation. and that the Gov
eminent should sell heat 10 Rome at a
! ridiculously low price. Nor was this oil.
For the benefit Of the peasants and the city
poor he proposed to restore by a new land
law to the three commissioners contem-
plated by his brother. Tiberius. the power OF
deciding whether a piece OF land were public
! or private property, to which he added a law
fixing seventeen as the lowest age for en-
rollment in the army. and ~decreeinG that
the soldiers should be clothed at the expense
of the Treasury. Finally he brought for
ward a scheme for the construction Of new
roads in different parts Of Italy, particularly
in the south. thus at once giving work to con-
tractors and workmen mt facilitating the
Gale Of agricultural produce.
In our, authors judgment, had Caius
Gracious stopped here he might easily
have carried through every item on his
programme and become the most powerful
man in Europe. He had adopted a policy
for the encouragement Of trade and in
dustry which might have given the demo-
cratic party its marching orders for the
whole OF the next century, though. by the
strangest Of decisions, Caius imagined that
this policy was to take him in an opposite
direction-to the partial, IL not complete,
restoration Of Roman society to its an
.o.A-.I o-l p-;rntN;-. oa.lttfoA npH0rtu-
natelv for the execution of his programme,
he advanced on his reelection to the Tribune
ship in the following year a still more
novel proposal. To relieve the glut Of
artisans, traders. professional men and
adventures OF all kinds in Rome, he pro-
posed to send out colonizing expeditions
to various distant places-Tarentum n
Carthage. for example-composed. not Of
the usual INDECENT settler class. but Of we'll
to do people, traders or capitalists, who were
20 be bribed With the promise Of large CON-
cessions Of land. A bill to that effect was
passed, though not without difficulty. for
any attempt TO reduce the population Of
Rome was certain to clash with a good
many interests. .
Blindly self-conhdent after his previous
successes, Caius now ventured upon his
master stroke. He proposed TO confer
the rights OF Roman citizenship upon
all Italians. The far reaching purpose
Of Caius was to make Rome the head
Of a vigorous Italian nation and thence
forth to base the vast fabric OF empire
not upon q municipal o~ligarchy and a clique
Of corrupt hnanciers but upon the
vigorous manhood OF the Italian country
side. In a word. the cles.r vision Of the
younger Gracious pierced through the fu-
ture to the greatest Of all the problems
in Roman history. but with an illusion, not
uncommon among statesmen, he hoped to
accomplish single handed a task at which
six generations OF his successors were
destined to labor. We need not say that the
magnificent conception was premature.
The project Of granting Roman citizenship
to the Italians suited the poor as little as
the rich. At the end Of his second tribu-
| nate Caius was driven back into private
lie, and not long afterward he was muir
dered. Thus persisted one Of the four
master builders OF the Roman Empire and
perhaps the most far seeing statesman that
Rome ever produced.