καὶ τότε μὲν ὄμβρου γενομένου διελύθησαν ἅμα δὲ ἡμέρᾳ τὴν μὲν βουλὴν ὁ ὕπατος συναγαγὼν ἔνδον ἐχρημάτιζεν, ἕτεροι δὲ τὸ τοῦ Ἀντυλλίου σῶμα γυμνὸν ἐπὶ κλίνης προθέμενοι διʼ ἀγορᾶς παρὰ τὸ βουλευτήριον ἐπίτηδες παρεκόμιζον, οἰμωγῇ χρώμενοι καὶ θρήνῳ, γιγνώσκοντος μὲν τοῦ Ὀπιμίου τὰ πραττόμενα, προσποιουμένου δὲ θαυμάζειν, ὥστε καὶ τοὺς βουλευτὰς προελθεῖν.
A shower of rain fell just then, and the assembly was dissolved; but early next morning the consul called the senate together indoors and proceeded to transact business, while others placed the body of Antyllius without covering upon a bier, and carried it, as they had agreed to do, through the forum and past the senate-house, with wailings and lamentations. Opimius knew what was going on, but pretended to be surprised, so that even the senators went out into the forum.
κατατεθείσης δὲ τῆς κλίνης εἰς μέσον οἱ μὲν ἐσχετλίαζον ὡς ἐπὶ δεινῷ καὶ μεγάλῳ πάθει, τοῖς δὲ πολλοῖς ἐπῄει μισεῖν καὶ προβάλλεσθαι τοὺς ὀλιγαρχικούς, ὡς Τιβέριον μὲν Γράγχον ἐν Καπετωλίῳ φονεύσαντες αὐτοὶ δήμαρχον ὄντα καὶ τὸν νεκρὸν προσεξέβαλον,
After the bier had been set down in the midst of the throng, the senators began to inveigh against what they called a heinous and monstrous crime, but the people were moved to hatred and abuse of the oligarchs, who, they said, after murdering Tiberius Gracchus on the Capitol with their own hands, tribune that he was, had actually flung away his dead body besides;
ὁ δʼ ὑπηρέτης Ἀντύλλιος, οὐ δίκαια μὲν ἴσως πεπονθώς, τὴν δὲ πλείστην αἰτίαν εἰς τὸ παθεῖν αὑτῷ παρασχών, ἐν ἀγορᾷ πρόκειται, καὶ περιέστηκεν ἡ Ῥωμαίων βουλή θρηνοῦσα καὶ συνεκκομίζουσα μισθωτὸν ἄνθρωπον, ἐπὶ τῷ τὸν ἔτι λειπόμενον ἀνελεῖν τῶν τοῦ δήμου κηδομένων. ἐκ τούτου πάλιν εἰς τὸ βουλευτήριον ἀπελθόντες ἐψηφίσαντο καὶ προσέταξαν Ὀπιμίῳ τῷ ὑπάτῳ σῴζειν τὴν πόλιν ὅπως δύναιτο, καὶ καταλύειν τοὺς τυράννους.
whereas Antyllius, a mere servant, who perhaps had suffered more than he deserved, but was himself chiefly to blame for it, had been laid out in the forum, and was surrounded by the Roman senate, which shed tears and shared in the obsequies of a hireling fellow, to the end that the sole remaining champion of the people might be done away with. Then the senators went back into the senate-house, where they formally enjoined upon the consul Opimius to save the city as best he could, and to put down the tyrants.
ἐκείνου δὲ προειπόντος ἐπὶ τὰ ὅπλα χωρεῖν τοὺς συγκλητικούς, καὶ τῶν ἱππέων ἑκάστῳ παράγγελμα δόντος ἄγειν ἕωθεν οἰκέτας δύο καθωπλισμένους, ὁ μὲν Φούλβιος ἀντιπαρεσκευάζετο καὶ συνῆγεν ὄχλον, ὁ δὲ Γάιος ἐκ τῆς ἀγορᾶς ἀπερχόμενος ἔστη κατὰ τὸν τοῦ πατρὸς ἀνδριάντα, καὶ πολὺν χρόνον ἐμβλέψας εἰς αὐτὸν οὐδὲν ἐφθέγξατο, δακρύσας δὲ καὶ στενάξας ἀπῄει.
The consul therefore ordered the senators to take up arms, and every member of the equestrian order was notified to bring next morning two servants fully armed; Fulvius, on the other hand, made counter preparations and got together a rabble, but Caius, as he left the forum, stopped in front of his father’s statue, gazed at it for a long time without uttering a word, then burst into tears, and with a groan departed.
τοῦτο πολλοῖς τῶν ἰδόντων οἰκτεῖραι τὸν Γάιον ἐπῆλθε· καὶ κακίσαντες αὑτοὺς ὡς ἐγκαταλείποντες τὸν ἄνδρα καὶ προδιδόντες ἧκον ἐπὶ τὴν οἰκίαν καὶ παρενυκτέρευον ἐπὶ τῶν θυρῶν, οὐχ ὁμοίως τοῖς τὸν Φούλβιον φυλάττουσιν. ἐκεῖνοι μὲν γὰρ ἐν κρότοις καὶ ἀλαλαγμοῖς πίνοντες καὶ θρασυνόμενοι διετέλεσαν, αὐτοῦ τοῦ Φουλβίου πρώτου μεθυσκομένου καὶ πολλὰ φορτικῶς παρʼ ἡλικίαν φθεγγομένου καὶ πράττοντος·
Many of those who saw this were moved to pity Caius; they reproached themselves for abandoning and betraying him, and went to his house, and spent the night at his door, though not in the same manner as those who were guarding Fulvius. For these passed the whole time in noise and shouting, drinking, and boasting of what they would do, Fulvius himself being the first to get drunk, and saying and doing much that was unseemly for a man of his years;
οἱ δὲ περὶ τὸν Γάϊον, ὡς ἐπὶ συμφορᾷ κοινῇ τῆς πατρίδος ἡσυχίαν ἄγοντες καὶ περισκοπούμενοι τὸ μέλλον, ἐν μέρει φυλάττοντες καὶ ἀναπαυόμενοι διῆγον.
but the followers of Caius, feeling that they faced a public calamity, kept quiet and were full of concern for the future, and passed the night sleeping and keeping watch by turns.
ἅμα δὲ ἡμέρᾳ τὸν μὲν Φούλβιον ἐκ τοῦ πότου καθεύδοντα μόλις ἐπεγείραντες ὡπλίζοντο τοῖς περὶ τὴν οἰκίαν αὐτοῦ λαφύροις, ἃ Γαλάτας νενικηκὼς ὅτε ὑπάτευεν εἰλήφει, καὶ μετὰ πολλῆς ἀπειλῆς καὶ κραυγῆς ἐχώρουν καταληψόμενοι τὸν Ἀβεντῖνον λόφον. ὁ δὲ Γάιος ὁπλίσασθαι μὲν οὐκ ἠθέλησεν, ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ εἰς ἀγορὰν ἐν τηβέννῳ προῄει, μικρὸν ὑπεζωσμένος ἐγχειρίδιον,
When day came, Fulvius was with difficulty roused from his drunken sleep by his partisans, who armed themselves with the spoils of war about his house, which he had taken after a victory over the Gauls during his consulship, and with much threatening and shouting went to seize the Aventine hill. Caius, on the other hand, was unwilling to arm himself, but went forth in his toga, as though on his way to the forum, with only a short dagger on his person.
ἐξιόντι δὲ αὐτῷ περὶ τὰς θύρας ἡ γυνὴ προσπεσοῦσα καὶ περιπτύξασα τῶν χειρῶν τῇ μὲν αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον, τῇ δὲ τὸ παιδίον, οὐκ ἐπὶ τὸ βῆμά σε, εἶπεν, ὦ Γάιε, προπέμπω δήμαρχον, ὡς πρότερον, καὶ νομοθέτην, οὐδʼ ἐπὶ πόλεμον ἔνδοξον, ἵνα μοι καὶ παθών τι τῶν κοινῶν ἀπολίπῃς τιμώμενον γοῦν πένθος, ἀλλὰ τοῖς Τιβερίου φονεῦσιν ὑποβάλλεις ἑαυτόν, ἄνοπλον μὲν καλῶς, ἵνα πάθῃς τι μᾶλλον ἢ δράσῃς, πρὸς οὐδὲν δὲ τοῖς κοινοῖς ὄφελος ἀπολεῖ.
As he was going out at the door, his wife threw herself in his way, and with one arm round her husband and the other round their little son, said: Not to the rostra, O Caius, do I now send thee forth, as formerly, to serve as tribune and law-giver, nor yet to a glorious war, where, shouldst thou die (and all men must die), thou wouldst at all events leave me an honoured sorrow; but thou art exposing thyself to the murderers of Tiberius, and thou doest well to go unarmed, that thou mayest suffer rather than inflict wrong; but thy death will do the state no good.
κεκράτηκεν ἤδη τὰ χείρω· βίᾳ καὶ σιδήρῳ τὰς δίκας πράττουσιν. εἰ περὶ Νομαντίαν ὁ σὸς ἀδελφὸς ἔπεσεν, ὑπόσπονδος ἂν ἡμῖν ἀπεδόθη νεκρός· νῦν δὲ ἴσως κἀγὼ ποταμοῦ τινος ἢ θαλάττης ἱκέτις ἔσομαι φῆναί ποτε τὸ σὸν σῶμα φρουρούμενον. τί γὰρ ἢ νόμοις ἔτι πιστὸν ἢ θεοῖς μετὰ τὸν Τιβερίου φόνον;
The worst has at last prevailed; by violence and the sword men’s controversies are now decided. If thy brother had only fallen at Numantia, his dead body would have been given back to us by terms of truce; but as it is, perhaps I too shall have to supplicate some river or sea to reveal to me at last thy body in its keeping. Why, pray, should men longer put faith in laws or gods, after the murder of Tiberius?
τοιαῦτα τῆς Λικιννίας ὀδυρομένης, ἀτρέμα τὰς περιβολὰς ἀπολυσάμενος αὐτῆς ὁ Γάϊος ἐχώρει σιωπῇ μετὰ τῶν φίλων, ἡ δὲ τοῦ ἱματίου λαβέσθαι γλιχομένη καταρρυεῖσα πρὸς τοὔδαφος ἔκειτο πολὺν χρόνον ἄναυδος, μέχρι οὗ λιποθυμήσασαν αὐτὴν οἱ θεράποντες ἀράμενοι πρὸς Κράσσον ᾤχοντο τὸν ἀδελφὸν κομίζοντες.
While Licinia was thus lamenting, Caius gently freed himself from her embrace and went away without a word, accompanied by his friends. Licinia eagerly sought to clutch his robe, but sank to the ground and lay there a long time speechless, until her servants lifted her up unconscious and carried her away to the house of her brother Crassus.
Cite This Text