on also to
all who should leave him immediately. 10. This produced the desired
effect; the people fell from him by degrees, and left him with very
inferior forces. 11. In the meantime, Opim'ius, the consul, who
thirsted for slaughter, leading his forces up to Mount Av'entine, fell
in among the crowd with ungovernable fury. A terrible slaughter of the
scarcely resisting multitude ensued, and not less than three thousand
citizens were slain upon the spot. 12. Flaccus attempted to find
shelter in a ruinous cottage; but, being discovered, was slain, with
his eldest son. Gracchus, at first, retired to the temple of Dian'a,
where he resolved to die by his own hand, but was prevented by two of
his faithful friends and followers, Pompo'nius and Lucin'ius, who
forced him to seek safety by flight. Thence he made the best of his
way across a bridge that led from the city, still attended by his two
generous friends, and a Grecian slave, whose name was Philoc'rates.
13. But his pursuers still pressed upon him from behind, and when come
to the foot of the bridge, he was obliged to turn and face the enemy.
His two friends were soon slain, defending him against the crowd; and
he was forced to take refuge, with his slave, in a grove beyond
the Ti'ber, which had long been dedicated to the Furies. 14. Here,
finding himself surrounded on every side, and no way left of escaping,
he prevailed upon his slave to despatch him. The slave immediately
after killed himself, and fell down upon the body of his beloved
master. The pursuers coming up, cut off the head of Gracchus, and
placed it for a while as a trophy on a spear. 15. Soon after, one
Septimule'ius carried it home, and taking out the brain artfully
filled it with lead, in order to increase its weight, and then
received of the consul seventeen pounds of gold as his recompence.

16. Thus died Cai'us Gracchus. He is usually impeached by historians,
as guilty of sedition; but from what we see of his character, the
disturbance of public tranquillity was rather owing to his opposers
than to him; so that, instead of calling the tumults of that time the
sedition of the Gracchi, we should rather call them the sedition of
the senate against the Gracchi; since the efforts of the latter were
made in vindication of a law to which the senate had assented; and the
designs of the former were supported by an extraneous armed power from
the country, that had never before meddled in the business of
legisl