; for already a law had been
enacted to this effect, that if a tribune could not find time for
executing in his tribunate what he had promised, the people might give
the office to him again in preference to anyone else. This has been
pronounced to be a blunder on Appian's part, but without adequate
reason. It was in fact the natural and inevitable law which Caius
would insist on first, and he would plead for it precisely on the
grounds which Appian states. It is also clear that such a law once
passed made virtual monarchy at Rome possible. [Sidenote: Other
measures of Caius.] In fact the other measures of Caius were both
worthy of a great and wise monarch, and might with good reason
be thought to be designed to lead to monarchy. [Sidenote: Roads.
Granaries. Soldiers' uniform. Age for service.] He constructed
magnificent roads--along which, it would be whispered, his voters
might come more easily to Rome. He built public granaries. He gave
the soldiers clothing at the cost of the State. He made seventeen the
minimum age for service in the army. He himself superintended the
plantation of his own colonies. Everywhere he made his finger felt;
but whether this was of set purpose or only from his constitutional
energy it is hard to decide. His chief object, however, was to
overthrow the Senate; and we have not yet exhausted the list of his
assaults upon it. [Sidenote: Change in nomination to provinces.]
Hitherto it had been the custom for the Senate to name the consular
provinces for the next year after the election of the consuls, which
meant that if a favourite was consul a rich province was given to him,
and if not, a poor one. Caius enacted that the consular provinces
should be named before the election of the consuls. By way, perhaps,
of softening this restriction he took away from the tribunes their
veto on the naming of the consular provinces. [Sidenote: Alleged
change in the order of voting.] He is further supposed, though on
slender evidence, to have changed the order of voting in the Comitia
Centuriata. Formerly the first class voted first. Now the order of
voting first was to be settled by lot, and so the influence of the
rich would be diminished.

[Sidenote: General criticism of his schemes.] Such, in outline, was
the grand scheme of Caius Gracchus. If he was less single-minded in
his aims than his brother, he could hardly help being so; and, having
to reconcile so many conflicting interests, he may have swerved