Senate to ask for terms. The messenger returned
with the Senate's reply that they must lay down their arms, and the
two leaders must come and answer for their acts. Caius was ready to
go. But Fulvius was too deeply committed, and sent his son back again,
upon which Opimius seized him, and at once marched to the Aventine.
There was a fight, in which Fulvius was beaten, and with another son
fled and hid himself in a bath or workshop. His pursuers threatened
to burn all that quarter if he was not given up; so the man who had
admitted him told another man to betray him, and father and son were
slain.

[Sidenote: Murder of Caius.] Meanwhile Caius, who had neither armed
nor fought, was about to kill himself in the temple of Diana, when his
two friends implored him to try and save himself for happier
times. Then it is said he invoked a curse on the people for their
ingratitude, and fled across the Tiber. He was nearly overtaken; but
his two staunch friends, Pomponius and Laetorius, gave their lives for
their leader--Pomponius at the Porta Trigemina below the Aventine,
Laetorius in guarding the bridge which was the scene of the feat of
Horatius Cocles. As Caius passed people cheered him on, as if it was
a race in the games. He called for help, but no one helped him--for a
horse, but there was none at hand. One slave still kept up with him,
named Philocrates or Euporus. Hard pressed by their pursuers the two
entered the grove of Furina, and there the slave first slew Caius
and then himself. A wretch named Septimuleius cut off the head of
Gracchus; for a proclamation had been made that whosoever brought
the heads of the two leaders should receive their weight in gold.
Septimuleius, it is said, took out the brains and filled the cavity
with lead; but if he cheated Opimius, Opimius in his turn cheated
those who brought the head of Fulvius, for as they were of the lower
class he would pay them nothing. The story may be false; but Opimius
was subsequently convicted of selling his country's interests to
Jugurtha for money, so that with equal likelihood it may be true. In
the fight and afterwards he put to death 3,000 men, many of whom were
innocent, but whom he would not allow to speak in their defence. The
houses of Caius and Fulvius were sacked, and the property of the slain
was confiscated. Then the city was purified, and the ferocious knave
Opimius raised a temple to Concord, on which one night was found
written 'The work of Dis