the ideal unit of Roman society and the
sinew of the army and the State, were covered with herds of cattle and
herds of slaves, and the substance of the governing democracy was
drained. The policy of the agrarian reform was to reconstitute this
peasant class out of the public domains, that is, out of lands which the
ruling families had possessed for generations, which they had bought and
sold, inherited, divided, cultivated, and improved. The conflict of
interests that had so long slumbered revived with a fury unknown in the
controversy between the patricians and the plebs. For it was now a
question not Of equal rights but of subjugation. The social restoration
of democratic elements could not be accomplished without demolishing the
senate; and this crisis at last exposed the defect of the machinery and
the peril of divided powers that were not to be controlled or
reconciled. The popular assembly, led by Gracchus, had the power of
making laws; and the only constitutional check was, that one of the
tribunes should be induced to bar the proceedings. Accordingly, the
tribune Octavius interposed his veto. The tribunician power, the most
sacred of powers, which could not be questioned because it was founded
on a covenant between the two parts of the community and formed the
keystone of their union, was employed, in opposition to the will of the
people, to prevent a reform on which the preservation of the democracy
depended. Gracchus caused Octavius to be deposed. Though not illegal,
this was a thing unheard of, and it seemed to the Romans a sacrilegious
act that shook the pillars of the State, for it was the first
significant revelation of democratic sovereignty. A tribune might burn
the arsenal and betray the city, yet he could not be called to account
until his year of office had expired. But when he employed against the
people the authority with which they had invested him, the spell was
dissolved. The tribunes had been instituted as the champions of the
oppressed, when the plebs feared oppression. It was resolved that they
should not interfere on the weaker side when the democracy were the
strongest. They were chosen by the people as their defence against the
aristocracy. It was not to be borne that they should become the agents
of the aristocracy to make them once more supreme. Against a popular
tribune, whom no colleague was suffered to oppose, the wealthy classes
were defenceless. It is true that he held office, and wa