nd law of 133 B. C. was re-enacted and the land
commissioners reclothed with judicial authority. In connection therewith
there was undertaken the extension and improvement of the road system of
Italy. Caius then assured himself of the support of the financial
interests by a law which provided that the whole revenue from the new
province of Asia should be auctioned off at Rome in a lump to Roman
contractors. A rich field was thus opened up to the Roman bankers.

*Caius re-elected tribune for 122 B. C.* The activity of Caius in
supervising the execution of his legislation made him the leading figure
in the government, and he was re-elected to the tribunate for 122 B. C. It
seemed as though a sort of Periclean democracy had been established in
Rome, where the statesman who commanded a majority in the popular assembly
by securing his continuous re-election to the tribunate might supplant the
Senate in directing the public policy.

*The Judiciary Law, 123 B. C.* Gracchus continued his legislative
activity. One of his most important laws was that which deprived senators
of the right to act as judges in the courts, including the permanent
_quaestiones_, and transferred this prerogative to the equestrians. This
was probably done by defining the qualifications of jurors in such a way
as to exclude both senators and those not potentially able to maintain the
equipment of a cavalryman at their own expense, i. e. those assessed at
less than 400,000 sesterces ($20,000). By the Acilian Law of 123, which
reorganized the _quaestio_ for the recovery of damages, the relatives of
senators, who were still eligible to the eighteen equestrian centuries,
were specifically excluded from serving as jurors. In this way the
equestrian order in its widest sense was defined and, being given specific
public duties, was rendered more conscious of its power and special
interests. In consequence the permanent tribunal for trying officials
charged with extortion in the provinces was manned by _equites_ instead of
senators. But the change brought no relief to the subjects of Rome for
this court was now composed of men who were interested in the financial
exploitation of the provincials and who thus were in a position to
intimidate a governor who endeavored to restrain the rapacity of tax
collectors and money-lenders. The control of the law courts became a
standing bone of contention between the Senate and the equestrian order.
Another law, which further