all slaves and criminals . Sometimes they were promised freedom if they fought for a certain number of years and were not slain . These men fought savagely , but not always skill fully , and the Romans were soon a little bored by seeing fighting done in a clumsy fashion . Schools were established where gladiators were trained to fight, and from which they could be obtained at any moment . Not only slaves , but some of the wild , reckless men of Rome went to these schools .
a
At the close of a gladiatorial combat , the victor stood proudly beside the vanquished and waited for the spectators to say what should be done with him . If the man had made a brave fight, they stretched out their hands with the thumbs up ; but if he had shown himself awkward or cowardly , the
THE GRACCHI; THE RISE OF MARIUS 113
thumbs were pointed down , and he was put to death on the instant . The citizens who watched the gladiatorial shows year after year became more and more brutal . Toward one another they had to keep up some appearance of cour tesy, but they had no feeling whatever for their slaves. These slaves were often of much finer breeding and edu cation than their masters and had been used to living more luxuriously ; but when a shipload of them arrived at Rome , their purchaser drove them off in chains to his farm , branded them with his name or mark with red -hot irons , and set them at hard labor. If the work of a slave was not satis factory , or if his master became angry with him , he was flogged or tortured or even crucified . If he was sick , no one paid any at tention to him , for it was cheaper to buy an other slave than to care for a sick man . Even the good Cato , who tried so hard to lead the people back to the simple ways of their forefathers , looked upon his slaves as little more than machines, and when they could work
Saunier GLADIATORS GOING TO CIRCUSno longer, he either sold them or turned them off to live or die as they might.
There was also much misery among the freemen of Italy . This was increased by the change from tilling the soil to raising sheep . Sheep -raising needs much land and few work men . For a long while it had been hard for a poor man to find employment , and it was becoming doubly hard , now that so few workmen were needed . Rome had grown wealthy and powerful , but her citizens were fast becoming idle , extravagant , and dissolute .
Many people were troubled and anxious about this state of affairs, but one man believed that he knew what ought to be done to better matters. This was one of the nobles , Ti-be'ri-us Grac'chus , grandson of Scipio Africanus. His father had died when he and his brother Caius were chil dren, but he had a wise mother , Cor -ne'li -a, who brought up her sons with the greatest care. The story is told that a friend who was visiting her displayed some beautiful jewels and asked to see hers . Cornelia put her off for a little until the children came in from school . Then she said to her friend, These are my jewels . ' '
a
Tiberius Gracchus had seen for himself how the poor were suffering because the great landowners held so much land and worked it with slaves . There was an old law that no one should have more than two hundred and fifty acres of the public land ; but the poor could not see to it that the law was enforced and the rich would not . Tiberius pro posed a new law , which was in reality almost the same as the old one ; but there was little hope of its being passed .
THE GRACCHI ; THE RISE OF MARIUS 115
The rich men who held vast estates of this public land were indignant . Often the land which they held had been in their families for many years, and they had come to feel that it must be their own . They did not care to re member that if it was not just to take the land in the first place, hold ing it a long while had not made the act any more just . Tiberius was an eloquent speaker, and he pleaded most earnestly for the poor . He said : The wild beasts of Italy have their caves to retire to ; but the brave men who spill their blood in her cause have nothing left but air and light . ... The private soldiers fight and die to advance the wealth and luxury of the great ; and they are called masters of the world , while they have not a foot of ground in their possession .
But no matter how eloquently Tiberius spoke , the sena tors could not be brought to look at the matter as he did . That was not so very important , for if the ten tribunes , of whom Tiberius was one , agreed to propose this law to the assembly of tribes , or meeting of plebeians who were
Schopin
CORNELIA AND HER JEWELS