From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 B.C. to A.D. 68 by H. H. Scullard

this increase almost certainly reflects the progress of land settlement. 22
    Scipio’s championship of the allies increased his unpopularity with the urban mob who had already disapproved of his opposition to Carbo’s bill. One morning, when he was due to make a speech on the Italian question, he was found dead. His death remained an unsolved mystery. Although various people were blamed at the time or later (including Flaccus, C. Gracchus, Carbo, and even Sempronia or Cornelia), murder is not very likely; suicide is possible, but most probably he died a natural death (a heart-attack?). 23 Romethus lost an upright soldier, who had exercised a moderating influence on her political and cultural life.
    Many of the allies, now without their patron, began to come to Rome to agitate, but they met with a sharp rebuff: a tribune named Iunius Pennus (126) passed a law, despite the opposition of C. Gracchus, to prevent non-citizens settling in Rome and to expel those that had done so. 24 But the land commissioner Fulvius Flaccus won the consulship of 125 and tried to settle the whole Italian question in a most statesmanlike manner: he proposed that all the allies should receive Roman citizenship if they wished, or alternatively those who wanted should remain independent states and receive the right of appeal against Roman magistrates. If the Romans had accepted this generous and prudent proposal they would have solved a problem which embittered political life for the next generation and led to a terrible and ‘unnecessary’ war. But the Senate was too conservative: it responded to a timely appeal from Massilia for help against the Salluvii by assigning Gaul as a province to Flaccus, who was thus compelled to abandon his proposal. 25
    The allies were thwarted – all but the Latin colony of Fregellae in the Liris valley (modern Arce, not far from Monte Cassino). This hill-town, hitherto an outstandingly loyal ally, revolted. The attempt, unless based on a lively hope that its lead would be followed by others, was suicidal, but it demonstrates, as does nothing else, the bitterness felt towards Rome even by her old friends. Rome reacted sharply. Fregellae was besieged and then captured through internal treachery; the city was destroyed and the inhabitants were moved down to the plain where a colony was established at Fabrateria. 26 Thus a Social War was averted for another thirty-five years and the Senate had rounded a dangerous corner, just as internally it had survived the pressure of Tiberius and Flaccus. But a more powerful challenge was at hand.
    6.  THE LEGISLATION OF GAIUS GRACCHUS
    Gaius Gracchus, who had served on the land commission since 133 when he was only twenty-one years old, became one of Rome’s greatest orators. 27 He displayed his oratorical ability when he supported Carbo’s proposal for reelection to the tribunate, opposed Pennus’ alien-act, expressed approval of Flaccus’ measure and defended himself against criticism by the censors for leaving Sardinia, where he served as quaestor in 126, when the command of his superior officer was prolonged; he also rebutted a charge of complicity in the revolt of Fregellae. Thus he was well known to the People who readily elected him tribune for 123, as one eager to continue and develop his brother’s policy. Unlike Tiberius, who came to grief on this very issue, Gaius was easily elected to a second tribunate for 122 and thus gained a longer period in which to initiate reform. The exact order of his measures and theirassignment to 123 or 122 cannot in many cases be established, but apparently after a preliminary warning to the Senate he acted with a certain restraint and only brought up his heavy guns later. 28 The Senate also showed moderation at first (unless its mildness arose from an inability to persuade any of Gaius’ colleagues in 123 to oppose him), but during 122 it used a tribune, Drusus, to undermine his position.
    His first proposal was to prohibit any