tribe would reduce him to a private condition, when Tiberius stopped the voting, anxious, at the last moment, to prevent the necessity of so desperate a measure. Octavius, however, would not yield. "Complete what you have begun," was his only answer to the entreaties of his colleague. The eighteenth tribe voted, and Tiberius ordered him to be dragged from the rostra. Octavius had only exercised his undoubted rights, and his deposition was clearly a violation of the Roman constitution. This gave the enemies of Gracchus the handle which they needed. They could now justly charge him not only with revolutionary measures, but with employing revolutionary means to carry them into effect. The Agrarian Law was passed without farther opposition, and the three commissioners elected to put it in force were Tiberius himself, his father-in-law Appius Claudius, and his brother Caius, then a youth of twenty, serving under P. Scipio at Numantia. About the same time news arrived of the death of Attalus Philometor, king of Pergamus, who had bequeathed his kingdom and treasures to the Republic. Tiberius therefore proposed that these treasures should be distributed among the people who had received assignments of lands, to enable them to stock their farms and to assist them in their cultivation. He even went so far as to threaten to deprive the Senate of the regulation of the new province, and to bring the subject before the Assembly of the People. The exasperation of the Nobility was intense. They tried every means to blacken the character of the Tribune, and even spread a report that he had received, a diadem and a purple robe from the envoy from Pergamus, and that he meditated making himself King of Rome. It was evident that his life would be no longer safe when he ceased to be protected by the sanctity of the Tribune's office. Accordingly, he became a candidate for the Tribunate for the following year. The Tribunes did not enter upon their office till December, but the election took place in June, at which time the country people, on whom he chiefly relied, were engaged in getting in the harvest. Still, two tribes had already voted in his favor, when the nobility interrupted the election by maintaining that it was illegal, since no man could be chosen Tribune for two consecutive years. After a violent debate the Assembly was adjourned till the following day. Tiberius now became alarmed lest his enemies should get the upper hand, and he went round the forum with his child, appealing to the sympathy of the people and imploring their aid. They readily responded to his appeal, escorted him home, and a large crowd kept watch around his house all night.