Gains gained the favor of the _Equites_ (Knights), the commercial class, by carrying through the assembly a law by which all judicial functions were taken from the Senate and intrusted to the Knights. Heretofore all civil and criminal cases of importance had been tried before a jury chosen from the Senate. These juries were often venal and corrupt, and it was a notorious fact that their verdicts could be bought. The transferring of the juries to the Equites made Gaius for a time very powerful. He caused another law to be passed, to the effect that no Roman citizen should be put to death without legal trial and an appeal to the assembly of the people. But the plan of Gaius to extend the franchise to all the Italians ruined his popularity. The Roman citizens had no desire to share their rights with the Etruscans and Samnites. Riots again broke out, as ten years before. The aristocracy again armed itself. Gaius with 3,000 of his friends was murdered in 121, and the Senate was once more master of the situation. However, the results obtained by the Gracchi still remained. Forty thousand peasants had been settled on public land. The jury law was in force. No Roman citizen could be put to death without trial, unless the state was held to be in danger. Nearly all Roman writers unite in attacking the reputation of the Gracchi; but viewed in the light of to-day their characters were noble, and their virtues too conspicuous to be obscured. A few years previous to this, the younger Africanus died (129). His remark about the death of Tiberius Gracchus gave dire offence to the popular party, and a few days later he was found dead in his bed, probably "a victim of political assassination." Africanus was a man of refinement and culture, a warm friend of scholars, a patron of the Greek historian POLYBIUS, and of the poets LUCILIUS and TERENCE. He was opposed to the tendency of his age towards luxury and extravagance. He was an orator, as well as a general. The one blot on his career is the terrible destruction of Carthage, which he possibly might have averted had he shown firm opposition to it. SCIPIO NASICA, who led the mob against Tiberius, was compelled, though Pontifex Maximus, to leave the city, and died an exile in Asia. CHAPTER XXII. EXTERNAL HISTORY.--PERGAMUM.--JUGURTHINE WAR (118-104). Pergamum was an ancient city of Mysia on the Caicus, fifteen miles from the sea. It first became important after the death of Alexander. Its first king, Attalus I. (241-197), added a large territory to the city. He was an ally of the Romans, and his successors remained their firm friends. The city became one of the most prosperous and famous in Asia Minor, noted for its architectural monuments, its fine library, and its schools. Attalus III., at his death in 133, bequeathed to Rome his kingdom, which included Lydia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Pamphylia. It was made a province under the name of ASIA. THE WAR WITH JUGURTHA.