[Sidenote: FRAG. LXXXIV] (Par.) Gracchus had a disposition like his brother; only the latter drifted from excellence into ambition and then to baseness whereas this man was naturally intractable and played the rogue voluntarily and far surpassed the other in his gift of language. For these reasons his designs were more mischievous, his daring more spontaneous, and his self-will greater in all junctures alike. He was the first to walk up and down in the assemblies while he harangued and the first to bare his arm; hence neither of these practices has been thought improper, since he did it. And because his speaking was characterized by great condensation of thought and forcefulness of words and he consequently was unable to restrain himself easily but was often led to say what he did not wish, he used to bring in a flute-player, and from him, playing a low accompaniment, he would take his rhythm and time, or if even so he in some way fell out of measure, he would stop. This was the sort of man that attacked the government, and, by assuming no speech or act to be forbidden, in the briefest time became a great power among the populace and the knights. All the nobility and the senatorial party if he had lived longer[48] ... [Sidenote: B.C. 121 (_a.u._ 633)] but as it was his great authority made him envied even by the members of his faction, and he was ruined by his own devices. (Valesius, ib.) [Footnote 48: One may supply here, as Reiske suggests, "would have been overthrown", "would have been humbled", or "would have been brought low".] _(BOOK 26, BOISSEVAIN.)_ [Sidenote: FRAG. LXXXV] [Sidenote: B.C. 114 (_a.u._ 640)] 1. (Par.) The priestesses for the most part incurred destruction and shame themselves, and proved the source of great evils to numerous others as well, while the entire city because of them was thrown into an uproar. For the people, in view of the fact that what was immaculate by law and sacred by the dictates of religion and decent through fear of vengeance had been polluted, were ready to believe that anything most shameful and unholy might be done. For this reason they visited punishment not only on the convicted, but also on all the rest who had been accused, to show their hatred of what had occurred. Hence the whole episode in which the women were concerned seemed now to be due not so much to their feminine incontinence[49] as to a kind of madness inspired by supernatural powers. (Valesius, p. 626.) [Footnote 49: Reading [Greek: eti aselgeias] (Boissevain's emendation) in place of the unintelligible [Greek: aitias algein] of the MS.]