Several prosecutions in the era extending from the Gracchi to Sulla partake of the revolutionary nature of the time. The inconsistency in the position of Ti. Gracchus, who depended on the sanctity of the tribunate while technically violating it in the person of his colleague Octavius, is illustrated by his attack on T. Annius Luscus. The latter, a man of consular rank, challenged Tiberius in the senate to answer definitely whether or not he had branded with infamy a brother tribune whom the law declared sacred and inviolable. The senators applauded the challenge; but Tiberius, hurrying from the Curia, convoked the plebs, and ordered Annius to come forward and defend himself against the charge of violating by his words the tribunician sanctity. Before the proceedings could begin, Annius by permission asked his accuser: “If you intend to deprive me of my rank and disgrace me, and I appeal to a colleague of yours, and he comes to my support, and you thereupon lose your temper, will you deprive him of his office?” Plutarch, who tells this story, alleges further that Tiberius, not knowing what to reply, dismissed the assembly and withdrew his accusation.[1962] But the fact that Annius made a speech against Tiberius[1963] indicates that the proceedings went farther. Evidently the accused in some way escaped condemnation. The same political significance attaches to the tribunician capital prosecutions of the time, mentioned in an earlier chapter.[1964] No more actions, however, are known to have been brought by the tribunes before the tribes till 103,[1965] when Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, a popular tribune of the plebs, author of the famous statute concerning the election of sacerdotes,[1966] prosecuted M. Junius Silanus for misconduct as consul in 109. The charge was that he had begun war on the Cimbri without an order of the people. Notwithstanding the stigma of defeat borne by the accused, he was acquitted by thirty-three of the thirty-five tribes.[1967] In the same year Domitius prosecuted M. Aemilius Scaurus for having as consul neglected the sacra of the di Penates at Lavinium. The accused was acquitted by the votes of thirty-two tribes.[1968] These prosecutions, together with the plebiscite just mentioned, excited against Domitius an antipathy among the optimates which reveals itself in the sources but which his character hardly deserved.[1969]