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 Africánus died (129). His