8/12 Thus was shed the first blood of the civil struggle. The mob was led by SCIPIO NASICA, the uncle of Tiberius. Africanus, when he heard of the murder of his brother-in-law, exclaimed, "Justly slain." The agrarian law, however, which had passed, was too evidently just to be openly ignored. The remaining two commissioners continued their work, until, within two years, 40,000 families were settled on tracts of the public land which the patricians were compelled to vacate. But the commissioners became unpopular, for those who received lands were not always satisfied, and those who were obliged to leave them were enraged. |