[Sidenote:  Tiberius Gracchus.] But the splendid peril which Scipio shrank from encountering, his brother-in-law courted with the fire and passion of youth.  Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was, according to Plutarch, not quite thirty when he was murdered.  Plutarch may have been mistaken, and possibly he was thirty-five.  His father, whose name he bore, had been a magnificent aristocrat, and his mother was Cornelia, daughter of Hannibal’s conqueror, the first Scipio Africanus, and one of the comparatively few women whose names are famous in history.  He had much in common with Scipio Aemilianus, whom he resembled in rank and refinement, in valour, in his familiarity with Hellenic culture, and in the style of his speeches.  Diophanes, of Mitylene, taught him oratory.  The philosopher, Blossius, of Cumae, was his friend.  He belonged to the most distinguished circle at Rome.  He had married the daughter of Appius, and his brother had married the daughter of Mucianus.  He had served under Scipio, and displayed striking bravery at Carthage; and, as quaestor of the incompetent Mancinus, had by his character for probity saved a Roman army from destruction; for the Numantines would not treat with the consul, but only with Gracchus.  No man had a more brilliant career open to him at Rome, had he been content only to shut his eyes to the fate that threatened his country.  But he had not only insight but a conscience, and cheerfully risked his life to avert the ruin which he foresaw.  His character has been as much debated as his measures, and the most opposite conclusions have been formed about both, so that his name is a synonym for patriot with some, for demagogue with others.  Even historians of our own day are still at variance as to the nature of his legislation.  But from a comparison of their researches, and an independent examination of the authorities on which they are based, something like a clear conception of the plans of Gracchus seems possible.  What has never, perhaps, as yet been made sufficiently plain is, who it was that Gracchus especially meant to benefit.  Much of the public land previously described lay in the north and south of Italy from the frontier rivers Rubicon and Macra to Apulia.  It formed, as Appian says, the largest portion of the land taken from conquered towns by Rome. [Sidenote:  Agrarian proposals of Gracchus.] What Gracchus proposed was to take from the rich and give to the poor some of this land.  It was, in fact, merely the Licinian law over again with certain modifications, and the existence of that law would make the necessity for a repetition of it inexplicable had it not been a curious principle with the Romans that a law which had fallen into desuetude ceased to be binding.  But it actually fell short of the law of Licinius, for it provided that he who surrendered what he held over and above 500 jugera should be guaranteed in the permanent possession of that quantity, and moreover might retain 250 jugera in addition for each of his sons.  Some writers conjecture that altogether an occupier might not hold more than 1,000 jugera.