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They crouched together in filthy hovels in the suburbs of the large cities. They were apt to get sick and die from terrible epidemics. They were all profoundly discontented. They had fought for their country and this was their reward. They were always willing tolisten to those plausible spell-binders who gather around a public grievance like so many hungry vultures, and soon they became a grave menace to the safety of the state.
他們聚居在大城市郊區骯臟污穢的棚屋里，糟糕的衛生條件使他們極易患病，而一旦染上瘟疫便必死無疑。他們個個心懷不滿，怨氣沖天。看看吧，他們都曾為祖國而戰，可祖國竟如此回報他們！因此，他們很愿意傾聽演說家們的煽動言辭。這些野心家別有用心地把這群餓鷹似的人們聚集在自己身旁，很快便成為了國家的嚴重威脅。
But the class of the newly-rich shrugged its shoulders. "We have our army and our policemen," they argued, "they will keep the mob in order."And they hid themselves behind the high walls of their pleasant villas and cultivated their gardens and read the poems of a certain Homer which a Greek slave had just translated into very pleasing Latin hexameters.
新興的富人階級看到這種情形，只是輕描淡寫地聳聳肩膀。"我們擁有軍隊和警察，"富人們爭辯道，"他們能使暴徒們保持安靜。"隨后，他們便躲進自己高墻環繞的舒適別墅，愜意地修花剪草，或是讀上幾行希臘奴隸為其主子譯為優美拉丁文的荷馬史詩。
In a few families however the old tradition of unselfish service to the Commonwealth continued. Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, had been married to a Roman by the name of Gracchus. She had two sons, Tiberius and Gaius. When the boys grew up they entered politics and tried to bring about certain much-needed reforms. A census had shown that most of the land of the Italian peninsula was owned by two thousand noble families. Tiberius Gracchus, having been elected a Tribune, tried to help the freemen. He revived two ancient laws which restricted the number of acres which a single owner might possess. In this way he hoped to revive the valuable old class of small and independent freeholders. The newlyrich called him a robber and an enemy of the state.
不過在幾個貴族世家里，古老共和國時代的質樸品德和無私的服務精神還保持著。科內莉亞是阿非利加將軍西皮奧的女兒，她嫁給一位名為格拉古的羅馬貴族。她生下兩個兒子，一個叫提比略，一個叫蓋約斯。長大后，兩人都進人了政壇，并努力實施了幾項急需的改革措施。提比略·格拉古當選為保民官，他想幫助處于困境自由 民。為此，他恢復了兩項古代的法律，把個人可以擁有的土地數量限制在一定的范圍內。他希望通過此項改革，復興對國家極有價值的小土地所有者階層。可他的行動遭到了富人們的仇視，暴發戶們稱他為"強盜"和"國家公敵"。
