1For after Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, whose ancestors had added much to the commonwealth in the Punic and other wars, began to claim liberty for the commons and to expose the crimes of the few, the nobility, guilty and therefore alarmed, had opposed the measures of the Gracchi, now through the allies and the Latin name, now through the Roman knights, whom the hope of partnership had drawn away from the commons; 1and first Tiberius, then a few years later Gaius, who was entering on the same course, the one a tribune, the other a commissioner for founding colonies, they had put to the sword, together with Marcus Fulvius Flaccus.
2And it is true that the Gracchi, in their desire for victory, did not have a sufficiently moderate spirit. 3But it is better for a good man to be beaten than to overcome a wrong by bad means. 4So the nobility, using that victory as it pleased, did away with many men by the sword or by exile, and for the future added to itself more fear than power. 4This is what has usually brought great states to ruin, while each side wishes to overcome the other by any means whatever and to take harsher vengeance on the vanquished. 5But if I were to set about discussing the strife of the parties and the character of the whole state in detail or as the greatness of the subject deserves, time would fail me sooner than material.
5Therefore I return to my undertaking.