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.
他们聚居在大城市郊区肮脏污秽的棚屋里，糟糕的卫生条件使他们极易患病，而一旦染上瘟疫便必死无疑。他们个个心怀不满，怨气冲天。看看吧，他们都曾为祖国而战，可祖国竟如此回报他们！因此，他们很愿意倾听演说家们的煽动言辞。这些野心家别有用心地把这群饿鹰似的人们聚集在自己身旁，很快便成为了国家的严重威胁。
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.
新兴的富人阶级看到这种情形，只是轻描淡写地耸耸肩膀。"我们拥有军队和警察，"富人们争辩道，"他们能使暴徒们保持安静。"随后，他们便躲进自己高墙环绕的舒适别墅，惬意地修花剪草，或是读上几行希腊奴隶为其主子译为优美拉丁文的荷马史诗。
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.
不过在几个贵族世家里，古老共和国时代的质朴品德和无私的服务精神还保持着。科内莉亚是阿非利加将军西皮奥的女儿，她嫁给一位名为格拉古的罗马贵族。她生下两个儿子，一个叫提比略，一个叫盖约斯。长大后，两人都进人了政坛，并努力实施了几项急需的改革措施。提比略·格拉古当选为保民官，他想帮助处于困境自由 民。为此，他恢复了两项古代的法律，把个人可以拥有的土地数量限制在一定的范围内。他希望通过此项改革，复兴对国家极有价值的小土地所有者阶层。可他的行动遭到了富人们的仇视，暴发户们称他为"强盗"和"国家公敌"。