But Flaccus won the consulship anyway and in January 125 he unveiled his plan for Italian citizenship. But though he was now consul Flaccus still had the problem of convincing the Assembly to vote it into law, especially since now only Romans were present in the city. It is difficult to say what would have happened had the bill actually come to a vote, but fortunately for the Senate, an opportunity arose to deflect Flaccus’s attention. Envoys from the allied Greek city of Massilia (modern Marseilles, in France) arrived in Rome to complain about marauding Gallic tribes. The Senate assigned Flaccus to go repel the attackers. Either because he sensed that his bill wasn’t going to pass, or because he prioritized military glory over social reform, Flaccus left for Gaul and did not return to Rome before his consulship expired. The bill for Italian citizenship expired with his consulship. This would be the first step in a long and tortuous battle for full Italian citizenship that would not end until thirty years later—and then only after hundreds of thousands lay dead and the Republic itself was nearly extinguished by civil war.10
WHEN THE ITALIAN citizenship bill died, at least one Italian city did not take the news well. In late 125 the city of Fregellae went into revolt. A former Roman colony that had been planted in 328 during the heat of the Samnite Wars, Fregellae had subsequently stayed loyal to Rome during the long struggle against Hannibal. The city was, in fact, noted for its exemplary service against the Carthaginians. Citizens of Fregellae destroyed a key bridge to stymie Hannibal’s advance in 211 and then resisted pressure to capitulate even after Hannibal laid waste to their farms in retaliation. For their steadfast loyalty, the Senate included them among those cities by whose “aid and succor the dominion of Rome was upheld.”11
The details of the Fregellae revolt are practically nonexistent, but it was not considered threatening enough to demand consular attention. Instead, the Senate dispatched praetor Lucius Opimius to end the rebellion in early 124. As Roman leaders go, Opimius was forged from a particularly brutal mold. Opimius proceeded to sack and demolish Fregellae so that “of the city whose brilliance but yesterday irradiated Italy, scarce the debris of the foundations now remains.” The brutality of the sack was possibly a direct warning to other Italian cities who might in the future think of following Fregellae’s lead. Future Romans would link the destruction of Fregellae to the string of demolished cities that stood as bare witnesses to Rome’s expanding imperial self-confidence: “By the Roman people Numantia was destroyed, Carthage razed, Corinth demolished, Fregellae overthrown.” But when Opimius returned to Rome the Senate denied his request for a triumph. They felt that while the object may have been to cow the Italians, rubbing their noses in it was a bit over the top.12
Opimius’s brutal suppression of Fregellae turned out to be only the first example of the cold-blooded tactics he was willing to employ in defense of the existing order. Opimius would be elected consul in 121 and take center stage in the final showdown of the Gracchan revolution—a revolution that reignited just as Opimius returned home from the sack of Fregellae.13
GAIUS GRACCHUS WAS not in Rome as this drama played out. He was elected quaestor in 126 and posted to the island of Sardinia, where he continued to make a name for himself. The winter of 126–125 was particularly hard and the legionaries suffered badly from a lack of proper supplies and clothing. The Roman governor forcibly requisitioned material from the towns of Sardinia to feed and clothe his men, but when the Sardinians sent an embassy to Rome to complain, the Senate canceled the requisitions and ordered the governor to supply his men some other way. This “some other way” turned out to be Gaius Gracchus making a circuit of the island during which he used the full power of his persuasive oratory to convince the Sardinians to supply the Romans of their own free will. The Sardinians were convinced and contributed voluntarily.14
When the Senate heard of Gaius’s successful campaign, they did not congratulate him so much as fret over what would happen when his persuasive brand of charismatic oratory returned to the Forum. So they conspired to keep him in Sardinia for as long as possible. It was perfectly normal for a consul to transition into a proconsul when his annual term of office expired, and it was also normal for his staff to stay on with him. So the Senate extended the Sardinian command for another year, and Gaius remained in Sardinia. But then the following year the Senate extended everyone again, which was highly irregular. Not since the Punic Wars had such multiple extensions been necessary—and with Sardinia peaceful and subdued, it was a curious decision.15
