Gracchus when he set them in control of the law-courts and in opposition to the Senate. […] No province of the Empire was immune from his control. […] For himself, after a famine in Rome, perhaps deliberately enhanced, he secured a special commission for five years to purchase and control corn for the city. […] It might not come to open war; and Pompeius was still in their control so long as he was not at the head of an army in the field. […] 3 A large part of Italy must have been outside the control of the Roman government in the years 88–83 B.C.