The story of Cornelia, that “most virtuous matron” as Roman historians designate her, may not be familiar to all. She was the daughter of Scipio Africanus, and wife to Sempronius Gracchus, who died leaving her a widow with twelve children, all of whom she subsequently lost, except a daughter, married to Scipio the younger, and two sons, Tiberius ans Caius, who became so renowned in the annals of Rome for their eloquence and opposition to the authorities of the state in advocating the interests of the people. “These sons,” says Plutarch, “Cornelia brought up with so much care, that, though they were indisputably of the noblest family, and had the happiest disposition of all the Roman youth, yet education was allowed to have contributed still more than nature to their perfection.” When a lady of Campania made a display of her jeweled ornaments in the house of Cornelia, and entreated the latter to exhibit her own, the Roman matron produced her two surviving sons, saying, “These are the only jewels of which I can boast.” During her lifetime a statue was erected to her honor, bearing the inscription,- Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi