the electoral comitia, which Nasica attended. Claiming that one of Tiberius' gestures indicated a request for a diadem, Nasica urged the presiding consul – Publius Mucius Scaevola – to defend the republic and kill the tyrant. After Scaevola refused, Nasica incited a mob of senators – with the phrase "anyone who wants the community secure, follow me", traditional for calling a levy of troops, – and marched on the comitia, putting the hem of his toga upon his head, customary during religious sacrifice. This was an attempt to re-enact "an ancient religious ritual killing... presumably on the grounds that [Tiberius] was trying to seize power and overthrow the existing republic". Joined by one of the other tribunes and a large number of senators, the mob dispersed the comitia. Tiberius was killed, supposedly by one of his fellow tribunes. In the aftermath of the violence, Nasica was challenged in a legal wager to defend his actions. While the consul Scaevola – a renowned jurist – was proposed as judge, Nasica refused to accept the wager. Shortly thereafter, even though he was pontifex maximus and probably to remove him from the city amid opprobrium, he was sent on an embassy to Pergamum, where he died. Family and personal life Nasica belonged to a patrician branch of the gens Cornelia. He was the son of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum, who had served twice as consul (in 162 and 155 BC), as censor in 159 BC, and as pontifex maximus since 150 BC. His grandfather was the Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica who had been consul in 191 BC. This Nasica was the father of a homonymous son who later achieved the consulship in 111 BC. He was also the great-grandfather of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio, the consul of 52 BC. References Citations Sources 180s BC births 132 BC deaths Year of birth uncertain 2nd-century BC clergy 2nd-century BC Roman consuls Nasica Serapio, Publius Optimates Pontifices maximi of the Roman Republic Roman patricians