Gaius Gracchus
Encyclopedia
Populares
Populares were aristocratic leaders in the late Roman Republic who relied on the people's assemblies and tribunate to acquire political power. They are regarded in modern scholarship as in opposition to the optimates, who are identified with the conservative interests of a senatorial elite...
politician in the 2nd century BC and brother of the ill-fated reformer Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
Tiberius Gracchus
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populares politician of the 2nd century BC and brother of Gaius Gracchus. As a plebeian tribune, his reforms of agrarian legislation caused political turmoil in the Republic. These reforms threatened the holdings of rich landowners in Italy...
. His election to the office of tribune
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
in the years 123 and 122 BC and reformative policies whilst in office prompted a constitutional crisis and his death at the hands of the Roman Senate
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
in 121.
Background
Gaius Gracchus was born into a family who had a strong tradition in the politics of ancient Rome. His father, Tiberius Gracchus the Elder, was a powerful man in Roman politics throughout the 2nd century BC and had built up a large and powerful clientele largely based in Spain. His mother was Cornelia AfricanaCornelia Africana
Cornelia Scipionis Africana was the second daughter of Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, the hero of the Second Punic War, and Aemilia Paulla. She is remembered as the perfect example of a virtuous Roman woman....
, daughter of Scipio Africanus
Scipio Africanus
Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus , also known as Scipio Africanus and Scipio the Elder, was a general in the Second Punic War and statesman of the Roman Republic...
, a woman once courted by Ptolemy VIII, the King of Egypt. The family was attached to the Claudii faction in Roman politics despite his mother's background. It can be supposed, however, that both the Gracchi brothers would have come into contact with powerful members of both the Claudii and Cornelii Scipiones
Scipio (cognomen)
Scipio is a Roman cognomen representing the Cornelii Scipiones, a branch of the Cornelii family. Any individual male of the branch must be named Cornelius Scipio and a female Cornelia. The nomen, Cornelius, signifies that the person belongs to the Cornelia gens, a legally defined clan composed of...
factions.
Gaius Gracchus was the younger brother of Tiberius Gracchus
Tiberius Gracchus
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was a Roman Populares politician of the 2nd century BC and brother of Gaius Gracchus. As a plebeian tribune, his reforms of agrarian legislation caused political turmoil in the Republic. These reforms threatened the holdings of rich landowners in Italy...
, by about nine years. He was heavily influenced both by the reformative policy of his older brother, and by his death at the hands of a senatorial mob. Plutarch suggests that it was "the grief he had suffered [that] encouraged him to speak out fearlessly, whenever he lamented the fate of his brother." Certainly aspects of his reforms, and especially his judicial reforms, seem to have been directed at the people responsible for his brother's death.
Political career prior to 123 BC
The political career of Gaius Gracchus prior to 123 started with a seat on his brother Tiberius's land-commission upon its formation in 133 BC. He served, in 126, as a quaestorQuaestor
A Quaestor was a type of public official in the "Cursus honorum" system who supervised financial affairs. In the Roman Republic a quaestor was an elected official whereas, with the autocratic government of the Roman Empire, quaestors were simply appointed....
in the Roman province of Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
. His support for the reforms of Gaius Papirius Carbo
Gaius Papirius Carbo (consul 120 BC)
Gaius Papirius Carbo was an Ancient Roman statesman and orator. He was associated with Gaius Gracchus in carrying out the provision of the agrarian law of Tiberius Gracchus. When tribune of the people , Carbo carried out a law extending the secret ballot for the enactment and repeal of laws...
and Marcus Fulvius Flaccus
Marcus Fulvius Flaccus (consul 125 BC)
Marcus Fulvius Flaccus was a Roman senator and an ally of the Gracchi. He became an administrator of the agrarian reform in 130 BC, and as a solution to the problem of land division among the allied cities, proposed Roman citizenship for the allies' citizens, thus introducing a question that vexed...
, his evident skills at oration and his association with the reforms of his brother led the senatorial nobles to try him on charges plainly false or heavily exaggerated. He cleared himself with ease and in 122 was elected to serve as a tribune
Tribune
Tribune was a title shared by elected officials in the Roman Republic. Tribunes had the power to convene the Plebeian Council and to act as its president, which also gave them the right to propose legislation before it. They were sacrosanct, in the sense that any assault on their person was...
for the following year.
Reforms
Gaius' social reforms were far wider reaching than those of his brother Tiberius. Perhaps motivated by the fate of his brother, some of his earliest reforms dealt with the judiciary system. He first attacked the measure by which the senate had set up, under the consul Popillius, a special tribunal with powers of capital punishment to try Gracchian supporters in 132. Courts with capital punishment, not set up by the people, were now declared illegal by a retrospective measure which saw Popilius driven into exile. Further reforms to the judicial system were passed to check the practice of senatorial juries in the acquitting members of their own class of extortion. Control of the court dedicated to the trials of extortion, the Lex Acilia, was given to the equites and the procedure was rewritten to favor the prosecutors.Economically, Gaius' land reforms were continued and broadened, providing for larger allotments so free labourers could be employed. Large overseas colonies were planned to provide for thousands of settlers which may have included some Italians as well as Roman citizens. The state was also required by the law, Lex Frumentaria, to buy grain supplies imported from North Africa and Sicily and to store them in bulk to allow the distributation of a monthly ration to all Roman citizens at a low price. The construction of a widespread secondary road system was enacted to facilitate communication and trade across Italy and the contract to collect taxes in Asia was auctioned off in Rome by the censors.
Gaius also made a few reforms to the military through the passing of the Lex Militaris. This law required the government to clothe and equip Roman soldiers without deductions from their pay, shortened the term of military service, and forbade the draft of boys under the age of seventeen. The intent of these reforms was to improve army morale and to win the political support of soldiers, allies, and voters with small incomes.
Politically Gaius' most farsighted proposal was the 'franchise bill', a measure which would have seen the distribution of Roman citizenship to all Latin citizens and the extension of Latin citizenship to all Italian allies. This proposal was rejected because the Roman plebeians had no wish to share the benefits of citizenship, including cheap grain and entertainment. The rejection of this measure led, in part, to the disastrous Social War
Social War
The Allied War was a war waged from 91 to 88 BC between the Roman Republic and several of the other cities in Italy, which prior to the war had been Roman allies for centuries.-Origins:The Early Italian campaigns saw the Roman conquest of Italy...
of 90 BC.
Reaction of the senate and the death
After his second election to the tribune in 122 BC, the Senate started to oppose Gaius' reforms, through the use of another tribune Marcus Livius DrususMarcus Livius Drusus (censor)
The elder Marcus Livius Drusus was set up as tribune by the Senate in 121 BC to undermine Gaius Gracchus' land reform bills. To do this, he proposed creating twelve colonies with 3,000 settlers each from the poorer classes, and relieving rent on property distributed since 133 BC...
, to effectively outbid Gaius for the support of the people. Thus when Gaius proposed a scheme for the creation of two new colonies Drusus proposed the creation of twelve. Also the widespread opposition to the franchise bill allowed the senate to undermine Gaius' popularity and as a result he failed in his bid for a third term as tribune. Furthermore the election of Lucius Opimius
Lucius Opimius
Lucius Opimius was Roman consul in 121 BC, known for ordering the execution of 3,000 supporters of popular leader Gaius Gracchus without trial, using as pretext the state of emergency declared after Gracchus's recent and turbulent death....
, a political enemy of Gaius, to consul in 121 BC, as well as Marcus Minucius Rufus, another political enemy of Gaius, to tribune meant the repeal of as many of Gaius' measures as possible.
On the day that Opimius planned to repeal Gaius' laws, a conflict between the supporters of the two opposing groups on Capitoline Hill
Capitoline Hill
The Capitoline Hill , between the Forum and the Campus Martius, is one of the seven hills of Rome. It was the citadel of the earliest Romans. By the 16th century, Capitolinus had become Capitolino in Italian, with the alternative Campidoglio stemming from Capitolium. The English word capitol...
led to the death of a servant of Opimius. This allowed Opimius a pretext for action. The following day the senate passed the senatus consultum ultimum
Senatus consultum ultimum
Senatus consultum ultimum , more properly senatus consultum de re publica defendenda is the modern term given to a decree of the Roman Senate during the late Roman Republic passed in times of emergency...
and a force of senators and equites marched against Gaius and his supporters, who included Marcus Fulvius Flaccus
Marcus Fulvius Flaccus (consul 125 BC)
Marcus Fulvius Flaccus was a Roman senator and an ally of the Gracchi. He became an administrator of the agrarian reform in 130 BC, and as a solution to the problem of land division among the allied cities, proposed Roman citizenship for the allies' citizens, thus introducing a question that vexed...
, who had occupied the Aventine Hill
Aventine Hill
The Aventine Hill is one of the seven hills on which ancient Rome was built. It belongs to Ripa, the twelfth rione, or ward, of Rome.-Location and boundaries:The Aventine hill is the southernmost of Rome's seven hills...
. Gaius fled to the grove of Furrina
Furrina
Furrina , was a Roman goddess. Her function in the Roman pantheon was mostly unknown at the time of Cicero.However, modern archaeological research has revealed some tenuous evidence that seems to indicate that Furrina was associated with water.Her antiquity is proven by the fact that she was one...
on Janiculum
Janiculum
The Janiculum is a hill in western Rome, Italy. Although the second-tallest hill in the contemporary city of Rome, the Janiculum does not figure among the proverbial Seven Hills of Rome, being west of the Tiber and outside the boundaries of the ancient city.-Sights:The Janiculum is one of the...
where he committed suicide and Flaccus was arrested and put to death. Three thousand Gracchian supporters were also subsequently arrested and put to death.
External links
At the Internet Classics Archive, MIT:- "Caius Gracchus", by PlutarchPlutarchPlutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, translated by John Dryden - "The Comparison of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus with Agis and Cleomenes", by PlutarchPlutarchPlutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
, translated by John Dryden