First of all, we are going to place ourselves temporarily in this period. We are in the second century BC, a century marked by the absence of abundant literary sources, just as it will happen in the late republican period of crisis in Rome. Prior to this moment, great events took place both worldwide and in Republican Rome. Specifically, Rome conquers Macedonia and Hispania, the latter opposing great resistance through the Lusitanian people, with Viriato at the helm. Also, shortly before the end of the middle stage of the republic, in the year 136 BC the rebellion of the slaves took place which, along with economic decline and social conflicts, would mark the entry into a new stage for Rome. These internal and external conflicts, although they will not lead to a revolution, will cause Republican Rome to enter into crisis in 133 BC
Rise to power of the Gracchi (133-121 BC)
- Economic reforms in the agrarian structure (Sempronia Law)
Until now, the functioning of the Roman agrarian structure (fundamental basis of society and the army) was based, like the Greek, on small farms that guaranteed subsistence and provided surpluses. Little by little, these surpluses were reduced until the situation was unsustainable since the large owners had been absorbing the indebted small peasantry.
To solve this problem, Tiberio Sempronio Graco presented a proposal for an agrarian law that sought to revive the old provision, according to which no citizen could own more than 500 yugadas of public land. In this way, Tiberius Gracchus intended to return to the peasants the lands that they had illegally lost and that had become part of the great owners. Those lands that would form part of the Roman State would be divided into parcels of reduced size (about 30 yugadas) that would be delivered to the Roman citizens. These lands being property of the State, the peasants would have to pay a small tax (vetigal) for the usufruct. As a novelty, these lands could not be sold under any conditions but they could be inherited. This project would aim to increase the free population which, in turn, would increase the number of men likely to be recruited by the army, which would facilitate the expansion of Rome and with it economic and social prosperity.
This Sempronia law had a difficult implementation since Tiberio Graco, despite approving it, did not easily find financing. With the death of King Attalus III and leaving all of his territorial and economic legacy to Rome, Gracchus received a much-needed inheritance. The exact figures of the impact of the Sempronia law are unknown due to the absence of literary sources, but it is known that the census rose considerably and with it, the number of citizens willing to serve in the legions (a fundamental pillar of society).
- Political reforms (the tribune of Gaius Sempronius Gracchus)
After the assassination of Tiberius, he was replaced by his brother Gaius Gracchus who was a continuator of the agrarian reform undertaken by Tiberius but who also articulated a complex system of changes in broad sectors of the population such as public finances, the courts and in general the procedural guarantees, the army, the agrarian problem, the food supply for the city of Rome, the electoral system and the legal status of Latinos and Italics.
One of the first laws proposed by Gaius Gracchus was the lex Of Abactis, according to which a magistrate could not access any public office if he had been dismissed before. It also highlights the call lex de capite civic, which represented a political and legal response against the repression that had followed the assassination of Tiberius Gracchus. This law would be the subject of debate throughout the late Republican period. Another of the most important laws of Gaius Gracchus was the lex frementaria, which consisted of a method of regulating the supply of wheat. In this line of reforms, the laws for judicial order stand out (lex iudiciaria) and the army (lex militaris).
These laws are just examples of the profound social, political and economic reform carried out by Gaius Gracchus which, far from being a revolution, returned Rome to its traditional city-state structure that sought to move away from what was gradually disappearing. becoming an empire.
- Socio-political and economic legacy of the Graco
At the end of the period of power of the Gracchus we can say that the agrarian problem remained practically unchanged because the reform initiated by Tiberio Gracchus and continued by his brother was deactivated, with which the stability of the small peasantry was not achieved.
The crisis caused by the reforms that both tried to introduce heralded the political debate that dominated the rest of the late republican period and prefigured two basic positions within the Roman aristocracy, a minority reformist, willing to incorporate changes that would alleviate the social crisis and improve political aspects, but keeping the basic structure of the State unchanged. Another majority, with a clear tendency towards an oligarchic political regime, opposed to making any concession that could endanger their privileges. During the first century both positions were transformed into the ideological confrontation between optimates and popular.
In conclusion, we can affirm that the Graco period marked the issues that would be the subject of debate during the rest of the republic and introduced violence as an element of distortion, which became the fundamental instrument of subsequent political action.
Gaius Mario’s rise to power
- Internal conflicts (politics in Rome, the Nobilitas, optimates and popular)
Since the end of the Hannibal war, during the last third of the 2nd century Rome had to attend to various war fronts that, victoriously resolved, entailed the expansion of the provincial sphere under the direct control of the Roman State. In the Eastern Mediterranean, the creation of the province of Asia meant enormous wealth for the benefit of the coffers of the State. In the western Mediterranean, on the one hand, the Roman army had to fight again in Hispania against the Lusitanians. On the other hand, Rome took advantage of the insurrection of various indigenous peoples in southern Gaul to turn a territory into a province of the Empire that until then it had only protected directly through its Greek allies in the area. Also, the internal dispute caused by the succession to the throne of the North African kingdom of Numidia dragged the Roman State to intervene in a war that would have important repercussions on the internal politics of Rome.
Buoyed by military success and supported by the consulate, Gaius Marius became in the last years of the 2nd century the most influential man on the Roman political scene. His success is an expression of the struggle between the traditional aristocracy, concerned with keeping its privileges intact, and the new aristocracy, to which Mario belonged, anxious to gain direct access to the Government of the Empire. While some measures adopted by Mario accelerated the definitive proletarianization of the Roman legions, inside Rome there was a new social explosion, in which the urban plebs, directed from the tribune by Saturnino, acquired a special role, in a climate of increasingly widespread violence.
Another factor that we must highlight is that of the nobles. During the late republican era, class differences deepened, so that the social elite became considerably richer. The knights acquired enormous wealth. From an economic point of view, they were in a position to compete with or even surpass the traditional aristocracy, the nobilitas. They demanded their incorporation into the magistracies, the Senate and, ultimately, their co-participation in the Government of the Empire. These novices were designated through the term homo novus, which literally was “new man”. It was not a legally established concept, but depended on social recognition, which is why its interpretation results from the context in which it is used. Appiano affirms that those who reached a distinction for their merits and not for their ancestors were called this way. These were people who started from a position of inferiority in their political career, for which they did not have the prestige and clientele of the great families, inherited from generation to generation.
Just as we have highlighted the Nobilitas, we must emphasize the group of the OOptimal and Popular. One of the main causes of the disintegration of the republican regime was the inability of an important sector of the Roman aristocracy to admit institutional, political and social changes in the traditional ordering of the State.
The most conservative group of the Roman aristocracy, whose members called themselves optimates, “the best”, exploited the concept for their own benefit. mos maiorum and they used it as an excuse to reject any initiative that would endanger the established order. In general, the optimates did everything possible to restrict popular control of government bodies and the intervention of the people in them, reserving real decision-making capacity to a qualified minority. The popular ones proposed the political system in which the Senate, also for them, had to build the key to the constitutional framework.
The optimates managed to impose their theses but their history prevented the introduction of reforms necessary for the survival of the republican Roman state.
- Foreign policy (war in Hispania and slave rebellion in Sicily)
Although the war with Hispania had ended in 133, from the year 114, the Roman State and its army had various clashes with Celtiberians and Lusitanians, which caused thousands of casualties in the ranks of the Hispanic indigenous people. The conflict ended in the year 93, with Rome also annexing the Balearic Islands.
Thirty years after the first servile war, a new slave rebellion broke out in Sicily. Little by little, this insurrection served for Rome to make some of them free men, but the rest, still dissatisfied with their condition, continued the conflict until in 101 Aquilio defeated them, offering a great repression against them after the war and returning the old slave order.
Civil wars and Sulla’s dictatorship (seizure of power and repression; 100-79 BC)
The Italic question had posed problems for the Roman state during the last third of the second century. There are indications that in the last years of the 2nd century and in the first years of the 1st the claim of Roman citizenship by the allies had been attempted. In the context of a broad program of reforms, the Tribune Marco Livio Druso tried in the year 91 to satisfy the demand of the Italics to fully integrate into the Roman State by becoming full citizens. The failure of…