The Graco brothers: class struggle in Rome? – History Archives

Throughout history we have been able to see great empires born, grow and fall apart. Some fell by force of arms, others by migratory pressures, also by ideological currents that fractured it from within, even by elites who did not know how to read the course of events or whose interests simply were not compatible with the course of the state. .

The fall of Rome could be a synthesis of all these problems, it could even be said that its fate was sealed since those mythical brothers founded the city. During its history, Rome was immersed in an almost constant social crisis in which many famous people tried to change the course of events. We were already talking about characters like Scipio, Julius Caesar, but today it is the turn of the Gracchus, two brothers from the social elite who will convulse the state of the ordos Romans, becoming the personification of the crisis of the republic.

Background

Immediately after the end of the Second Punic War, the Roman government had been reasserted in the hands of the senatorial nobility. For a short period of time there was a certain calm and harmony in this group, but dissension soon began. What is known as “class solidarity” began to break down in the face of the almost absolute power of the senators. Sooner or later, the fight between the different sides of the senate was going to develop at any cost, including the crudelites, finish off the adversary at all costs.

The crisis is not going to be only in Rome, but in the provinces, which have practically just been created. Sicily and Sardinia are constituted after the First Punic War, then Hispania (197 BC), Macedonia (148 BC) and Africa (146 BC) will be added. In the provinces there were governors who must, evidently, submit to the designs of the Roman senate. Therefore, the magistracy was annual and collegiate. However, this will fail the more Roman imperialism spreads, its tentacles were longer, but also more fragile. The governors were free of the mechanisms that prevented the abuse of power, since Rome had not yet changed its city-state mentality. To solve this, courts were created to try to prevent extortion from high officials, however they would not succeed, since they would become mere tools of attack between the opposing political groups.

The crisis not only occurs outside the peninsula, but there are also migratory cycles in Italy that are going to be a real headache for the partner cities of Rome and for the eternal city itself. In the beginning, the city needed a population, so citizenship was very easy for migrants to obtain. However, the population-emitting cities were plagued by a major problem: they had to meet fixed quotas for the Roman army. Thus, the society Romans were stifled by the increasingly alarming lack of population. The solution was simple, the Italics had to have permission from their city to emigrate. However, the seed of discord was already latent and the cities were going to want greater autonomy since they were halfway between integration and independence.

Another of the great problems of Rome is its army. If a century earlier it had been its greatest power, now it was languishing precisely because of its fame. Throughout the Mediterranean there were between 40,000 and 60,000 soldiers on the warpath.
a. It was a huge figure for the time and occupied 20% of its citizen population. And here is the problem, they had to be citizens and owners. Therefore, the owners of the territories of Rome are not exploiting their lands but are in an endless war in the confines of the Mediterranean. What economic return did martial life have? The loot, of course, but when they fought against Greece, this loot provided them with huge profits, when they entered Hispania, things had changed a lot and the poor terrain barely allowed them to loot to survive. These are not the times of Mario’s famous mules that we talked about in Julius Caesar’s article. What happens then is that the men are away from Rome and do not return for years due to the distance from the campaigns, so there is no one to manage the land and they begin to concentrate in the hands of a landed oligarchy of senatorial origin.

In this contextual framework we are going to find two serious problems for the army: Hispania and the servile revolts.

Sicily was an island with a long tradition of extensive agriculture and large pastures. The servile regime allowed the exploitation of thousands of human beings in a regime of brutality and degradation that brought significant wealth to the landowners, since they could reduce costs to the maximum. Some slaves, such as shepherds, who had a certain autonomy due to the very style of their work, began to dedicate themselves to banditry. In 135, a slave named Euno will conquer the city of Enna and appoint himself king. He will imprison the free population, turning them into slaves, and then he will dedicate himself to conquering Sicily until Publius Rupilius manages to stop the revolt in 132. This uprising will set the precedent for later slave revolts, such as that of Spartacus.

In this decadent atmosphere two figures of capital importance appear. The first is a person, Scipio Emiliano, an eminent politician from the mythical family of the Scipios who will put an end to Carthage and end the legendary siege of Numancia -the Scipios in general will have a fundamental role-. His great power was going to find his balance in Appius Claudius Pulcher and Cecilio Metelo. The other figure is a magistracy, the Tribunate of the Plebe, which was initially going to be configured as a throwing weapon between the factio but that finally it was going to become its authentic counter power since it had the power of the veto and the popular consultation. This position was collegiate like practically all Roman magistracies.

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus

For many it represents the beginning of the end of the Republic of Rome. With his appearance on the political scene, all the ills of the crisis that devastated the Tibetan city for decades are catalyzed. He was aware that if Rome had not been devastated, it was because there was no Mediterranean power capable of facing it. Martyr for some, villain for others.

Brother-in-law of Scipio, he will find in him his greatest enemy. He had an education very influenced by his mother, and therefore he will drink from the Hellenistic culture and the first Stoicism. He will fight in the wars of Hispania and will bring from there a series of quarrels against the senate for the treatment of the consul he served: Hostilio Mancino. Some argue that revenge was the cause of his actions, others that he simply wanted to reform the government to overcome the crisis.

But, a single person could not dismantle the oligarchic regime by himself, moreover, he was one more piece of it. For this he will use his own factio initially led by his father-in-law, Apio Claudio Pulcher.

Of a large number of Romans, none have an altar, homeland or sepulcher of their elders, but for the gift and wealth of others they fight and die.- Tiberius Gracchus

On October 10, 134 BC, he will reach the tribune of the plebs supported by his factio and soon he will turn against the senate with his most outstanding work: the agrarian lex. Through this law he tried to distribute the lands of the age publicus – the public field, in the hands of the state – among the poorest peasants, in this way, the population became rich and the worn-out middle class would recover from the damage it had suffered in the wars.

For this, another set of laws was going to be revived that dated back to 367 BC and that received the name of licinio-sextias For them, the owner of the land could not have more than 125 hectares of land, which could be increased with 75 hectares for the first two children in the family.

The remaining territory was going to be expropriated with its consequent compensation and it was going to be divided into small plots of 3 hectares. Later, peasants would be installed in them as a colonato and would have to pay a symbolic amount to demonstrate that the land was still public. In this way they avoided any possibility of concentration of power, turning property into something inalienable. This operation was carried out by a commission of three members, of an annual nature, called tresviri agris dandis adsignandis iudicandis.

Taking power away from the upper layers of society was a real suicide, so whoever had the courage to do it was going to face the patriciate. The executing arm would be Tiberius, who put the project in motion, avoiding the traditional consultation with the Senate before presenting it to the assembly. The aristocracy tried to pull the strings of their patronage networks to overthrow the law, but it was unsuccessful since the popular support was total and the vote was secret, there were no reprisals. On the day of the vote, thousands of peasants from all around Rome turned out in search of hope.

However, his spirits fell apart when Octavio, a colleague of Tiberius in the tribune, vetoed the proposal. Tiberius consequently proclaimed the justice by which all Rome was paralyzed, but the peasants returned to their homes disappointed and that worried him. Thus, he decided to reconvene the assembly and vote for the deposition of Octavio, who was unanimously expelled by those present. Tiberius had violated the sacredness of the Tribune of the Plebs in his desperation to carry out the reforms, his fate was being sealed little by little.

The law would be approved at this price, and the commission would be exercised by Tiberius, his brother Gaius and Appius Claudius. But they needed financial means to carry it out, which the Senate denied them. Fortunately, Attalus III King of Pergamon had died and made the Roman people heir to his territories, with that fortune they could carry out the reform, but the Senate was opposed. Tiberius, assuming that the wealth had been ceded to the Roman people, demanded that it be used by the Roman people, and thus they would begin to compensate the expropriated and buy work tools and grain for the settlers.

However, it was clear that when Tiberius left his -annual- term, he was going to be tried and assassinated by the senatorial class. The only way out for him to save his life was to be elected as a tribune again, but he was forbidden. During the re-election assembly, the frightened senators went violently against the assembly. The human tide fleeing to avoid being killed crushed Tiberius who was finished off on the ground by one of his colleagues from the tribune. His body was thrown into the Tiber. They would not dare to touch the agrarian law, but they would try to paralyze it by all means.

The factio of Tiberius was thus dismembered, but soon someone would take over: his brother.

Eleven years later, in 123 BC, Gaius would become tribune. His motives were more personal than those of his brother, he had lost a very important figure for him and for his gens, he was seeking revenge. But he was going to…