By 133 BC, Rome was the greatest power of the ancient world, commanding an empire stretching from Turkey to Spain. Its mighty legions had subjugated virtually every corner of the Mediterranean, establishing a Roman supremacy that would endure for centuries and bring vast riches back to Rome.

But for the men who did the actual fighting, Rome’s success often resulted in little benefit. Indeed, many Roman legionnaires returned home from years on the battlefield to find that their farms had gone bankrupt, their savings had vanished, and their families were ruined. Not surprisingly, many veterans grew resentful.

“They were styled the masters of the world, but in the meantime had not one foot of ground which they could call their own,” railed the Roman politician Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (c. 168–133 BC).

Tiberius was the older of the two Gracchi brothers, a pair of Roman social reformers who tried to make life in ancient Rome more equitable by limiting the power of wealthy aristocrats and ensuring that veterans would have farms to come home to. Celebrated by the writer Plutarch (c. 46–c. 119), both Tiberius and his brother Gaius (c. 154–121 BC) would inspire huge popular followings before meeting violent ends.

Tiberius was the grandson of a famous general and fought in Greece and Spain. After his return to Rome, he was elected tribune of the people in 133 BC. Determined to improve the lot of veterans, many of whom were homeless and unemployed on the city’s streets, he proposed a series of agrarian reforms, including the confiscation of large farms known as latifundia whose lands Tiberius wanted to redistribute to Rome’s poor.

Despite strong opposition in the Senate, Tiberius was able to push his reforms into law. At the end of his one-year term, however, he was murdered and thrown into the Tiber River by political opponents to prevent him from running again. His younger brother, Gaius, took up the cause of land redistribution ten years later, but he was also killed by conservatives opposed to reform.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. Although they pursued similar political objectives, the two brothers had very different personalities. According to Plutarch, “Tiberius was gentle and sedate, while Gaius was high-strung and vehement, so that even when haranguing the people the one stood composedly in one spot, while the other was the first Roman to walk about upon the rostra and pull his toga off his shoulder as he spoke.”
  2. Tiberius was aware of the threats against his life and concealed a short sword called a dolo under his toga. However, at his murder, the number of attackers was so great that his weapon was useless. According to Plutarch, about 300 of Tiberius’s followers were bludgeoned to death in the same attack.
  3. The grandfather of the brothers was Scipio Africanus (236–183 BC), the Roman general who defeated Hannibal (247–c. 183 BC) in the Second Punic War in 202 BC.

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