The brothers Tiberius Gracchus (born 162 B.C . in Rome; died there 133 B.C .) and Gaius Gracchus (born 153 B.C . in Rome; died there 121 B.C .). Politicians of ancient Rome.
The Gracchi were of the distinguished plebeian family of the Sempronii and received a brilliant education. Tiberius, who was elected tribune of the people for 133 B.C ., proposed a law limiting the use of state land (ager publicus) to 1,000 iugera (about 300 hectares) per family. Surplus state lands were to be taken away with special compensation and given in small plots of 30 iugera (about 9 hectares) to poor citizens, without the right to sell. Tiberius was able to secure passage of his bill by the popular assembly. A commission on the introduction of agricultural reforms was created, which included the Gracchi brothers and Tiberius’ father-in-law, Ap-pius Claudius. The introduction of agricultural reforms met with opposition from the large landholders and the Senate.
During the elections to the tribune for 132 B.C ., Tiberius was falsely accused by the Senate nobility of aspiring to become emperor and was killed.
Gaius, a tribune of the people for 123 and 122 B.C ., resurrected Tiberius’ agricultural legislation, revived the activity of the agricultural commission, and introduced other democratic reforms (such as low bread prices in Rome and the establishment of colonies in Italy and the provinces in order to allot land to citizens without property). In order to attract the class of equites to his side, Gaius introduced a law by which a judicial commission of equites was given the right to try provincial viceroys; the right to collect taxes in the richest province in Asia, the former Pergamum kingdom, was also transferred to the equites. In an attempt to broaden his social base, Gaius tried to extend the agricultural legislation to the Italian allies: he proposed a law to grant them the right of Roman citizenship. However, this plan provoked opposition not only in the Senate but among the equites and the urban and rural plebeians, who were unwilling to share their privileges with new citizens. In 121, Gaius was not reelected tribune. Provoked to armed revolt, he was killed along with his supporters.
With the introduction of democratic reforms, Gaius tried primarily to halt the destruction of the Roman peasantry, the social and military base of the Roman city-state. As a result of agricultural reforms, about 80,000 citizens received plots of land. However, the reforms were only temporarily successful, since the development of slaveholding as a means of production led unavoidably to the impoverishment of small owners, that is, the rural and urban plebeians. A law of 111 B.C . permitted the sale of state lands, which became private property.
A. I. NEMIROVSKII