BC130-111 Gaius Sempronius Gracchus and Mob Violence

The twenty years from 130-111 BC BC were dominated by the efforts of Gaius Sempronius Gracchus (pictured) to continue the reforms of his brother Tiberius Gracchus.

Nearly ten years after his brother Tiberius Gracchus was killed, Gaius Sempronius Gracchus attempted to continue his political reforms using similar tactics.

The Roman Repubic received an unforeseen windfall in the will of the dying King Attalus III of Pergamon, but before Rome could claim the kingdom of Pergamon a relative of Attalus III was proclaimed king of Pergamon with the title of Eumenes III and was not defeated by Rome until 129 BC.

Pergamon was reorganized into the foundation of the province of Asia, and became one of the most wealthy provinces the Romans ever controlled attracting corrupt and greedy Senators and Governors. This sort of land distribution really upset the soldiers who had fought for Rome and those who spoke on their behalf. To this end, Gaius Sempronius Gracchus spoke up.

Gaius was more of a demagogue than Tiberius and attempted to pass laws to gain popular support rather than to make political reforms with a specific agenda like his brother.

He was not as successful or as popular as his elder brother, but he still managed to create many enemies in high places.

Finally, escalating political tensions exploded on the Capitoline Hill where Gaius Gracchus and 3,000 of his followers were killed in 121 BC.

The political careers of the Gracchi brothers had broken many political traditions in Rome and introduced mob violence as a political tool. The plebs loved the Gracchi brothers as they stood to uphold their rights, but the ruling Patrician class hated what the Gracchi brothers had achieved and now feared the mob more than they ever did in the past.

BC150-131 Tiberius Gracchus Champions the Plebs!

In the twenty years from 150-131 BC the Roman Republic destroyed two great cities -- Corinth and Carthage -- and with its massive land and slave acquisitions Tiberius Gracchus (pictured) emerged to protect the Plebians against increasingly greedy Patricians.

This period saw the outbreak of the fourth and final Macedonian War and the third and final Punic War.

In the Fourth Macedonian War (150 to 148 BC) Andriscus, claiming to be a son of Perseus, led a popular uprising in Macedon which Rome put down but did not withdraw from the region. In response, the remaining free Greek powers of the Achaean League rose up, were swiftly defeated and punished with the destruction of the ancient city of Corinth in 146 BC. Greek independence was ended, and the Roman provinces of Achaea, Epirus and Macedonia were established.

After the Second Punic War, Carthage had been reduced to a single city-state dependent on Rome for military protection and arbitration and mostly lost out to its neighbour Numidia -- a favored 'client state' of Rome -- in Roman rulings. After fifty years of humuliation, Carthage discharged its war indemnity and -- considering itself no longer bound by the restrictions imposed by Rome -- it mustered an army of raw recruits to repel Numidian forces.

Although Carthage lost its war with Numidia, its new-found militarism alarmed many Romans, particularly Cato the Elder who ended all his speeches with demands that Carthage be destroyed.

In 149 BC, while Rome was involved in the ongoing Macedonian wars and pacifying its newly acquired territory in Hispania, it ordered the Carthaginians to demolish Carthage and re-built deeper into Africa. Carthage refused and Rome declared war.

In the Third Punic War (149 BC to 146 BC) Scipio Aemilianus besieged the city before breaching its walls, burning Carthage to the ground. and selling survivors into slavery. (A century later, Octavian rebuilt Carthage as a Roman veterans' colony).

In 133 BC, the tribune Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus tried to introduce land reform to redistribute latifundia -- publicly held land -- to the landless returning soldiers. Latifundia were large plantations, leased by rich Patricians, and worked by slaves who grew cash crops.

Many of the plantations lessees were also Senators who would lose property if this land reform law was enforcemed. To circumvent the opposition of the Senate, Tiberius tried to pass his reform through the Plebeian Assembly as a plebiscite, using the legal principle of Lex Hortensia. While technically legal, this was a violation of political custom, and outraged many patricians.

With the land reform passed, the Senate refused to fund the land commission and Tiberius used the plebeian assembly to divert funds for this purpose. When it became clear that Tiberius did not have enough time to finish his land reforms during his term of office, he announced that he would run again for the tribunate.

The violation of 'annuality' angered the patricians who, fearing that Tiberius was setting himself up as a tyrant, responded by slaughtering Tiberius and 300 of his followers in the streets of Rome in 132 BC.