Preview

The Significance of the Gracchi

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1265 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Significance of the Gracchi
"When Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus sought to establish the liberty of the common people and expose the crimes of the oligarchs, the guilty nobles took fright and opposed their proceedings by every means at their disposal" - Cicero. The Gracchi Brothers were revolutionary in both their goals and achievements, as they changed the politics, the economic situation and the social problems of the Roman Republic. During the Gracchi's existence, Rome was facing a number of social, political and economic problems. They were frustrated with the conservatism and selfishness of the oligarchy and so adopted methods that threatened the balance between the senate, the magistrates and the people, which had existed for a very long time - in this way they can be regarded as revolutionary.

After the Second Punic War, the Senate became the supreme power and as a result, many changes occurred throughout Rome. The ruling Oligarchy abused their power, caring more for their own material interests than the welfare of the republic. As a result major problems occurred throughout Rome. Serious economic social problems occurred, both rural and urban, causing grave distress among many Roman citizens. There was a military crisis, with lack of eligible recruits for the legions, aggravated by the Spanish and Sicilian wars. There was tension in the oligarchy between leading factions as they struggled for political superiority. And amongst all these problems was the failure of the ruling nobility within the senate to deal with these problems.

In 133BCE, Tiberius Gracchus attempted to solve Rome's problems, specifically the land crisis. He introduced the Lex Agraria, a bill for land reform, which proposed that a commission of three people should allocate smallholdings of land owned by the state to landless citizens. The bill was met with great controversy; however, it wasn't the content of the bill that provoked the reaction, rather the means with which it was proposed. As Stockton notes "It

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Romans overthrew the Etruscans in 509 B.C.E. The Etruscans had ruled over the Romans for hundreds of years. Once free, the Romans established a republic, a government in which citizens elected representatives to rule on their behalf. The highest positions in the government were held by two consuls who ruled the Roman republic. A senate composed of Patricians elected these consuls and at this time, lower-class citizens, or plebeians, had virtually no say in the government. Both men and women were citizens in the Roman Republic, but only men could vote. Under certain circumstances, the senate and the consuls could appoint a temporary dictator to rule for a limited time until the crisis was resolved. One of the innovations of the Roman Republic was the notion of equality under the law. In 449 B.C.E., government leaders carved some of Rome 's most important laws into 12 great tablets. During the last three centuries of the republic, Rome experienced a long series of civil wars, economic as well as political issues, and civil crisis caused by the dictatorship of Julius Caesar. After Caesar’s death, another civil war broke out destroying what was left of the Roman republic. Caesar’s adopted son, Octavian, joined forces with a general named Mark Antony and a politician named Lepidus. They took control of Rome for ten years as the Second triumvirate. The alliance ended in violence and jealousy. Octavian forced Lepidus to retire and then became rivals with Mark Antony. Octavian believed Mark Antony was plotting to rule Rome from Egypt,…

    • 1420 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Firstly, the Roman Empire simply got too big. The rulers were greedy and wanted more land, with more resources, and potentially more wealth. However, during Augustus Caesar's reign, many of the Roman generals refused to heed his warning about the empire not being able to support itself if it were to get larger and they continued to conquer more of Europe. However, they soon payed the price because the bigger the Empire got, the longer border they had. The Romans had to use lots of men to guard the borders from the barbarians and the Germanic Tribes. Soon, they had to hire farmers and that meant a shortage of food. They also had to hire mercenaries and slaves, who later on started to revolt against the Romans. And then it was also the time when soldiers wanted more money for their services which also meant a rise in taxes and in food. This made the poor poorer and angrier as they could not afford to live on what they earned. Which meant that they soon started to resort to crime, another one of the Senate's main troubles.…

    • 596 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Tiberius was the second emperor of Rome who succeeded Augustus in 14AD (Bradley, 1990). Throughout his reign as Emperor, Tiberius made numerous attempts to try and achieve an effective relationship with the Senate. Primarily seen in Tiberius’ treatment of the Senate and increasing senatorial powers Tiberius attempted at achieving a positive relationship. However, due to their increasing subservience, Tiberius was unsuccessful in his ability to achieve an effective relationship with the Senate.…

    • 1426 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Roman Empire Dbq Essay

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the later part of the Roman Empire’s existence, their political and government was fraught with political corruption and incompetent leaders. The…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    The outbreak of the Third Mithridatic War marked the challenging of senatorial power within Roman politics through the increased dominance of influential politicians. Rome came into “renewed conflict with Mithridates…

    • 2247 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    For one, as reported by Priscus, a Roman ambassador(449 CE), who was interviewing a former citizen of Rome: “the condition of Roman subjects during a time of peace [was] worse than war.”(Doc. E) The Roman people were in bad shape because of an unfair law, “taxes [were] very severe, and unprincipled men inflict[ed] injuries on others.”(Doc. E) The dire situation convinced the Roman citizens more and more that they should protest. And when the people did fight back, internal problems surfaced in Rome. However, not only were there harsh taxes causing turmoil, the Roman government was corrupt as well. “The climax of misery is to have to pay in order to obtain justice.”(Doc. E) The rich were bribing the lawmakers so they could get out of facing the law, and the poor didn’t have enough money to get out of punishment as well! Therefore, a great hatred between the rich and the poor was established. Rome may have been able to withstand battles on the outside, but if faced harsh battles within. The patricians believed that they could get away with whatever they wanted to, all they had to do was pay. Murder, theft, abuse and bribery were now tolerated in a place that would not have allowed them to be before. To sum up, Rome’s destruction was induced by legal injustice inside the…

    • 1163 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ancient Rome DBQ Essay

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages

    farmers gave up when the grain price decreased with the massive importation of grain from Sicily and North Africa. When they gave up they moved to cities and joined the work force there. Then, a change in society started to happen. The number of people in the countryside was reduced because they wanted to escape war or would rather settle in the cities than in the countryside after war. As a result, Rome became overpopulated. Another change that happened because of the Punic Wars was the Senate gained power and the society realized that the Senate had authority over military action. The Punic Wars really transformed Rome and helped to build their empire and society.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Crisis of the Third Century was the era in which the Roman Empire almost collapsed under the many myriad of pressures including economic depression, civil war, plague and invasion. Because war was expensive, the Roman Empire had to increase taxes and this caused for many of the Romans to be upset and for the economy to be in a crisis. Revolts were also started because many of the civilians retaliated back because of such high taxes. The Crisis began with the assassination of Alexander Severus and because his own troops killed him, for the next fifty years many claimants named as emperors tried to rule Rome entirely and rule the Imperial Rome. Although the Romans did create the largest and most successful political government, lack of working together and not knowing any kind of political information of the emperor selected at the time, also caused for their crisis to begin in a bad start. “An additional definition is the act of deliberately killing someone especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons. Assassinations may be prompted by religious, ideological” (Ott, J). The Roman Empire was built by cities, the people, and their military, which at the beginning sounded smart, and later because of lack of teamwork the empire was at a near fall. Inflation and with a collapsed currency, only seemed to make things worse for the Roman Empire. These are only some of the reasons that contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire and caused great changes to the roman people. “As Roman territory grew, conquest continued to fuel further conquest, but this was not a pattern that could continue indefinitely” (Ott, J) P1. For the most part this common pattern was only the main beginning to tragedy for this empire.…

    • 1307 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Fall of Roman Empire

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Economic issues were that they had poor harvest. Food was scarce people needed food so they went after it. There was a disruption of trade by barbarians and pirates. Since the war was over, there was no more war booty. Gold and Silver was taken from other countries and since the war was over the treasury diminished. This led to inflation, a drop in the worth of money and a rise in prices. The Roman road and bridge system fell into disrepair, there for causing a hurt in trade. The crushing tax fell all upon the plebian class, who had no money to start…

    • 287 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Punic Wars against Carthage, the plebeian smallholders who had to serve in the roman legions found themselves unable to farm their lands, unable to pay their taxes. Ultimately they lost their lands and ended up as the Mob, an impoverished group in Rome, reliant upon handouts. Meanwhile, the rich consolidated their lands into huge, slave-worked estates that made them even richer. This caused profound social, economic and political problems for the Roman state. The upper, political class divided between the Optimates - rich, conservative landowners who wanted nothing to change - and the Populares - senators who saw a need for land reform to ease the troubles of the poor.…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tiberius Gracchus

    • 1648 Words
    • 7 Pages

    “ He was carried away above all by the benefits of the plan, because he thought that nothing better or more splendid could possibly happen to Italy, and gave no consideration to the difficulties surrounding it.” (Appian Roman history, Extract 11) Tiberius brought up his arguments when the voting approaches, through his formidable speaking skills he inspired the rich to consider the “Hopes for the future” of giving lands to the poor, so they are able to raise children for more “manpower and conquest” Through this, we are able to see he aroused the poor, for everyone to feel their pain and their desperate situation. From this, many people agreed to help. From this, Tiberius motive was from “ his utter despair at witnessing.. The wretched physical state of the land.. And the plight of the peasants.” (J.M.…

    • 1648 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A system where political officials were elected and advised by a wealthy aristocratic senate once prevailed in Rome. This system was known as the Republic of Rome (T&E 262). This passage will consist of information and contrasts made between the republic that once existed in Rome and information in the source passage, Tacitus on Corruption in the Early Roman Empire. Tacitus on Corruption in the Early Roman Empire refers to the dictatorship of Caesar Augustus (63 BC-14 AD) by aristocratic historian Cornelius Tacitus (56-120 AD) and their impact on the people and economy of Rome.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Gracchus brothers are two brothers named Tiberius and Gaius who were called tribunes. These two wanted to pass land reform legislations that would redistribute the land among the poor and veterans from the wealth aristocrats. The law stated that “No one citizen would be able to possess more than 620 acres of public land.” The senate of Rome didn't like what the brothers were doing so they immediately had them killed. In a way the brothers were killed just because they were trying to help the poor make a living or at least give them a chance to provide for their families.…

    • 366 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Gracchus brothers Tiberius, Gaius were members of the plebeians. They wanted to do many things to help out Rome. The brothers made land reforms to help the landless poor. This system involved recruiting the urban and rural poor people. Tiberius and Gaius took land from the rich and gave it to the small farmers so they would have some land to feed off of and be able to make money.…

    • 103 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are various points Tacitus uses the praise that frequently heaps on his father-in-law Agricola as a vehicle for condemning the values of contemporary Rome. First, Tacitus describes Agricola’s character a man who had no “…incorruptibility and self-restraint in a man of his caliber would be to insult his virtues”. By stating this, Tacitus send a message to everyone that all the other consult and leaders were driven by corrupt and self-interest. Tacitus gave a clear picture of the values of all higher rank officials as well as the people who were aspiring to attain power. They were driven by greed, corruption, and the motive to attain all the power. Secondly, Tacitus describes Agricola as someone who “…scorning all rivalry with his colleagues,…

    • 249 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays

Related Topics