GRACCHUS,TIBERIUS SEMPRONIUS (163-133 B.c.), son of the preceding, was the elder of the two great reformers. He and his brother were brought up by their mother Cornelia, assisted by the rhetorician Diophanes of Mytilene and the Stoic Blossius of Cumae. In 147 he served under his brother-in-law the younger Scipio in Africa during the last Punic War, and was the first to mount the walls in the attack on Carthage. Quaestor in 137, he served in the Numantine wars in Spain, and saved the army by concluding an agreement with the enemy, who con sented to treat with him out of respect for his father's memory. This agreement was repudiated by the senate.
In 133 he was tribune, and championed the impoverished farmer class and the lower orders. His proposals (see AGRARIAN LAWS) were, briefly, to recover all the State lands which had been ac quired by prescription in excess of the amount allowed by the Lici nian laws (500 jugera a head) and distribute them in inalienable allotments. They met with violent opposition, and were not carried until he had, illegally and unconstitutionally, secured the deposi tion of his fellow-tribune, M. Octavius, who had been persuaded by the optimates to veto them. The senate put every obstacle in the way of the three commissioners appointed to carry out the provisions of the law, and Tiberius, in view of the bitter enmity he had aroused, saw that it was necessary to strengthen his hold on the popular favour. The legacy to the Roman people of the kingdom and treasures of Attalus III. of Pergamum gave him an opportunity. He proposed that the money realized by the sale of the treasures should be divided, for the purchase of imple ments and stock, amongst those to whom assignments of land had been made under the new law.
To strengthen his position further, Tiberius offered himself for re-election as tribune for the following year. The senate declared that it was illegal to hold this office for two consecutive years; but Tiberius treated this objection with contempt. To win the sympathy of the people, he appeared in mourning, and appealed for protection for his wife and children, and whenever he left his house he was accompanied by a bodyguard of 3,00o men, chiefly consisting of the city rabble. The meeting of the tribes for the election of tribunes broke up in disorder on two successive days, without any result being attained, although on both occasions the first divisions voted in favour of Tiberius. A rumour reached the senate that he was aiming at supreme power. An appeal to the consul P. Mucius Scaevola to order him to be put to death at once having failed, P. Scipio Nasica exclaimed that Scaevola was acting treacherously towards the state, and called upon those who agreed with him to take up arms and follow him. During the riot that followed, Tiberius was killed, and his body was thrown into the Tiber that night with 300 others. A commission was appointed for the trial of his followers.