TIBERIUS SEMPRONIUS GRACCIIUS, Son of the preceding (c.163-133, B.c.). As their father died when they were very young, Tiberius and his brother Gaius (see below) were brought up under the special care of their mother, Cornelia. Tiberius had his first military experi ence in Africa, on the staff of his brother-in-law. Scipio Africanus the Younger, and took part in the capture and destruction of Carthage (p.c. 146), on which occasion he is said to have been the first Roman to scale the city wall. In B.C. 137 he acted as quiestor to the army of the con sul Hostilius Mancinus in Spain, where the people of Numantia would treat with no other Roman than the son of their former benefactor. He was thus enabled to save from utter de struction an army of 20,000 Romans, who had been defeated and were at the mercy of the Nmnantines. But the peace was considered dis graceful by the aristocratic party at Rome, and was repudiated. On their return to Rome, the consul was disgraced, as being wholly responsible, but Tiberius was held in high esteem by the populace, who saw in him a champion of justice. His interest in the cause of the common people was roused by the sight of the vast estates of wealthy Romans worked by gangs of slaves, while the poor free citizens had neither land nor means of employment. He determined to dedicate himself to the reform of this deplorable state of things, and became a candidate for the tribuneship, to which he was elected in n.c. 133. The bill which Tiberius, as tribune, now proposed involved a renewing of the Licinian Rogations (q.v.), with ninny modifications designed to lighten the hardships of those who, in good faith or profiting by the laxness of a century or more, had acquired 'title' to the public domain. Such a bill was to be submitted to the vote of the people, tribe by tribe, in the comitia tribeta. Its popularity was manifest, and its passage was assured, when the opposition found a means to block its way, at least temporarily. One of the tribunes, Covina, was induced to put a veto on the measure, and the veto of a tribune over weighed even the voice of the tribes themselves. Tiberius was forced to impeach the tribune, an unheard-of measure and one which laid hiin open to the charge of unconstitutionality. The co mitia tribute, however, voted to depose Ctecina, and the obstacle was removed. The bill was thus passed, and a committee of three (trium viri) was appointed to carry out its provisions, consisting of Tiberius himself, his brother Gains, and Appius Claudius. Not content with the aid given to small farmers by his new law, Tiberius now devised further means of aiding them to begin life with live stock and implements. He suggested that the wealth bequeathed to the Roman people by Attalus, King of Pergamus, should be devoted to this purpose. When the
term of his tribuneship came to an end, he presented himself again for the office, as a measure of self-defense, though this was most unusual. The election took place in June, when the mass of his supporters were busy in the country, and when everything was favorable to the intrigues of his opponents. Partisan feeling ran very high, threats and calumnies were rife, and the election was marked by terrible riots, in cne of which Tiberius himself was killed.
Gams SEMPRONIUS GRACCHUS, younger brother of the preceding (a.c. 159-121). When Tiberius was murdered, Gaius was serving with the army in Spain. He returned to Rome a year or two after, but took no part in public affairs other than to deliver speeches in court, where his elo quence met with telling effect. Upon attaining the qugestorship (n.c. 126), he went with the armies to Sardinia. He had a strong feeling that he should return to Rome to avenge his brother's death and take up his work, and it is said that in his dreams Tiberius's shade appeared and urged him on. Accordingly, before his term as qutestor had expired, he left Sardinia unex pectedly and went to Rome, to the discomfiture of his enemies and political opponents, who feared him, and did not hesitate to resort to persecution and groundless accusations. Gains stood for the tribuneship, and was elected in B.C. 123. He now renewed the enforcement of his brother's laws, which had gradually been allowed to lapse, and carried out wise and important legislation—but all in the interest of the people as opposed to the Senate and the nobles. To develop the resources of Italy, and at the same time to employ the poor, he made new roads throughout all parts of the country, repaired old ones, and erected milestones. He was reElected tribune in n.c. 122, with his friend and supporter, the ex-consul Fulvius Flaccus, among his col leagues. He now proposed a measure for the extension of the Roman franchise to all the Latins, offering at the same time 'Latin fran chise' to all the Italian allies of Rome. The aristocratic party, finding it impossible to check his reforms by open opposition, had recourse to the trick of offering, in bad faith, still greater advantages through the demagogue M. Livius Drusus, thus undermining Gaius's influence with the people. Events drifted into civil war. But Gaius and Fulvius Flaccus were now deserted by most of their supporters; hard pressed by the consul Opimius,. they were compelled to take refuge on the Aventine Hill. Negotiations proved of no avail. Flaccus and his eldest son were murdered, and Gains, trying in vain to escape across to the Janiculum, but seeing all hone gone, ordered his faithful slave to kill him, who then also killed himself (a.c. 121). •