The brothers Tiberius (162-132 AD) and Gaius Sempronius (153-121 AD) came from an old and wealthy plebeian family of the Sempronii. Their father, who bore the name of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, like the eldest son, was a consul and censor, and their mother Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus the Elder.
THE REASONS
The reforms were caused by the need to stop the degradation (impoverishment) of the Roman peasantry (the social and military support of the Roman state) in order to maintain the high combat effectiveness of the Roman army in the face of growing uprisings of slaves and wars with external enemies.
ESSENCE
Tiberius
The eldest of the brothers is Tiberius, who was elected tribune of the people in 133 BC. e., proposed a bill limiting land ownership to 1,000 yugers per family (about 250 hectares). The remains of state land in small plots - no more than 30 yugers (7.5 hectares) were transferred to poor citizens without the right to sell. Tiberius succeeded in obtaining the adoption of this bill by the People's Assembly. To put the bill into practice, an agrarian commission of three people was created, which included the Gracchi brothers. But the agrarian reform met with fierce resistance from the overwhelming majority of large landowners, from whom the Roman Senate consisted. During the elections to the people's tribunes for 132 BC. f. Tiberius was falsely accused of seeking to become king and killed.
GUY
The youngest of the brothers, Guy, continued the work of Tiberius. In 129 and 122 AD. e. Gaius Gracchus was elected tribune of the people. He renewed in full the agrarian legislation of Tiberius. He continued land reforms, only now he tried to take into account the interests of other classes. The famous grain law of this tribune provided for the sale of bread to the urban plebs at below market prices, in fact, establishing the principle of state support for the poor. Gaius Gracchus also adopted a series of laws that raised the status of horsemen (representatives of the small and medium-sized slave-owning nobility who formed the basis of Roman society), placing, for example, at their disposal a significant part of the entire judicial organization of Rome and giving tax collection in Asia. By decree of Gaius, Roman colonies were created outside of Italy, as a result of which the peasants improved their situation by leaving their homeland and receiving land in a foreign land. The activities of the youngest of the Gracchi brothers were even more ambitious, so that Cicero later even wrote that Gaius "changed the whole state of affairs in the state." This resulted in an open confrontation between the senators and the followers of Gracchus. As a result of the battle, three thousand supporters of Gaius were killed, including Gracchus himself.
RESULTS
As a result of the reform, about 80 thousand Roman citizens received land allotments, thus, the final result of the agrarian reform was the complete triumph of private ownership of land.
After 111r. BC AD, when it was allowed to sell land, most of the new owners were forced to get rid of it, because they could not compete in the market with products created by the cheap labor of slaves. Although the situation of the Roman peasantry improved for a while, the agrarian question was not resolved and could not be resolved within the framework of the slave system. On the contrary, the transformation of a significant part of the state lands into private property only unleashed the game of economic forces and facilitated the process of land concentration.
No matter how raging the reaction was at first, it could not completely destroy the affairs of the Gracchi. The most important events and laws of Gaius Gracchus firmly entered life, as they met urgent social needs. The courts remained in the hands of the horsemen for a long time, the farming system was further developed in the direction that had been outlined by Guy. Probably the Italian colonies survived. A new type of colony outside of Italy also held out. MEANING.
The Gracchi sought to revive the Roman peasantry. But in the II century. BC e. Rome and Italy have already firmly embarked on the path of slaveholding development. The labor of the free farmer was more and more supplanted by the labor of slaves. The peasantry was therefore doomed to ruin and destruction. Thus, the goal that the Gracchi set for themselves was unrealizable. Nevertheless, the movement of the Italic peasants under the leadership of the Gracchi left a deep mark. It marked the beginning of a broad popular movement in Rome and dealt a heavy blow to the senatorial republic.
Sources:
S.I. Kovalev. History of Rome
Ancient Rome. Reading book edited by D.P. Kallistova and S.L. Utchenko. Moscow, "Uchpedgiz", 1953.
Plutarch. Tiberius and Gaius Gracchi // Plutarch. Comparative biographies. M., 1964. T.III.
14. The first and second Sicilian slave uprisings.
The first Sicilian uprising 136-132 BC. e.
40s of the II century BC. e. were a time of relative internal calm and success in the aggressive policy of the Roman Republic. There was no longer a state in the Mediterranean that could fight the Roman legions. But so much discontent accumulated in the depths of Roman society that powerful uprisings of slaves began.
Remembering their recent freedom, heavily exploited slaves were the most fierce enemies not only of specific slave owners, but of the entire Roman state.
By the beginning of the 40s of the II century. BC. large masses of slaves concentrated in Sicily. There were many Greek cities on the island, where the level of agriculture, crafts, trade, based on the work of the classical type was high and the tension between the slaves and their owners reached such an intensity that any spark could lead to a fire. The historian Diodorus wrote:
“... getting rich for a long time and acquiring large fortunes, the Sicilians bought a lot of slaves, taking them away from the nurseries in droves, they immediately put a brand and marks on them. The Lords burdened them with service and cared very little about their food and clothing. Slaves under the yoke of suffering, often subjected to unexpected humiliating punishments, could not stand it. Converging with each other, they began to conspire about treason to their masters, until they brought their plan to fruition.
The uprising began with the murder of one of the most cruel slave owners of Sicily, Damophilus. The slave Evn stood at the head of the conspiracy.
Soon the flames of the uprising engulfed all of inland Sicily. Under the control of the slaves was a significant territory of Sicily. The slaves created their own government.
The leader of the uprising, Evn (throne name Antioch) was proclaimed king. He called his state New Syrian.
Soon, in the West of Sicily, another large center of revolt was formed. It was led by Cleon. Cleon surrendered to the power of Evna-Antiochus and became the second person in the state.
Having destroyed several Roman detachments, the rebels created two strong bases, Ennu and Tauromenium, which they turned into fortresses. The New Syrian state existed for several years, and the Romans, who crushed such strong foreign states, could not break it.
In 132 years. BC e. Polybius Rupilius besieged Tauromenium and blockaded the capital of the rebels, Enna. So the first Sicilian uprising was suppressed.
Second Sicilian Revolt 104-100 BC e.
Suppression of the 1st Sicilian uprising in 132 BC did not eliminate the reasons that raised the slaves to fight. As before, Sicily remained a country of mature slavery. Masses of slaves were subjected to harsh exploitation. Cause for an uprising. There were illegal actions of the governor of Sicily, Licinius Nerva, who did not comply with the order of the Roman Senate on the release of illegally enslaved people.
The slaves revolted first in central Sicily, then in Western. The rebels increased their forces, freed the slaves and armed them, hastily creating a combat-ready contingent.
The slaves began to organize their administration in the occupied territories. At the general meeting, a king was elected, who took the throne name of Tryphon (formerly Salvius). Salvius chose the fortress of Triokalu in the center of Sicily as his capital.
While Salvius was operating in inner Sicily, another powerful center of slave revolt led by Athenion arose in the west of the island.
Athenion recognized the supremacy of Salvia-Tryphon and himself became his first assistant. The unification of two large armies was the climax of the 2nd Sicilian uprising. In fact, all of Sicily was under the control of the rebels. For a year and a half the slaves were masters of Sicily.
In 101 BC. e. a decisive battle broke out under the walls of Triokala, in which the rebels were defeated. Triokala fell.
The long slave uprisings showed how tense the social situation in the Roman Mediterranean society had become.
First of all, one should consider the life and customs of the Roman Republic in the last third of the 2nd century BC. This is necessary in order to understand what were the prerequisites for the agrarian reform of the Gracchi Brothers.
Appian describes the economic and social situation of the Romans very well in his writings: “Mutual strife often occurred between the Roman people and the Senate on issues of legislation, the abolition of debt obligations, the division of public land, and the choice of magistrates. However, these were not in the strict sense of the word civil wars that would go as far as the use of violent actions. The matter was only about disagreements and squabbles that proceeded within the framework of the law and were settled with great respect for the disputing parties, through mutual concessions. (Appian. Civil Wars. Book One).
From the point of view of Tiberius, the main reason for the fall of Roman power was the dispossession of small free farmers who replenished the ranks of the troops. Therefore, Tiberius proposed to stop this process by carrying out an agrarian reform. He hoped to provide landless citizens with land plots, to keep them ruined, to secure those who have them for the future. To allocate land to numerous landless citizens, Tiberius proposed limiting the right to lease public fields by landowners to a certain norm, and confiscating all surplus public lands to allocate plots from them for landless Roman citizens.
Appian appreciates Tiberius Gracchus as an excellent orator and a good reformer: ". So things went on until Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, a man of noble birth, a very ambitious, excellent speaker, thanks to all these qualities very well known to everyone, having become a popular tribune, delivered a magnificent speech ”(Appian. Civil Wars. Book One, 10).
The situation in the national assembly began to change not in favor of Tiberius. His opponents managed to put together a strong opposition.
Tiberius was isolated. In order to bring the agrarian and other reforms to completion, Tiberius had to retain the position of tribune of the people for the next 132 BC, and this was prohibited by law. Tiberius and his supporters decided to put pressure on the vote, which escalated into a bloody battle, during which Tiberius and several hundred of his supporters died.
About the life of Gaius Gracchus after the death of his brother, Plutarch writes in his Comparative Biographies: “After the death of Tiberius, Gaius at first, either fearing enemies, or in order to restore fellow citizens against them, did not appear at all in the forum and lived quietly and solitude, like a man who is not only depressed and downcast by circumstances, but intends henceforth to keep aloof from public affairs; this gave rise to rumors that he condemned and rejected the undertakings of Tiberius. But he was still too young, nine years younger than his brother, and Tiberius died before he was thirty. When, over time, little by little, his disposition began to be revealed, alien to idleness, effeminacy, passion for wine and profit, when he began to hone his gift of speech, as if preparing wings for himself that would exalt him in the state field, it was clearly revealed that Guy's tranquility will soon come to an end. In defending his friend Vettius at some point in court, he brought such joy to the people and aroused such violent enthusiasm that all other orators seemed in comparison with him pathetic boys, and new fears arose among powerful citizens, and they talked a lot among themselves, whatever in which case Gaius should not be allowed to the post of tribune. (Plutarch. Guy Gracchus.1).
Soon Gaius Gracchus was promoted to the stands. He continued land reforms, only now he tried to take into account the interests of other classes. Gracchus Roman agrarian reform
And according to one of the laws of Guy, bread for the Roman poor was to be sold at the lowest prices. By decree of Gaius, Roman colonies were created outside of Italy, as a result of which the peasants improved their situation by leaving their homeland and receiving land in a foreign land.
But the Senate was not satisfied with the excessive activity of the people's tribune, and in particular - the activities of Gracchus. For the third time, Guy was never elected. This served to ensure that supporters of Guy's reforms began to organize detachments armed against his enemies.
This resulted in an open confrontation between the senators and the followers of Gracchus. As a result of the battle, three thousand supporters of Gaius were killed, including Gracchus himself. Unfortunately, the impoverishment of the peasants continued, and numerous land reforms of the Gracchus brothers were defeated. Here is what Plutarch writes about the reforms of Guy Plutarch: “After returning from Africa, Guy, first of all, moved from the Palatine Hill to that part of the city that lay below the forum and was considered the quarters of the common people, because almost the entire poor Rome gathered there to live. He then proposed several more bills to put them to the vote. Common people from everywhere came to his call, but the senate convinced the consul Fannius to remove everyone from the city except Roman citizens. When this strange and unusual order was announced, that none of the allies and friends of the Roman people should show themselves in Rome in the coming days, Gaius, in turn, issued a decree in which he reproved the actions of the consul and volunteered to protect the allies if they did not obey. However, he did not protect anyone, and even seeing how the lictors of Fannius were dragging him, Guy, a friend and hospitable, passed by, either afraid to discover the decline of his influence, or, as he himself explained, not wanting to give his opponents a reason to fights and skirmishes, the occasion they were eagerly looking for. (Plutarch. Gaius Gracchus.12)
Reforms of the Gracchi brothers. Slave labor replaced the labor of the free Roman. As a result of the unprecedented exploitation of slaves, a special class of Roman society appears - optimists ("the best"). Their income was not less than one million sesterces. The Roman peasantry was ruined: next to the small plots of the peasants, huge estates of the Roman rich grew up. The lands in these estates were cultivated by the labor of hundreds and thousands of slaves. Returning from distant campaigns, the peasants found their farms in complete desolation. And large estates prospered, as slaves worked for them constantly.
The ruined peasants rushed to Rome. Cut off from the earth, living on handouts, devastated spiritually, they formed a huge mass of useless people (the so-called lumpen proletariat).
The ruin of the peasantry greatly reduced the combat effectiveness of the Roman army, which for the most part consisted of peasants. And to suppress such powerful uprisings of slaves, such as, for example, the uprising of Spartacus, a strong army was needed. This danger was seen by the most far-sighted politicians. One of them was Tiberius Gracchus. He came from a noble plebeian family.
Tiberius, according to the custom that existed in the Roman Republic, put forward his candidacy for election to the tribunes of the people and was elected to this position in 133 BC. He made three proposals to the people's assembly. First, he proposed limiting the right to use public land to 500 yugers (125 ha). Secondly, Tiberius suggested that all public land in excess of this norm should be taken away from the latifundists and divided between landless and landless peasants, 30 jugers each. Plots should be given to peasants for a small rent without the right to sell. Thirdly, he proposed the creation of a special commission of three persons and to enforce this law.
Tiberius becomes a peasant leader. Naturally, the nobility acted as an ardent opponent of Tiberius. She made no secret of her enmity towards him. The proposed measures were opposed by his colleague, the People's Tribune Octavius. By decree of the Senate, he vetoed the proposals of Tiberius. Then Tiberius took a step unprecedented in the history of Rome. He proposed to the people's assembly to remove Octavius from office. When 17 tribes out of 35 voted, and all voted for the removal of Octavius, Tiberius suspended the vote. He turned to Octavius again, for the last time. He urged him not to dishonor himself and to withdraw his veto. There was no answer. For Octavius, the attitude of the Roman nobility towards him was more important than the interests of the people. So Octavius ceased to be a people's tribune. Consequently, the prohibition he imposed on the proposals of Tiberius also lost its force.
The beginning of the reform met with desperate resistance from the nobility. Then Tiberius put forward his candidacy for the people's tribune for the next year. The Senate went to extremes. Tiberius was killed. More than three hundred of his supporters died with him. The bodies of those killed at night were thrown into the Tiber.
With the death of Tiberius Gracchus, the agrarian law was not repealed, but things progressed slowly. A new rise in the popular movement is associated with the election of the junior Gracchus - Guy - to the post of tribune in 123 BC. In an effort to strengthen his position not only among the peasantry, but also among the urban poor, Guy proposed lowering the price of bread. He put forward a proposal to grant civil rights to all inhabitants of Italy. However, this proposal was doomed to failure. It affected the interests not only of senators, not only of the rich, but also of a wide range of Roman citizens. Every Roman understood that the increase in the number of Roman citizens could adversely affect the advantages that he himself enjoyed. The Senate also arranged for the assassination of Gaius Gracchus.
The movement led by the Gracchi could not be successful. They sought to return to the old, to revive the Roman peasantry. But Rome firmly embarked on the path of slavery. The labor of the free farmer was supplanted by the labor of slaves. The goal set by the Gracchi brothers was utopian. But their work was not lost. It marked the beginning of a broad popular movement in Rome and dealt a serious blow to the aristocratic senatorial republic.
In those days when uprisings and rebellions of slaves were taking place on the lands of the Roman Empire every day, in the center, in Rome itself, a very extensive democratic movement, the so-called movement of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchi, was gaining momentum. The goal of the movement of the Gracchi brothers was the democratization of the entire Roman society and the rejection of the policy that led to it. The situation of the peasants in ancient Rome was very disastrous, the whole point was that they were the majority of the entire population of the Roman Empire, and they had to supply food not only themselves, but also the inhabitants of the cities with their labor on the ground. Due to the fact that the peasant situation was deteriorating, the economic situation of Rome was also falling, since many male peasants had to take part in military campaigns, then all their peasant affairs and worries fell on the fragile shoulders of women. They, in turn, could not physically fully carry out the entire scope of work. Yields plummeted year after year, leading to a decline in livestock. Most peasant families had to live below the poverty line and barely make ends meet. It was then that the government bodies of ancient Rome decided to improve the situation of the peasantry. Some reforms were developed, which received the names: the reforms of the Gracchi brothers.
One of the Gracchi brothers, namely Tiberius, was elected to the people's tribune, where, seeing the plight of the peasants in the Roman Empire, he proposed to carry out a land reform in the country. The essence of the reform was as follows: since most of the best and most fertile plots of land in the Roman Empire were at the disposal of the elite and nobility, they owned and disposed of these lands from ancient times and even inherited, Tiberius Gracchus proposed to return them to the possession of the state . After that, the land is divided equally among the completely impoverished peasants, so that they begin to do their usual business on it. The People's Assembly almost unanimously approved this land reform. Of course, not the Roman nobility, not the elite, did not like this alignment of affairs, to put it mildly. He aroused their furious indignation and protest.
The whole process of land reform progressed very poorly and slowly, the reason for this was the fact that not all high-ranking residents of the ancient Roman Empire wanted to part with their lands, so it was decided to create a special commission to verify the implementation of land reform. One of the members of the commission was the brother of Tiberius Gracchus, Gaius.
At the end of the year, at the next election to the people's tribune, Tiberius Gracchus was again elected. This fact caused a lot of furious discussions and even elementary fights with opponents of his policies and reforms. Nevertheless, the problem could not be resolved peacefully and a fight broke out in the elections to the tribunes, opponents of Tiberius Gracchus spread gossip that he allegedly threatened to replace the emperor, these gossip managed to reach the Senate and the senators were forced to intervene in the confrontation. But, something irreparable happened, during a fierce fight, Tiberius Gracchus received a severe blow to the head with a stone, and subsequently died due to this injury. Companions of Gracchus were arrested and convicted by the Roman court. This was the end of its short life, the reform of the division of the land of Tiberius Gracchus.
Exactly ten years later, at the next elections to the people's tribunes, Tiberius' younger brother Gaius Gracchus put forward his candidacy. He decided to continue the land reform of his deceased brother, but took into account his mistakes, and began to think about the interests of other sections of society, except for the peasants. In his political career, there was also a reform of the judiciary, which consisted in the fact that the horsemen were endowed with sufficient power and authority that they could head the courts and acquired a very huge power over the governors of most Roman provinces. Gaius Gracchus issued a law obliging the poor stratum of Roman society to sell bread at the lowest possible price. Also, according to his decree, colonies began to be created outside the territory of the Roman Empire, and this made life much easier for the peasantry, many went to live and work in new lands.
By that time, the Roman Senate began to annoy the hyperactive popular tribune, and to a greater extent Gaius Gracchus himself. The Roman senators contributed to the fact that in the next elections to the people's tribune, the candidacy of Gaius Gracchus was not elected. The current situation led to the fact that the associates of Gracchus began to gather in organized military units. This led to an open armed confrontation with the Roman Senate, and in one of these clashes, Gaius Gracchus himself and most of his associates died. With the death of the Gracchi brothers, it can be said that their reforms also died. Peasants in ancient Rome continued to get poorer.
In the 30-20s, 2 tbsp. BC, it was headed by the Gracchi brothers, who sought through democratic reforms aimed at redistributing the state land fund to achieve the revival of the free Roman peasantry.
1. Background of the Gracchi movement
An alarming symptom for the ruling class of the Roman Republic was the weakening of the military power of Rome as a result of the landed peasantry. According to the qualification of 154 BC. the number of adult males fit for service in the legions, i.e. those who had landed property and Roman citizenship amounted to about 324 thousand, and after the qualification of 136 BC. e. - already about 318 thousand. According to the qualification principle of recruiting the army, citizens who lost their land were dropped out of the military contingents. The size of the army and its combat effectiveness fell. Rome was losing the character of the ancient policy, in which the overwhelming majority of citizens were agricultural warriors. The power of Rome, its power over the population of the conquered territories and the further expansion of these territories were threatened. Among the poor, discontent was brewing, which could always turn into open indignation. Sicilian uprising of 132 BC showed that in the event of such an indignation, the free poor could easily find themselves in the same ranks as the rebellious slaves.
All this caused serious concern among the ruling elite. The far-sighted part of the nobility was especially alarmed. In one of the aristocratic circles, grouped around Scipio Aemilian, the idea arose of the need for a broad agrarian reform aimed at restoring peasant land ownership, reviving the peasantry, and, consequently, the army. Together with the lands that were privately owned, extensive areas of "public arable land" (ager publica) still continued to exist in Rome. In the middle of the II century BC. most of these lands were occupied by wealthy nobles who made extensive use of the labor of their many slaves. Members of Scipio's circle proposed that this land be redistributed: partly withdraw it from large owners, since the state retained the right to dispose of these land funds, and then distribute this land in small plots among the land-poor or completely landless peasantry.
The glorious conqueror of Carthage, Scipio Aemilian, considered the situation hopeless and assumed the decline of Rome. It was said about him that, as a censor, he ordered prayers not for the expansion of the borders of the state, but for its existence. But neither he nor his contemporaries dared to make any changes in the fatal structure of citizenship.
The Roman nobles, having possessed public lands from generation to generation for many decades, were accustomed to look upon them as their own property, for any attempt at agrarian reform could not but encounter their fierce resistance.
2. Tiberius Gracchus
The struggle for the reform was led by a member of the circle of Scipio and his relative - Tiberius Gracchus. He belonged to a noble plebeian family of Sempronius. The ancestors of Tiberius more than once occupied the leading magistracies. On his mother's side, he was the grandson of Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal at Zama. Early embarking on the path of military and political activity, Tiberius advanced during the siege and assault on Carthage, and then in the Numantine war. It was said that Tiberius, when he went to war, was impressed by the sight of Etruria, where instead of free Roman farmers, he saw only slaves working in the fields or grazing cattle in the pastures of their owners. He was strongly influenced by his close friends - the rhetorician Disfan from Mitylene and the stoic Blossom from Cum. They introduced him to the ideas of reviving the policy of free, equal citizens owning inalienable land allotments that had once inspired the popular leaders and reformers of Hellenistic Greece.
Tiberius was elected tribune of the people for 133 BC. Having assumed this position, he, referring to the ancient law of Licinius and Sextinus, put forward his project of establishing a restrictive norm for tenants of state land, withdrawing their surplus land and redistributing this surplus among landless and landless Roman citizens. According to this bill, the head of the family could own no more than 500 yugers of state land, for each adult son another 250 yugers were added, but in general no more than a thousand yugers per family. Land seized in excess of this norm from large owners was to be divided into plots of 30 yugers and given to poor citizens for eternal and inalienable lease use. To carry out this reform, Tiberius proposed the creation of a special commission of three people authorized to resolve all issues related to the seizure and distribution of land.
After putting forward his bill, Tiberius attempted, as Appian reports, to appeal to the senate.
“The Romans,” he said, “have conquered most of the land and own it, they hope to subjugate the rest of it. [ When? ] the decisive question arises before them: will they acquire the rest of the land due to an increase in the number of combat-ready people, or what they own, the enemies will take away from them due to their weakness.
But the plebs warmly supported Tiberius. The bill of Tiberius became the banner around which the small landowners united to fight against the big slave owners. From all over Italy, peasants flocked to Rome to take part in the vote. Tiberius, who at first thought only about maintaining the military power of Rome, by the logic of events turned into the leader of a broad popular movement. In heated words, he presented to the people's assembly the share of the peasants:
"Wild animals in Italy have their holes, pits and lairs, but the people who fight and die for Italy have nothing but air and light. With their women and children, they roam without protection and without a roof over their heads. When the generals in In battles, they encourage soldiers to fight in defense of home altars and ancestral graves, they tell a lie: of all the Romans, no one has either a home altar or an ancestral grave! They fight in defense of the wealth and luxury of other people; not a piece of land in the property! "
The plebs pushed the moderate and cautious Tiberius onto the path of decisive action. The Senate, as a representation of the nobles, decided not to allow reform and added a second tribune, Mark Octavius, to speak out against Gracchus. Octavius, who himself had public land in the state, declared his "veto" against the reforms. Tiberius put the question to the vote: "Maybe one who goes against the interests of the people can be a people's tribune?" The assembly unanimously gave a negative answer, and one of the freed slaves exacted Octavius from the rostrum. This was an unprecedented case: under the unwritten but steadfastly enforced Roman constitution, no magistrate could be removed from office before the expiration of his term. Having demonstrated that the constitution can be violated with impunity, Tiberius began a hundred-year period of civil strife in the Roman Republic, ending with the liquidation of the republican system.
After the elimination of Octavius, the bill of Tiberius was adopted by the popular assembly. He himself, his younger brother Guy and his father-in-law Appius Claudius were elected to the agrarian commission. Soon Tiberius directly encroached on the prerogatives of the Senate, passing through his head in the popular assembly a law on the use of income from the province of Asia to assist those receiving allotments.
Overcoming the fierce resistance of large landowners, the commission vigorously carried out the reform. But time passed, and the deadline was approaching, the end of Tiberius's summer term as tribune. Understanding well the importance of his power as a tribune for the further implementation of the reform, Tiberius, contrary to custom, re-nominated his candidacy for this magistracy for the next, 132 Nobile, they were already preparing to deal with the hated leader of the plebs, when he became a private person, now they concentrated all efforts to prevent the re-election of Tiberius. Accusations of violating ancient state institutions, striving to seize sole tyrannical power, and so on fell on him.
On Election Day, the enemies of reform armed their clients and admirers to forcibly prevent the vote. The position of Tiberius was complicated by the fact that many of the peasants currently engaged in agricultural work could not get to the elections in Rome. At a meeting of the Senate, one of the senators - Scipio Nazik - called Tiberius a tyrant and called on the consul to save the republic. When the consul declared that he would not start a domestic war, Nazik shouted: "When the consul betrays the republic, then whoever wants to defend rights, let him follow me." A crowd of senators with pieces of broken benches rushed into the street into the crowd of people. Everyone started to run away in fear. Someone seized Tiberius by the toga, and in his tunic he fled. Dear someone kicked him from the bench, he fell, and then he was finished off. Up to 300 of his associates fell, killed with circles and stones. The bodies of Tiberius were not allowed to be buried, but with other corpses he was thrown into the Tiber. Of the surviving Grachians, many were expelled from Rome. Blossom fled to Sicily, took an active part in the uprising and died after its defeat.
But the Senate did not dare to openly liquidate the agrarian commission. She continued her activities after the death of Tiberius (replenished with new members). In general, over the 15 years of its activity, about 80 thousand people received land plots. But the opponents of the reform hindered the work in every possible way. The age of ownership and the lack of documents often made it impossible to determine which plots belonged to the owner on the basis of private ownership and which due to occupation. On this basis, endless litigation and conflicts arose, which the commission must sort out.
3. Gaius Gracchus
For the first time in connection with the agrarian reform, the question of the Italics arose with all its urgency. According to the law of Gracchus, state lands were taken away from the Italian allies of Rome, and they could not receive plots distributed only among Roman citizens. This manifested a certain limitation of the Gracchian movement. Despite the fact that the Italians participated on an equal basis with Roman citizens in all the wars of Rome, the advantages of Roman citizens did not apply to them. Rich Italians sought to obtain Roman citizenship in order to participate on an equal footing in the exploitation of the provinces, Roman citizenship would give poor Italians the right to land allotments and somewhat protect them from the arbitrariness of the Roman authorities.
As the struggle for reform intensified, some of its former supporters from among the nobility began to move away from it. Among them was Scipio Aemilianus. The dissatisfaction of the Italians gave him a reason to slow down the activities of the agrarian commission, for his proposal to resolve cases of disputed land was transferred to the consuls.
In 125 BC. the consul Flaccus, a supporter of the Gracchus reform, proposed to compensate the Italics by granting them Roman citizenship, but this proposal met with such a storm of indignation in the Senate that Flaccus did not even dare to put it to a vote. The failure of the Flacca project sparked an uprising in the Italian cities of Asculi and Fregella.
In this tense situation, the supporters of the agrarian reform managed to get the brother of Tiberius Gracchus - Gaius, who had a brilliant oratorical gift and extraordinary abilities as a statesman, into the people's tribune in 123. Guy held the position of people's tribune for two years and during this time not only restored the agrarian law of Tiberius, but also carried out a number of other important events.
Taking into account the experience of Tiberius, he sought to oppose the senate with a wide bloc, in which not only the rural, but also the urban plebs and horsemen played a large role. The peasantry, scattered in the region, far from Rome, no longer played an important role in the assembly, and the vote was usually decided by the urban proletariat. Therefore, for example, he passed the Corn Law, lowering the price of bread to 6 1/3 ass per fashion, which was about half the usual price. He demanded that the plebs be admitted free of charge to theatrical performances. By passing these laws, Gaius Gracchus managed to significantly increase the number of his supporters.
At the same time, Guy tried to get himself the help of powerful capitalists - equity (horsemen). Another law of Gaius gave to the Roman horsemen the collection of taxes and duties established for the province of Asia. In order to protect the tax-farmers from prosecution, the courts for dealing with cases of abuse in the provinces were taken from the senators, and transferred to the horsemen, from whose ranks the big tax-farmers came out. The Asiatic Farming Act was also beneficial to many more or less wealthy plebeians who took part in farming societies. In order to increase the income of representatives of these circles, Gaius Gracchus outlined a plan for the extensive state construction of roads and public buildings, to which contractors with their slaves were involved; building work could also bring income to the free poor. By doing this, he undermined the authority of the Senate and, besides, he attracted equity that could help him both with their money and influence.
Thanks to those laws of Guy, the voices of both the capitalists and the proletariat are ensured at the people's meetings, and then they will operate their influence. "When the people accepted these rights," writes Plutarch, "Gaius received almost monarchical power for himself. So the senate was subordinate to him." He made full use of his tribune rights, so that with his "veto" he could eliminate all sorts of orders of officials and at the people's assembly sympathizing with him he could pass all sorts of laws. unhindered became a second tribune, because no one dared to speak against him.
Then Guy began to carry out his main plan - the restructuring of the Roman state and citizenship. His initiative went in different directions. So, he reorganized the division of citizens into centuries, eliminating senators from the centuries of cavalry. He passed a new law on military service, ended the state's obligation to deliver clothes to soldiers, forbade the recruitment of young people under 17 into the army. Settled the division of provinces among the consuls. Reforming in the image of the state of public tribute. Started building new roads. He began to besiege new colonies, both in Italy and in the provinces. Fumbling the agrarian laws of Tiberius. He himself introduced all the adopted laws into life, he himself looked after everything and managed everything.
"Although there were so many great works, he did not know fatigue, he performed everything with extraordinary speed and robotism, so that even those who hated him and were afraid of him were surprised at his talents, with which he did everything and vikinchuvav" Plutarch.
Finding new land funds to provide allotments to the poor, Gaius Gracchus first thought of resorting to the colonization of the provinces. He passed a law on the establishment of a colony on the site of the destroyed Carthage, where 6 thousand people were to receive 200 yugers of land to organize strong farms. This measure was supposed to help strengthen Roman influence and power in the provinces, and at the same time defuse the tense situation in Italy.
The split among the supporters of Gracchus was intensified by the speech of the protege of the nobility, tribune Livius Drusus, who put forward a deliberately impracticable, demagogic proposal to establish 12 colonies in Italy itself, which suited the poor more than leaving for a distant African province. Soon after Gaius Gracchus returned from Africa, where he went to establish a new colony, meaning to receive a third tribunate, the unfaithful people turned away from him, and his opponents launched a decisive offensive. The meeting reached the point of armed struggle, and the Senate declared a state of emergency in Rome. Like 11 years ago, Rome witnessed a bloody clash, and once again the Gracchians were defeated. Gaius Gracchus and his supporters fortified themselves on the Aventine Hill, but an army was sent against him and a siege began. The senators, some of the horsemen who joined the Senate, and hired Cretan riflemen opposed the Gracchians. Guy got out of the Aventine and tried to escape across the Tiber. But when he saw that his enemies were pursuing him, he ordered his faithful slave to kill himself. A large reward promised by the Senate was paid on his head. Then the pogrom of his supporters began - up to 3000 of them were killed, their bodies were sunk in the Tiber, their property was confiscated, and women were not allowed to wear mourning. On the site where the domestic struggle broke out, the Senate ordered the construction of a sanctuary of the goddess Concord.
4. Results of the Gracchi movement
The struggle, led by the Gracchi, ended in failure. The results of this struggle showed that the preservation of stable small landownership - one of the foundations of the republican system - in the conditions of developed slavery, rapidly growing monetary relations and usury had become impossible. In this regard, the role of the rural plebs in the political life of Rome is becoming less and less significant.
Due to the victory of the Senate, the reforms of Gaius Gracchus fell. Before the agrarian law was demolished. Decree from 119 BC. it was decided that the state land was in the hands of private rulers, passes into their ownership. Thus, the nobility secured all those public lands that the Gracchi wanted to transfer to the people. The peasantry made little use of the allotment of soil. At first, the decree obliged that lands obtained by the power of agrarian laws should not be freely sold to anyone; the peasants are obligated to protect them and not to leave their dwellings. It seemed that by doing this the peasantry would come to prosperity and become a strong stratum. But in reality it turned out that the peasants could no longer be saved from their decline. The new settlers from the urban proletariat had already lost the habit of farming.
The broad colonization projects advocated by Gaius Gracchus also fell. Only in some areas were formed colonies intended for Roman settlers. After the suppression of the Grachians, the movement for agrarian reform temporarily subsided, partly because many had already received land, partly due to subjugation and turned into a province of part of transalpine Gaul, where in 118 BC. The colony of Narbonne was founded. A new field of activity opened up here for many Romans and Italics, who quickly filled this area, which was soon completely Romanized.
A number of further agrarian laws, the result of which was summed up by a law issued in 111 BC. That is, nullified the results of the Gracchi reform. This law declared Italian and provincial lands occupied by private individuals to be private property, and allowed the sale of allotments distributed by the agrarian commission of the Gracchi. The result was an even greater concentration of land in the hands of a few. Already in 104 BC. the tribune of the people, Marcius Philip, declared that no more than 2,000 families in Rome had at least some kind of real estate. A huge mass of landless peasants turned into clients of the nobles, receiving from them small plots of land for paying part of the harvest and performing various duties. Since most of the state land of Italy passed into private hands, it was necessary to find new ways to solve the agrarian problem. The question of the Italians also remained unresolved.
But the Senate was not led to repeal Guy's really harmful laws on the distribution of bread in cities on equity courts. The free distribution of bread became the privilege of the Roman proletariat, which could no longer be eliminated, since a revolution would come in Rome. This harmful custom was supported by various ambitious figures, thanks to which they obtained the favor of the people for their own purposes. This "number of grain law" to a large extent also undermined the agrarian reforms, because the inhabitants of the villages moved to the city, hoping to find easier living conditions here than on arable land. On the other hand, the equity retained the rights of judges - a privilege that allowed them to cover up the abuses that were tolerated in the provinces.
The content of the struggle that unfolded in the Roman Republic after the suppression of the Gracchi movement was that the large slave owners strove for the very development of private property and sharply opposed all its restrictions. Objectively, it was a struggle for the broad development of the slave-owning mode of production, which turned out to be incompatible with the predominance of small peasant farms. But, since with the development of large-scale private landownership and the dispossession of land, the peasants became slaves, the political rights of the general population were more and more curtailed, it was at the same time the struggle of large slave owners against slave-owning democracy, which was possible only in the conditions of the ancient polis, consisting of citizens, is, together with those landowners. Outwardly, this struggle was expressed in complex clashes between the optimates (i.e., the best) and the popular (i.e., the people), as adherents of the nobility and supporters of the plebs began to call themselves.
The Equity state moved once in one direction, once - in the second. Equity social competitions often followed the same paths as nobles. But because the nobility did not want to allow equity in power, they were forced to go hand in hand with the popular. However, more than once the radicalism of the masses frightened them, and they were ready to compromise with the Senate.
