The gracchus brothrs. Overview The period of Roman Republic, from 509 to 27 BC, witnessed Rome's...
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Transcript of The gracchus brothrs. Overview The period of Roman Republic, from 509 to 27 BC, witnessed Rome's...
The gracchus brothrs
Overview
•The period of Roman Republic, from 509 to 27 BC,
witnessed Rome's growth from city-state to superpower of
the ancient Mediterranean world.
• By the middle of the second century BC, Rome had
established colonies in Africa and Greece as well as
throughout the Italian Peninsula.
Con’td•However, growth also produced social tensions and conflict, as the privileged
and poor struggled to come to terms with changes brought about by Rome's
increasing power, wealth, and prestige.
•Two brothers of the patrician class, Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus,
known as the Gracchi, attempted to institute reforms aimed at closing the gap
between rich and poor, between the powerful and disenfranchised.
•Their efforts met with some success but at great cost. Both brothers were
killed during violent clashes, and the social strife they hoped to remedy
ultimately led Rome toward civil war.
• The Rise and Fallhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wODHnZ77iE&list=PLjm6SfO6-6WjjU_xYqMLeujjUPViCTwMj
Growing Gap between Rich and Poor
•Much of the early republic's military success depended on
citizen-soldiers, mostly peasant farmers who fought for Rome
when needed and then returned home to work their land.
• End of Punic Wars, thousands of conquered people were brought
back to Rome to work as slaves on large estates, owned by
wealthy aristocratic families.
• Soldiers, who had been required to leave their lands to fight in
the wars, returned home to discover that they could not
compete with the larger holdings worked by slave labor.
•Also, much of the farmland had been devastated in the fighting.
Con’td
Imported grain from Rome's colonies lowered the price farmers could get for
domestically grown grain, forcing many small landowners to sell their property to
those who owned the large estates.
Former peasant farmers moved to cities—Rome in particular—where they
eventually became a large class of unemployed, urban poor.
Tiberius
Gracchus
Tiberius Gracchus Struggles
to Implement Land Reform
• Roman aristocrats =land ownership was
most socially acceptable and prestigious
form of wealth
• After some political maneuvering, however,
the land reform bill was passed.
Unfortunately for Tiberius, he had made
numerous enemies in the process.
• When Tiberius decided to break with
convention and stand for reelection, his
enemies became further enraged. After one
particularly fractious meeting, several
senators left the Roman Senate in anger.
Shortly thereafter, a riot broke out in the
Roman Forum, and Tiberius was clubbed
to death, apparently by a mob organized by
his enemies in the Senate.
Sympathizing with the peasant farmers
Tiberius began calling for land reform.
Plan = redistribute public land, which
had been taken over by Roman
aristocrats, and divide it evenly among
landless laborers, who would then also
serve in the Roman Army.
In 133 BC, was appointed tribune, and
he set about drafting his bill.
He enjoyed public support but met with
powerful resistance from many senators
and members of the wealthy elite.
Videp Cliphttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8SaB7O2JRM (Murder of Tiberius Gracchus - Ancient Rome – BBC)
Gaius
Gracchus
Gaius Gracchus Pushes for
Further Reforms
• Gaius' most controversial plan was to grant
Roman citizenship to the Latin's, native people
of Italy who never had enjoyed the rights of
citizens.
• Minimal support for this reform, despite the fact
that the Latin's had long been loyal allies,
fighting alongside Roman soldiers during the
wars that had brought riches and glory to Rome.
• Senate took the opportunity in 121 BCE to pass
a law that would stop the colonization of
Carthage, which Gaius had supported.
• In protest, Gaius and his followers organized a
demonstration. The Senate responded by
issuing a decree that, in effect, declared Gaius
an enemy of the state and sanctioned the use
of armed force against him. That action led to
the murder of thousands of supporters of Gaius
on Aventine Hill. Gaius died when he ordered his
servant to kill him with his own knife suicide?
Tiberius' younger brother Gaius became
tribune in 123 BCE and continued to push for
reforms aimed at improving the lives of
peasant farmers, the urban poor, and common
foot soldiers.
Gaius was a skillful politician and a powerful
speaker who was able to garner support for a
number of measures, including programs for
storing surplus grain for distribution to the poor,
supplying clothing for soldiers, and reforming
the judiciary. Just as his brother had done,
Gaius incurred the enmity of several powerful
members of the Senate, who felt threatened
that their power and authority were being
undermined.
Let’s see this in animation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmiAl374b0Q
Aftermath
•The Gracchi recognized the dangers to the Roman Republic that were
posed by the concentration of wealth, land, and power into the hands of a
few.
•Their attempts to remedy the situation through the democratic programs
were bitterly opposed by the Senate.
• In the years that followed the deaths of the Gracchi, the ruling classes
continued to focus their attention on increasing their wealth and power,
which served only to increase growing social tensions.
•This paved the way for the eventually dictatorship and Empire of Rome.
Youtube hmwk!
•Watch “Rome - The Rise and Fall of an Empire - Part IV – Tiberius” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La5aqJZqkrE
•40:06 min.