Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus : born 217 B.C. in Rome, died in 154 B.C. in Rome

A Roman tribune, who was slain in a popular commotion, the consequence of his having attempted to effect an equalization of property, throughout the republic.
He died in the year 621 of Rome, and 133 years before the birth of Chrirt.

The Gracchi, as they are usually styled, were brothers, sons of Sempronius Gracchus, who was honoured with the censorship, and twice with the consulate. Their mother was Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, a woman of powerful mind and extraordinary accomplishments. At the death of her husband, she was left with twelve children, towards whom, according to Roman sentiments, she performed her duty in the most exemplary manner. On their education she bestowed every possible care; and so anxiously desirous was she to give them her undivided attention, that, when Ptolemy, king of Egypt, offered to her his hand in marriage, and thus proposed to make her the partner in his throne, she unhesitatingly refused him.

Cornelius refusing the hand of the king of Egypt
Laurent de La Hyre, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Her affection, however, experienced many severe trials. Nine of her children died in their childhood or youth. She survived even her two remaining sons, Tiberius and Caius; and had to witness, in the affliction which they brought upon themselves, upon their family, and upon the Roman republic, a series of the most dreadful calamities.

During their early years, these sons were justly esteemed for their accomplishments and exemplary conduct. They were alike brave, temperate, liberal, and eloquent; but, in other respects, they exhibited considerable dissimilarity of character. Tiberius was diffident, mild, and deliberate. Caius was animated, vehement, and difficult of control. Each was distinguished for eloquence; but, in this respect also, they differed much from each other. Tiberius, in his public harangues, exhibited great modesty of action; but Caius moved vehemently from one side of the rostrum to the other, threw his gown over his shoulder, and spoke in the most empassioned manner. The eloquence of Tiberius was chiefly calculated to excite pity, and that of Caius to inspire terror. They likewise differed much in their habits and manner of living. Tiberius was plain and frugal; and Caius, though temperate, in comparison with other Romans, was a prodigal and an epicure when compared with his brother.

It was remarkable of Caius, in his public speaking, that, when he was borne away by the vehemence of his passion, he would strain his voice beyond its natural pitch, utter abusive expressions, and disorder his whole frame. Conscious of this, he adopted an extraordinary mode of guarding against it. He stationed, among the auditors, one of his servants, who blew softly a small ivory flute, whenever he heard his master elevating his voice, and becoming too much animated in the debate. The sound of this instrument served as an indication for the orator to moderate both his tone and his gestures. Some writers have absurdly stated that a flute-player stood behind him, for the purpose of animating his eloquence, by playing quick and lively tunes, and of repressing it by soft and plaintive airs. Cicero asserts that the man, as occasion required, breathed a note to rouse him if languid, or to moderate him if he was speaking too harshly.

Tiberius Gracchus was nearly nine years older than Caius, and consequently became much earlier immersed in politics and public business. He had acquired an extraordinary degree of reputation, even before he had attained the age of manhood; and he was very early admitted into the college of Augurs. Whilst he was in this situation, Appius Claudius, the president of the senate, gave to him his daughter in marriage.

In conformity to the Roman custom, he passed his youth in the military service. He had a command in Africa, under the younger Scipio, who had married his sister; and, at the siege of Carthage, he is stated to have been the first who scaled the walls of that city. Few men were more esteemed for correctness of conduct, and few were more beloved than he.

In the year of the city 615, he was appointed to the office of quaestor; and he served under the consul Caius Hostilius Mancinus, in the Numantian war. Mancinus, though not devoid of courage, was an unsuccessful generally and, in this war, he experienced some severe reverses. But Tiberius obtained distinction by his conduct, his bravery, and his talents. The Numantians compelled the Roman army to retreat, cut off great numbers of the troops, and surrounded the remainder of them among rocks and impenetrable valleys. Mancinus sent an herald to sue for peace; but the Numantians would treat with no one except Tiberius. They were well acquainted with his character; and they entertained a high respect for the memory of his father, who, in a former instance, after having defeated them, had granted to them favourable terms of peace.

The good faith which Tiberius exhibited in this treaty, subsequently proved of great personal importance to him. The Romans, having hastily retired from their camp, the Numantians entered and pillaged it; and, among other articles, they carried off the books and papers relative to his quaestor ship. As the loss of these would have proved of irreparable injury to him, he determined to return to Numantia, and attempt the recovery of them. On his arrival there, the Numantian magistrates declared themselves highly gratified in having an opportunity to oblige him. They treated him with the utmost kindness, restored to him his books, and offered to him the choice of whatever he would accept from the spoils they had taken. He, however, would receive nothing except a small quantity of frankincense, to be used in the public sacrifices.

On his return to Rome, the conduct of Tiberius was highly applauded by the population; but the senators refused to ratify the terms of the negociation, which they considered disgraceful to the Roman character.

Incensed against the senate, and flattered by the favourable opinion of the people, Tiberius, from this time, appears to have invariably opposed the one, and sought to gratify the wishes of the other. In passing through Etruria, on his way to Spain, having observed many parts of the country to be, as Plutarch states, destitute of population, except a few husbandrnen or shepherds, the slaves of great landholders, he resolved to turn this circumstance to advantage, in endeavouring to effect an equalization of property; and he could not possibly have adopted any plan which was more effectually calculated to elevate him in the estimation of the poor, than that of procuring a distribution among them of the property of the rich.

Being appointed one of the tribunes of the people, he communicated his project to Crassus the chief pontiff, Mutius Scaevola the lawyer, at that time also consul, and Appius Claudius the father-in-law of Tiberius; and obtained their approbation of it. A complete equalization of property, he was aware, would be altogether impracticable. He consequently began by proposing only to limit the estates of the great, and not altogether to divide them. He under took to revive what was called the Agrarian law; alaw which had been enacted about two hundred and forty years before, but which had fallen into the disuse which its absurdity and injustice deserved. By this law, no Roman was to possess more than a limited portion of land, which, would be about three hundred acres; a hundred head of the larger cattle, and five hundred head of lesser cattle. Tiberius proposed, in a general assembly, the renewal of this law; and proposed to divide the surplus of the great estates among the People.

His scheme was, of course, received by the population with great applause; and the speech by which he supported it is well deserving of attention: The savage beasts (he said) have their dens, their places of repose and refuge; but the men who have borne arms, and who have exposed their lives for the safety of their country, enjoy nothing in it, but the air and the light. They have no houses nor settlements; they are constrained to wander from place to place, with their wives and children; and the generals do but mock them, when, at the head of their armies, they exhort the men to fight for their temples and their altars. For, among so many Romans, none is possessed of either altar or monument; none has a house of his own, nor seat of his ancestors to defend. The private soldiers fight and die, to increase the wealth and the luxury of the great; and those are, insultingly, called masters of the world, who have not a foot of ground for their possession. An harangue, like this, spoken to a tumultuous population, (and it must be recollected that the multitude which he addressed were all obliged to be soldiers if their country required their service,) naturally inflamed their minds. They were eagerly desirous of having the bill passed into a law. So daring an attack upon property, not the senate only, but even Marcus Octavius, one of the tribunes, strenuously opposed. To the latter, Tiberius offered a full indemnity, for any loss he might personally sustain, if he would desist from opposition, but to no purpose; and, enraged at the conduct of his colleague, he became more obstinate in his resolutions, and more violent in his proceedings than before. He proposed that the landholders should absolutely cede the excess of their possessions, beyond the number of acres already mentioned. The population assembled,from all quarters, to vote for the passing of so agreeable a law; and, to remove the opposition of his colleague, Tiberius found means to have him deprived of his office. The law was passed; for the chief power was vested in the people, and the senate could not prevent them from sanctioning any favourite measure, how injurious soever it might prove to the state. Tiberius, his brother Caius, and Appius Claudius, were appointed commissioners for carrying it into effect.

Some writers assert that Tiberius was roused into his proceedings respecting the Agrarian law, by placards and writings upon the walls of the city, calling upon him to restore, to the plebeians, their share of the public lands: others, that he was instigated to them by the ambition of his mother, who frequently declared to her sons that she was called the mother-in-law of Scipio, and not the mother of the Gracchi; but, when all the circumstances of his history are duly considered, it will appear that he adopted them chiefly through a desire of attaining eminence in the state.

Tiberius was now at the height of his power. For a few months he enjoyed almost sovereign authority; but so much alarm was excited among the possessors of property, that confusion reigned through every department of the state, and in every province of the country. In vain did he assert that he had demanded of them nothing inequitable. It was not easy to convince the rich that any proceedings could be equitable, which should forcibly take from them their possessions; which should strip them of their houses, their lands, their inheritances, and the burial-places of their ancestors; which should deprive their wives and their children of the estates which the law, as it had previously stood, had allowed to be settled upon them. In every possible way they opposed the proceedings of the commissioners, and, at length, they excited so much clamour, that Tiberius either was, or affected to be, in danger of losing his life. He put on mourning, and, leading his wife and children into the forum, he recommended them to the protection of the people, while he declared himself ready to give up his own life to the service of the public.

About this time, Attalus, king of Pergamus, dying without children, bequeathed his whole property to the Roman people: this Tiberius immediately ordered to be seized and divided among the poor, for the purchase of agricultural and other implements.

The majority of the senators alleged that, by all these proceedings, he was merely seeking to obtain popularity, for the purpose of elevating his family to the highest dignities of the state: that he was desirous of raising his father-in-law to the consulate, his brother to the tribuneship, and of himself continuing in his office beyond the legal time. Some of them asserted that he countenanced, and associated with, even the meanest of the people, for the purpose of obtaining aid in elevating himself to the regal dignity. But what first tended to turn the scale of popular favour against him, was an accusation that, by the unjustifiable mode in which he had caused Octavius to be deprived of the tribuneship, hehad robbed that important office both of its security and its dignity.

The friends of the nobility exerted all their efforts to counteract, in the minds of the people, the influence which Tiberius had obtained; and, on the other hand, Tiberius, as the only means of securing him self in power, proposed several additional laws in favour of the people.

He now either was; or pretended to be, fearful lest his enemies should attack his house. With tears in his eyes, and with every indication of deep distress, he stated his alarm to the population; and a great number of them erected tents before it, and guarded him through the night. On the ensuing morning, several circumstances occurred which the Roman historians say foreboded that some evil would befall him. On going to the capitol, he stumbled at the threshold of his house, and struck his foot with so much violence, that blood gushed from the wound: as he was proceeding, he observed, towards his left, two ravens fighting on the top of a house, one of which threw down a stone, that fell close to his foot. Although these omens are believed to have operated strongly on his mind, he proceeded to the capitol, where he was received, by his friends, with loud and continued acclamations; and, by his enemies, with tremendous shouts and hootings of disapprobation.

One of the senators, whose name was Flaccus, knowing that, amidst the uproar, it was impossible he could be heard, ascended an eminence, and made a signal to Tiberius that he had something of importance to communicate to him. Tiberius having ordered the people to make way, Flaccus approached him, and stated that several wealthy Romans had armed their adherents, with the intention of assassinating him. No sooner was this intellgence communicated to the persons immediately around, than they seized the halberts of the men who were stationed to keep off the crowd. These they broke, and distributed among the friends of Tiberius, for the purpose of defending him against any assault that might be made. The distant persons of the crowd, surprised at so extraordinary an occurrence, called aloud to know what was the reason of it; and Tiberius having, in vain, endeavoured to make him self heard, put his hand to his head, to indicate the danger with which he was threatened. His enemies, on seeing this, ran to the senate, and informed them that Tiberius had demanded a crown; and alleged his gesture in proof of the fact. A dreadful commotion ensued, in which many persons were killed. Tiberius endeavoured to escape; but, in his fight, he stumbled over the bodies of the slain. As he was recovering himself, Publius Satureius, one of his colleagues in the tribuneship, struck him on the head, with the leg of a stool; a second and fatal blow was given to him by Lucius Rufus, who afterwards prided himself upon it, as one of the most glorious exploits of his life.

Such is the account of his death, that has been given by Plutarch. Other writers assert that he was slain on the spot where he had been standing; and others that the massacre began in the forum, and that Tiberius fled thence to the capitol.

Paterculus says that Scipio Nasica, having ascended the highest steps of the capitol, called aloud on all who regarded the safety of the commonwealth, to follow him in an attack on Tiberius; that, immediately, the chief of the nobility, the senate, and most of the men of equestrian rank, as well as such of the plebeians as had not been infected with the pernicious designs of the Gracchi, rushed together against Tiberius, who, with some bands of his partisans, was standing in the court; that he betook himself to flight, but that, as he was running down the slope of the capitol, he was struck to the ground with a piece of a broken bench.

Thus terminated the career of Tiberius Gracchns, at the early age of thirty years. His triumph had been short, for he was killed on the very day that his adherents were about to continue him in the tribuneship for a second year; and the commotion in which he fell, was the most important of any that had taken place in Rome since the expulsion of the kings.

Authorities-Livy, and Plutarch.