1. Roman Republic 2 (130sBC) Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus 168-133BC

2. Roman Expansion (in Italy)
Rome’s Conquest of Italy
Took 200 years
Granted full or partial citizenship to Italians
Tax and legal benefits
Developed loyalty in conquered Italian areas
Roman colonies
Established in strategic locations
Established by treaty
Troops sent when needed
Colonies were mostly for trade, with some military purposes

3. Roman Expansion (outside Italy) 264 – 133BC
Punic Wars.
Cathage & Rome compete over Sicily Sardinia, & Spain
Phoenicians (Poeni)
2nd Punic war started 218BC
Hannibal attacked Rome
Help from non-Roman Italians
lasted 16 yrs & ruined agriculture in Italy.
3rd Punic war resulted in total destruction of Carthage in 133BC by (T. Gracchus)

5. Factors destablizing the republic
POPULARES & OPTIMATES: Two factions that developed within the senate
Optimates: traditionalists - wanted Rome controlled for & by aristocrats (‘best’)
Populares: senators who used the plebs backing to further their political ambitions by making popular laws like cutting grain price, debt relief, land redistribution.
EQUITES (knights) arose in 1st century BC after laws forbade Senators from commercial activity.
The upper class who chose commerce rather than politics as their careers
Many became very wealthy but banned from the cursus honorum.
Sought political power through bribery.
WEALTH increased with territory and trade opportunities.
Nobles wanted luxury, country estates,
Plebs wanted land, jobs, food. Politicians bribed them for political support
Less interested in serving in the army, and working the land (slaves )
Morals in decline – people getting “soft”, political corruption increasing.
SLAVES poured in from the many from conquered territories
Used as farm, city, & household workers (barbarians), doctors, teachers (Greek)
Could be granted freedom – not always a cruel life
Some slave revolts (Spartacus the most famous in 73BC)
ECONOMIC & LAND CRISIS from 218BC
Hannibal laid waste to Italy for 15 yrs
Rome got cheap staple foods from Egypt, Sicily, etc.
Soldier/farmers returning from the war found them ruined, & were forced to seek employment in Rome (leaving the land to wealthy who used them for luxury crops.)
They fled to Rome, becoming an unemployed mob (proletarii), & a source of political & social unrest

6. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus
Tiberius Gracchus
Grandson of Scipio Africanus (who defeated Hannibal in 202BC)
From an illustrious consular family (father advanced Pleb welfare as a tribune).
A hero of the 3rd Punic war
Solving the Land tenure and Military service link was his goal
many Italian farmers were landless refugees in Rome.
army was undermanned as only landowning citizen’s could be recruited
But much land was held illegally by the wealthy (senators and knights)
Tiberius elected Tribune of the Plebs for 133BC
Proposed a law (lex Sempronia Agraria) to allow farming of “common land”
Parceled this land to give to Rome’s urban poor (proletarii)
Offended wealthy land owners but popular with plebs (especially the proletarii)
Why so much opposition to this law? Because his methods seen as serious attack on Mos maiorum
took it straight to Plebs assembly (concilium plebs)
rather than seeking consent from the Senate
deposed a fellow Tribune (Marcus Octavius) for using his veto to block it
Veto was to be honoured always
senate refused to pay for it, so he had the Plebs Assembly vote money left to Rome by King Pergamum
Finance was the business of the senate , not the tribunes
Stood for a 2nd term to make sure his bill continued
Consecutive terms were not allowed
Senate & opposition set off a riot and killed him and 300 of his supporters (claimed he wanted to be king).
Setting a fatal precedent of using murder as a political weapon
These precedents attacking mos maiorum (& risking republic’s collapse)

7. The mos Maiorum had been badly attacked by both sides.
Tiberius took law straight to Plebs assembly (concilium plebs)
Without 1st seeking consent from the Senate
deposed a fellow Tribune (Marcus Octavius) for using his veto to block it
Veto were protected by sacrosanct
senate refused to pay for it, so he had the Plebs Assembly vote money left to Rome by King Pergamum
Finance was the business of the senate, not the tribunes
Stood for a 2nd term to make sure his bill continued
Consecutive terms were not allowed
Senate & opposition had him killed (300 of his supporters) – claiming he wanted to be king.
a fatal precedent of using murder as a political weapon