struggle between the patricians and plebeians terminated in a nominal
victory for the latter. From about 275, the outward form of the old
constitution had undergone little change. It was nominally that of a
"moderate democracy." The Senate and offices of state were, in law,
open to all alike. In practice, however, the constitution became an
oligarchy. The Senate, not the Comitias, ruled Rome. Moreover, the
Senate was controlled by a class who claimed all the privileges of a
nobility. The Comitias were rarely called upon to decide a question.
Most matters were settled by a DECREE OF THE SENATE (_Senatus
Consultum_). To be sure the Comitia declared for war or peace, but the
Senate conducted the war and settled the conditions of peace. It also
usually assigned the commands, organized the provinces, and managed the
finances.
The causes for this ascendency of the Senate are not hard to find. It
was a body made up of men capable of conducting affairs. It could be
convened at any time, whereas the voters of the Comitias were scattered
over all Italy, and, if assembled, would not be competent to decide
questions demanding knowledge of military matters and foreign policy.
The Senate and the Roman nobility were in the main the same. All
patricians were nobles, but all nobles were not patricians. The
patricians were the descendants of the original founders of the city.
The nobles were the descendants of any one who had filled one of the
following six curule offices, viz. Dictator, Magister Equitum, Consul,
Interrex, Praetor, or Curule Aedile. These nobles possessed the right to
place in their hall, or carry in funeral processions, a wax mask of
this ancestor, and also of any other member of the family who had held a
curule office.
A plebeian who first held this office was called a _novus homo_, or "new
man."
The Senate, thus made up of patricians and nobles, had at this time the
monopoly of power. Legally, however, it had no positive authority.
The right of the people to govern was still valid, and there was only
wanting a magistrate with the courage to remind them of their legal
rights, and urge the exercise of them.
Such a magistrate was found in TIBERIUS SEMPRONIUS GRACCHUS. With him
was ushered in the contest which lasted for more than a century, and
brought to the surface some of the proudest names of Roman history.
On one side or the other we find them,--MARIUS and SULLA, CAESAR and
POMPEY, AUGUSTUS and ANTONY--arraying Rome against herself, until the
glories of the Republic were swallowed up in the misrule and dishonor of
the Empire.
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus the elder (see Chapter XX.) belonged to the
nobility, but not to the aristocracy. He married CORNELIA, the daughter
of Africanus the elder. They had twelve children, of whom all but three
died young. Two sons and a daughter lived to maturity. The daughter,
SEMPRONIA, married Africanus the younger. The sons, TIBERIUS and GAIUS,
grew up under the care of their noble and gifted mother, who was left a
widow when they were mere boys.
Tiberius (164-133) entered the army, and served under his brother-in-law
during the third Punic war. Ten years later (136) he was Quaestor in
Spain, where he won the affections of the people by adhering to the mild
policy which his father had previously followed. His popular measures
here displeased his brother-in-law, and he ceased to be a favorite
with him. On his return home he passed through Tuscany where he was
astonished to see large tracts of the _ager publicus_ (see Chapter VII.)
cultivated by slave gangs, while the free poor citizens of the Republic
were wandering in towns without employment, and deprived of the land
which, according to law (see the Licinian Rogations), should have
been divided among them, and not held in large quantities by the rich
land-owners.
Tiberius determined to rectify this wrong. In 133 he offered himself as
candidate for the tribuneship, and was elected. He then began boldly the
battle for the commons. He proposed to revise the Agrarian Law, now a
dead letter, which forbade the holding of more than 320 acres of the
_ager publicus_ by one individual. Occupants who had fenced this land
and improved it were to be compensated therefor.
The wealthy classes and the Senate at once took sides against Tiberius,
and the struggle began. One of the other Tribunes, OCTAVIUS CAECINA,
who was himself a large land-owner, taking advantage of his authority as
Tribune, interposed his veto to prevent a vote upon the question.
Gracchus, full of enthusiasm over the justice of his cause, obtained,
contrary to all precedent, the removal of his colleague from office, and
passed his Agrarian Law. Three commissioners were appointed, himself,
his brother, and his father-in-law, APPIUS CLAUDIUS, to carry it into
effect.
It was contrary to the law that a person should hold the office of
Tribune for two successive years. But Gracchus, in his desire to carry
out his plans, determined to violate this rule, and offered himself as
candidate for the next year. The election day came, and when it became
evident that he would be re-elected, the aristocrats, who had turned out
in full force on the Campus Martius with their retinues of armed slaves
and clients, raised a riot, and, killing Gracchus with three hundred of
his followers, threw their bodies into the Tiber (133). Thus was shed
the first blood of the civil struggle. The mob was led by SCIPIO NASICA,
the uncle of Tiberius. Africanus, when he heard of the murder of his
brother-in-law, exclaimed, "Justly slain."
The agrarian law, however, which had passed, was too evidently just to
be openly ignored. The remaining two commissioners continued their work,
until, within two years, 40,000 families were settled on tracts of
the public land which the patricians were compelled to vacate. But the
commissioners became unpopular, for those who received lands were not
always satisfied, and those who were obliged to leave them were enraged.
The commissioners were suspended, and the law repealed.
The mantle of Tiberius fell on GAIUS GRACCHUS. For a time after his
brother's death he retired from politics, and served in the army in
Africa and Sardinia, where he was Quaestor. His valor, wisdom, and
justice made him justly popular, but caused him to be regarded with
suspicion at Rome. In 123 he was elected Tribune, and twice re-elected.
He revived his brother's agrarian law, and became at once the avowed
enemy of the Senate. As a means of increasing his popularity, he
endeavored to admit all the Italians to the privileges of Roman
citizenship, and to limit the price of bread.
Gains gained the favor of the _Equites_ (Knights), the commercial class,
by carrying through the assembly a law by which all judicial functions
were taken from the Senate and intrusted to the Knights. Heretofore
all civil and criminal cases of importance had been tried before a jury
chosen from the Senate. These juries were often venal and corrupt, and
it was a notorious fact that their verdicts could be bought.
The transferring of the juries to the Equites made Gaius for a time
very powerful. He caused another law to be passed, to the effect that no
Roman citizen should be put to death without legal trial and an appeal
to the assembly of the people.
But the plan of Gaius to extend the franchise to all the Italians ruined
his popularity. The Roman citizens had no desire to share their rights
with the Etruscans and Samnites. Riots again broke out, as ten years
before. The aristocracy again armed itself. Gaius with 3,000 of his
friends was murdered in 121, and the Senate was once more master of the
situation.
However, the results obtained by the Gracchi still remained. Forty
thousand peasants had been settled on public land. The jury law was in
force. No Roman citizen could be put to death without trial, unless the
state was held to be in danger.
Nearly all Roman writers unite in attacking the reputation of the
Gracchi; but viewed in the light of to-day their characters were noble,
and their virtues too conspicuous to be obscured.
A few years previous to this, the younger Africanus died (129). His
remark about the death of Tiberius Gracchus gave dire offence to the
popular party, and a few days later he was found dead in his bed,
probably "a victim of political assassination."
Africanus was a man of refinement and culture, a warm friend of
scholars, a patron of the Greek historian POLYBIUS, and of the poets
LUCILIUS and TERENCE. He was opposed to the tendency of his age towards
luxury and extravagance. He was an orator, as well as a general. The
one blot on his career is the terrible destruction of Carthage, which he
possibly might have averted had he shown firm opposition to it.
SCIPIO NASICA, who led the mob against Tiberius, was compelled, though
Pontifex Maximus, to leave the city, and died an exile in Asia.