[Prev Page][Contents][Next Page]

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus

Tiberius Gracchus

We begin in the year 133 BC, with Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus.

Tiberius descended from the aristocracy (on his mother's side), of a fine and ancient house - very respectable. He had had a successful military career and was a war hero. His political goals were nothing more than to introduce certain reforms in order to take care of veteran soldiers and improve the quality of active soldiers.

All of this hardly sounds like the program of a revolutionary, and he was not one. Tiberius Gracchus was an experienced commander who saw a real need for serious reform. What marks him apart from others is the lengths to which he was prepared to go to achieve his reform, and the lengths to which his opponents were prepared to go to stop him.