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The Roman Revolution

Tiberius Gracchus

The Issue

To understand Tiberius' reform proposal, we have to back up and understand the tie between farming, citizenship, the military, and Rome's empire.

The backbone of the Roman army was the citizen-soldier of some means, for the soldier had to provide his own weapons and armor. In practical terms this meant that the Roman army consisted of farmers, while the urban poor avoided military service. By the second century, citizenship had been extended somewhat by including a few cities that had earned Rome's special favor, plus various Roman colonies founded by veterans.

Military service was a heavy burden for a Roman man, for soldiers had to serve in 20 campaigns before they could retire. Because of the many wars between 250 and 150, a young farmer might find himself in military service and not return until he was aged. In the meantime, his farm fell into debt. The returned veteran might have no head for farming, nor inclination. Increasingly, these men drifted to Rome where they joined the legions of the unemployed.

The result was that small farms tended to fail, and they were often bought up by wealthy Romans who created larger and larger estates. These estates were worked by slaves, who were plentiful and cheap because of Rome's many conquests. These wide estates (Latin = audio giflatifundia) were commercial ventures, concentrating on vines, orchards and livestock. There was no need to worry about grain supply, for Sicily and North Africa provided that.

All of this could be, and was, ignored so long as the Roman army was successful. But the Third Punic War was rather an embarassment, with the early part of the war not having gone at all well. In other conflicts, too, Roman armies seemed to have unwonted difficulties.

And then, in 146, both the Fourth Macedonian and the Third Punic wars ended together. Large numbers of men were mustered out, with nowhere to go. The problem could no longer be ignored. But Tiberius Gracchus had a solution.