Gaius Gracchus
The murder of his brother, Tiberius Gracchus, influenced the extent and method to which Gaius implemented his reforms. It can be seen through Gaius’s obvious continuation of Tiberius’s work (shown through his reinstation of his older brother’s agrarian law, with a few modifications that saw him gain the favour of citizens and farmers alike). Despite the fact that Gaius passed many laws that indeed benefitted the lower classes of Roman society, if it had not been for Tiberius’s main agrarian reform, the land bill, Gaius would not have had anything to base his reform agenda on. In contrast to Tiberius’s very small list of reforms, it can be seen just from this that Gaius was definitely more broad and effective in administering his reforms, as he covered a wide range of problems encompassing both socio-political and socioeconomic reforms. Examples of these include the Lex Frumentaria, the Lex Acilia, numerous judicial laws pertaining to the punishment of officials concerning his brother’s murder, and other assorted economic laws. In this essay, the extent to which Tiberius had an influence on Gaius’s political and personal life will be discussed.
Gaius’s early reforms and laws were aimed at retaining and building upon the name of his brother. One of the earliest legislative measures that Gaius implemented was aimed at diminishing “the investigations that had led to the execution of so many of his brother’s supporters” (Boatwright, Gargola, Talbert, 2004, p. 161), and did so by punishing any magistrate who had inflicted a capital sentence from an investigation (quaestio) not authorised by the concilium plebis. As a result of this law, the consul who had been responsible for the tribunal that had tried many of his brother’s supporters was exiled. Also, Gaius re-enacted Tiberius’s land bill, slightly changing it, allowing larger allotments of land in order for free labourers to be employed. This prevented the back-lash that Tiberius encountered after the...
Please login to view the full essay...