Tiberius Gracchus, Roman Empire

It is 137 BCE, and young Tiberius Gracchus, the scion of a wealthy plebeian family, war hero, the man believed to be the first to scale the city wall during the siege of Carthage, is touring the Italian countryside. Tiberius notices that ordinary Romans are out of work—the powerful men who made their fortunes leading Rome’s wars abroad have bought up much of the land, and the labouring jobs of free citizens have been taken by slaves brought to Italy after the wars. Additionally, scars from the destruction wrought by Hannibal’s marauding armies are still visible. It is as if the poor who fought in Rome’s wars abroad fought for their own dispossession.

A century or so ago, when Rome won the Italian countryside, it was decided that some of the land would go on sale, but another portion would be held in common by Roman citizens, allocated to the poor who could cultivate it for a small rent. To prevent the rich from offering higher rents and therefore buying up the land, each man is limited to 500 acres, but this has failed to deter greedy landlords, who find loopholes and buy up far more than their legal allowance, making the law worthless.

Tiberius manages to have himself elected as a Tribune of the Plebeians, a powerful political position meant to represent the interests of the city’s poorer classes. The Tribune has the power to veto any law and can propose legislation for the popular Assemblies to vote on.

As Tribune, Tiberius makes a proposition to the Roman public: the rich landowners who occupy the agricultural land illegally will be required to turn it over to the poor in exchange for the value of the land, paid to them by the treasury. Writing a few centuries later, Plutarch notes that this is an extremely generous offer and that, by all rights, the rich should have been forced off the land and fined. The fact that Tiberius makes his proposition directly to the people is important here—the usual practice is to propose to the Senate first. Still, Tiberius goes over their heads, appealing directly to the masses, threatening the precedence of the Senate.

The poor are willing to accept the deal and let bygones be bygones. However, the rich are furious and accuse Tiberius of attempting to foment revolution. His opponents convince Tiberius’ colleague in the tribunate, Marius Octavian, to veto the law. But Tiberius gathers his supporters and has Marius removed from his position, shocking the Senate, who see this as a radical and dramatic escalation.

Tiberius manages to pass his law but faces grinding opposition from the senators who refuse to fund the surveying project needed to redistribute the land, or even release the funds to purchase Tiberius a tent for his fieldwork. Luckily for the Roman poor, the King of Pergamum (in modern-day Turkey), Attalos III, dies and leaves his vast holdings to the Roman people. Tiberius successfully convinces the Romans to divert this windfall into his project.

Tiberius faces such strong opposition that he begins to worry about his safety, carrying with him a short sword hidden beneath his clothes when he goes about in public. In fact, Arrian, in his account of Tiberius’s career, claims he begins (slightly theatrically, one can suppose) dressing all in black, as if in mourning, and taking his son around the forum, making a show of begging his friends to look after the boy if the worst is to happen.
One day, Tiberius’s supporters begin gathering on Capitol Hill, demonstrating in support of the new laws. As Tiberius leaves his house to attend, he witnesses a dark omen: he sees two ravens fighting on a rooftop. One of the birds dislodges a stone, which lands right at his feet. His supporters urge him to turn back, but Tiberius strides on.

The large crowd cheers as Tiberius arrives and takes his place. Just as he is about to begin his speech, a senator named Fulvius Flaccus takes him by the arm and tells him a mob is on their way to kill him.

The mob arrives, armed with clubs and staves. They see Tiberius gesturing to his head and interpret this as him miming placing a crown on his head. Spurred on by the need to protect the Republic from a would-be tyrant, they attack. When the dust settles, the young reformer, not yet 30 years old, lies dead, as do 300 of his supporters.

With Tiberius killed and his support snuffed out, the senators congratulate themselves on saving the Republic from a tyrant. Yet though the man is gone, his ideas live on, and the Roman Senate halts its opposition to Tiberius’ agrarian laws, and work continues on the redistribution of land.

As the conservative senator Cicero puts it, with Tiberius' death "daggers entered the Forum"—from now on, political disagreements can be solved with violence and power bought with blood. But more than this, Tiberius ignites a class conflict and appeals directly to the people, instead of the usual route through the Senate, setting a precedent where politicians can bypass senatorial authority to achieve their aims. The foundations of the Roman Republic begin to shake.