The Gracchi

Why This Page Matters

The tribunates of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus mark the point at which the late Republic's internal contradictions become impossible to ignore. Between 133 and 121 BC, Rome witnesses its first political murder, its first deposition of a serving magistrate, and its first use of the senatus consultum ultimum. Every precedent that defines the next century of crisis — from Sulla's march on Rome to Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon — has its origin here.

The central question is whether the Gracchi caused the Republic's breakdown or merely exposed fractures that already existed: an impoverished peasantry, an increasingly rigid oligarchy, and a constitutional system that had no mechanism for resolving deadlock except violence.