Gracchus in Roman Biography

Gracchus, (Tiberius Sempronius,) a popular and eminent Roman statesman, born about 168 B.C. His mother was the celebrated Cornelia, a daughter of the greatest Scipio. He served at the capture and destruction of Carthage under Scipio Africanus the Younger, who had married a sister of Gracchus. In 137 B.C. he was elected quaestor, and was employed in the Numantian war, in which he greatly distinguished himself by his courage and capacity. About 134 B.C. he was elected tribune of the people, and proposed an important reform in the disposition of the public lands. His first effort was to restore or enforce (with some modifications) the Licinian law, which prohibited any man from occupying more than five hundred acres of public land, and which had never been formally repealed, but was generally neglected and violated. " There never was," says Plutarch, "a milder law made against so much injustice and oppression. For they who deserved to have been punished for their infringement on the rights of the community were to have a consideration for giving up their groundless claims. ... In this just and glorious cause Tiberius exerted an eloquence which might have adorned a worse subject, and which nothing could resist." He was violently opposed by the aristocracy and the tribune M. Octavius, whose veto retarded the passage of the bill. At length Octavius was deposed, and the agrarian law was adopted. Gracchus again offered himself as a candidate for the office of tribune. During the election, which occurred in June, when many of his friends were engaged in harvesting, the partisans of the aristocracy, led by Scipio Nasica, appealed to force, and killed Gracchus, with about three hundred of his supporters, in 133 B.C. See Plutarch, " Life of Tiberius Gracchus ;" Livv, " History of Rome;" Crf.ll, " Elogium et Character T. et C. Gracchorum," 1727; Niebuhr, "Historyof Rome;" Heeren," Tiberius und Caiuj Gracchus ;" F. D. Gerlach, " Tiberius und Caius Gracchus ; historischer Vortrag," 1843.