In Our Time The Gracchi
Rome's Army Relied on Landowners
- Rome's army depended on citizen-soldiers who owned land, which was crucial for military recruitment.
- The decline of small landowners threatened this model and contributed to political instability.
Tiberius' Land Reform Aim
- Tiberius sought to address the crisis of landholding by limiting public land ownership and redistributing land to the poor.
- His reforms aimed to restore the citizen-farmer model vital to Rome's military and social order.
Tiberius' Violent Death by Senators
- Tiberius Gracchus was violently murdered along with 300 of his supporters by a group led by the Pontifex Maximus.
- Their bodies were thrown into the Tiber to prevent proper burial, shocking Roman society.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus whose names are entwined with the end of Rome's Republic and the rise of the Roman Emperors. As tribunes, they brought popular reforms to the Roman Republic at the end of the 2nd century BC. Tiberius (c163-133BC) brought in land reform so every soldier could have his farm, while Gaius (c154-121BC) offered cheap grain for Romans and targeted corruption among the elites. Those elites saw the reforms as such a threat that they had the brothers killed: Tiberius in a shocking murder led by the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest, in 133BC and Gaius 12 years later with the senate's approval. This increase in political violence was to destabilise the Republic, forever tying the Gracchi to the question of why Romeâs Republic gave way to the Rome of Emperors.
With
Catherine Steel Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow
Federico Santangelo Professor of Ancient History at Newcastle University
And
Kathryn Tempest Lecturer in Roman History at the University of Leicester
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Appian (trans. John Carter), The Civil Wars (Penguin Classics, 2005)
Valentina Arena, Jonathan R. W. Prag and Andrew Stiles, A Companion to the Political Culture of the Roman Republic (Wiley-Blackwell, 2022), especially the chapter by Lea Beness and Tom Hillard
R. Cristofoli, A. Galimberti and F. Rohr Vio (eds.), Costruire la Memoria: Uso e abuso della storia fra tarda repubblica e primo principato (L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2017), especially âThe 'Tyranny' of the Gracchi and the Concordia of the Optimates: An Ideological Construct.â by Francisco Pina Polo
Suzanne Dixon, Cornelia: Mother of the Gracchi, (Routledge, 2007)
Peter Garnsey and Dominic Rathbone, âThe Background to the Grain Law of Gaius Gracchusâ (Journal of Roman Studies 75, 1985)
O. Hekster, G. de Kleijn and D. Slootjes (eds.), Crises and the Roman Empire (Brill, 2007), especially âTiberius Gracchus, Land and Manpowerâ by John W. Rich
Josiah Osgood, Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE-20 CE (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
Plutarch (trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert and Christopher Pelling), Rome in Crisis (Penguin Classics, 2010)
Plutarch (trans. Robin Waterfield, ed. Philip A. Stadter), Roman Lives (Oxford University Press, 2008)
Nathan Rosenstein, âAristocrats and Agriculture in the Middle and Late Republicâ (Journal of Roman Studies 98, 2008)
A. N. Sherwin-White, âThe Lex Repetundarum and the Political Ideas of Gaius Gracchusâ (Journal of Roman Studies 72, 1982)
Catherine Steel, The End of the Roman Republic, 146 to 44 BC: Conquest and Crisis (Edinburgh University Press, 2013)
David Stockton, The Gracchi (Oxford University Press, 1979)
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production