•
Publius Popilius, cos. 132; Scipio Nasica, murderer of Tiberius, exiled
• Land commission of 132: Tiberius replaced by Publius Licinius Crassus
Mucianus Dives ("rich"; brother-in-law of Appius Claudius Pulcher
and father-in-law of Gaius Sempronius Gracchus; ancestral relation of the
triumvir of the age of Julius Caesar).
• Land commission = P. Licinius Crassus, Gaius Sempronius Gracchus,
and Appius Claudius Pulcher (father-in-law of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus)
• Appius Claudius Pulcher, Gracchi's greatest champion and princeps
Senatus, dies in 130, replaced by the pro-Gracchan Fulvius Flaccus;
land commission continues
• P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus Africanus Numantinus, now championing
the Italians, calling Tiberius' death just, dies in 129
• Cos. 125, Flavius Flaccus, offers all allies citizenship and the Senatorial
oligarchy, in opposition, sends him to Gaul on campaign
• Gaius Gracchus' reforms via the Lex
Sempronia, 123:
--continuation of brother Tiberius' attempts to reform and rejuvenate the
Respublica
--reaffirmation of Tiberius agrarian act, building new roads in Italy, facilitating
markets to new settlements, raising employment, bringing the rural electorate
to Rome to vote for his proposals
--stimulated industry and corporate settlement by founding colonies, reviving
stagnant local economies, relieving over-population
--created Junonia (a separate law in 122), colony near Carthage, infuriating
the conservative members of the Senate (recall: Carthago delenda est,
Cato the Elder, and the destruction of Carthage in 146 by P. Cornelius Scipio
Aemilianus Africanus Numantinus)
--passed a grain law to regulate the price, increase his popularity with the
poor
--shifted extortion courts to the equestrians, especially the publicani,
who were in conflict with provincial governors
--Tax collection of the decuma in Asia to be handled by publicani
(quasi-civil service, responsible for contracts for public works, management
of gold and silver mines in Spain, supplies, services, tax collection). Tax
collection, which had increased in the early 2nd c., shifted ca. 170 BCE from
tributum (largely a war tax) to port and duty taxes (low within the
Republic, high on the borders). Tax contracts handled by the publicani,
and their companies grew wealthy
--limit on Senate's power to predetermine provinces for incoming/outgoing
consuls
• 122: proposed citizenship for Latins, Latin rights for Italians (recall
Flavius Flaccus' legislative efforts of 125)
• Marcus Livius Drusus, plebeian tribune in 122 and mouthpiece of Senatorial
oligarchy, offers alternative:
--total immunity from execution or scourging of Italians by Roman commanders
& magistrates
--no rent charged to new landholders
• Rumors circulate that Gaius had encroached on Carthage, and that hurricanes
and wolves had seized the boundary stones
• Lucius Opimius, consul in 122, instructs tribune Marcus Minucius Rufus
to annul creation of Junonia; scuffle, murder of Opimius' slave
• senatus consultum ultimum: "ultimate decree of the Senate"
in 121
• Populares ("supporters of the people") and Optimates ("the
best men")
Results
of the Gracchan program:
• tragic figures, high virtue, sincere patriotism; tried to reform and
rejuvenate the constitution
• tactical errors resulting in their deaths
• Senate temporarily derailed by populares, though its auctoritas
vindicated; weakness exposed
• raised issues never open to state-wide discussion
before:
--land distributed, creating opportunities for small
farmers and colonists
--alleviation of unemployment
--hostility among the Italians exacerbated, and the issue
of enfranchisement central
--equites ("equestrians") self-conscious as a political
force due to new control of the quaestiones ("extortion courts")
--populus ("people") self-conscious
of political powers - the vote
--exposed judicial and provincial corruption; note that in 120, L. Opimius
tried for murder and is acquitted
--power of the tribunate revealed
• Can a magistrate (consul L. Opimius) protect
the people by putting citizens to death without a trial (contra the lex
provocationis, in force since the beginning of the res publica)?
• If the citizens, like the Gracchi, raise arms and become hostes
("enemies"), do they lose the rights of citizens?
• What about those then arrested and disarmed?
• yet, agrarian laws remained in force, the ager publicus was
distributed, allotment holders were allowed to sell their land and did not
have to pay rent. Junonia abandoned.
• Ultimately, Gracchi presented a challenge to
Rome's mos maiorum ("tradition of the ancestors") without
the creation of an alternative - no legitimate democratic body could provide
separate leadership
• victims of the introduction of murder into Roman politics
• beginning of disintegration of Senatorial oligarchy
and precipitation of Roman revolution
**************************************************************************
•
Tense times in Rome ca. 115-110: 32 senators removed from Senate, stage censored;
two Vestal Virgins tried for unchastity and condemned; Sibylline books demanded
live burial of two Greeks, two Gauls (not since Hannibal), for Rome was waging
war in Gaul and not very successfully; in addition, massive city fire in 111
• From 146 (province of Africa), Numidia under Micipsa (son of Masinissa)
flourished economically in trade relationship with Rome
• Adherbal, Hiempsal and Jugurtha of Numidia
• Siege of Cirta
in N. Africa by Jugurtha in 113, death of Hiempsal, exile of Adherbal
• Rome declares war on Jugurtha in 111; Jugurtha visits Rome ("city
for sale"); assassinates cousin Massiva
• 110-104: Rome prosecutes the war in N. Africa. Primary objective:
capture Jugurtha
• Gaius Marius, novus homo ("new man") / popularis
from Arpinum SE of Rome, tribune 119, praetor 115, legatus ("deputy")
of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus (the "Caecilii Metelli":
powerful Senatorial faction); marriage in 111 to Julia, sister of Gaius Caesar
(father of Julius Caesar, born in 100 BC)
• Marius' 1st consulship: 107; appointed by comitia tributa to
succeed Metellus over wishes of Senate; quaestor = Lucius Cornelius Sulla
(member of optimates)
• Marius defeats Jugurtha in 105; Bocchus, father-in-law of Jugurtha.
Jugurtha dies in State Prison in Rome (the Tullianum: description;
location [note also the location of
the curia]
• Gallia
Narbonensis (Gaul from Italy to Spain) = provincia ("the
province") or provincia
nostra ("our province")
• 105: Battle of Arausio on the Rhone north of Massilia (80,000 Romans
lost, Italy threatened with invasion)
• Marius' next consulships: 104, 103, 102, 101, 100!
• G. Servilius Glaucia (praetor) and L. Appuleius Saturninus (tribunus
plebis)
• senatus consultum ultimum
• curia or Senate House (scale
model of Rome; model
of the curia; curia
today; reconstruction)
• Marius departs for Asia in 98