Roman Leadership
Roman power grew through four main periods of
expansion. In the end, Rome ruled over an empire
that lasted 500 years. The costs of expansion were
great. The Gracchi brothers, Gaius Marius and
Lucius Cornelius Sulla were men who lived during
the beginning stages of Rome's expansion. They
both served in the Roman military, aiding Rome in its conquests. They
also served in politics, witnessing firsthand the effects of those
conquests on Rome's people.
Tiberius Gracchus enjoyed a traditional Greek education-which
included the study of philosophy, mathematics, and the Greek
language. This gave him an open-minded view of the world. During his
service in the army, Tiberius traveled throughout the Italian peninsula.
He noted that many of the people who worked the land were foreign
slaves, because small property owners had to serve in the army. When
he returned to Rome, he discovered many people in the city living in
poverty. Tiberius felt that these two situations could lead to the end of
the Republic. To find solutions to these problems, he decided to enter
politics.
In 133 BC, he was elected tribune. He
immediately began to campaign for land
reform. He wanted to pass a law
thatwould divide huge estates belonging
to the rich into smaller farms and
distribute them among the poor. Many
small farm owners had been drafted to
fight in the Roman army. Some never
returned to their farms. Those who did discovered that the constant
warfare had severely damaged the Italian farmland. These small
farmers lacked the money to repair the damage. So, they were forced
to sell their land to rich landlords. These new larger farms owned by
the rich were called latifundias. The latifundias used slave labor, and
the few remaining small farmers found they could not produce crops
as cheaply as the larger farms. Eventually these small farmers also
sold their property to the rich and moved to the cities in search of
work.
Tiberius's idea proved quite popular with the common people but was
strongly opposed by large landowners. Members of the Senate
organized a plot against him. His enemies stirred up a mob of rioters
who seized Tiberius and many of his followers and killed them.
Tiberius's dreams of reform were left to his younger brother, Gaius.
Gaius was a flamboyant person, and a passionate and skilled speaker.
After his brother was murdered in 133 BC, he took up his brother's
cause of helping the poor. He proved to be an even stronger opponent
to the wealthy than his brother had been. As tribune, he passed
programs that benefited many groups in Roman society. For example,
he supported a measure that divided state lands from conquests into
smaller holdings and redistributed them to the lower classes. Another
law he passed created corn allowances, or subsidies, for the poor living
in the city. Under the law, the government provided produce and
money for food to guarantee that these people would not starve. This
reform was important to many people in Rome. After the years of
conquest, very few people could afford to continue operating farms.
Farmers who lost or sold their property left the land and drifted toward
the cities, particularly Rome. Unemployment was high. Rome did not
have many factories, and slaves held most of the few available jobs.
Gaius developed programs that built better
roads and harbors, thus helping the business
community. He also reformed the system for
taxing the provinces and administering the
law. All of Gaius' reforms weakened the
power of the Senate. Although Gaius became
popular with many citizens, most senators
hated and feared him. A mob of soldiers and
citizens attacked Gaius and his supporters,
claiming they threatened the stability of the
Republic. Recognizing that resistance was
hopeless, Gaius ordered his personal slave to kill him. Though both
met tragic ends, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus introduced a number of
reforms that made a dramatic impact on the quality of life for many
people in Rome.
The Roman army was traditionally manned by
citizen soldiers. Because Rome was constantly
at war during the expansion period, it required
a constant flow of soldiers. Small land holdings
fell into disuse because there was no one to
tend to them. As Roman conquests spread
through the Mediterranean lands, even more
men were required, and wealth and cheap corn
poured back into Rome, much of it into the
hands of the wealthy, who carved out vast areas for vegetables, vines,
olives and sheep farming, all managed by slave labor. The
dispossessed rural poor became the urban poor. They were ineligible
for military service since they no longer were property holders.
Not only was there therefore a shortage of
recruits, but the soldiers had nothing to return to
between campaigns or at the end of their service.
A working solution to this problem was finally
devised by Gaius Marius, once. He introduced the
Roman army as it came to be known and feared
all across the Europe and the Mediterranean.
Rather than accepting hires from Roman
landowners, he recruited volunteers from the
urban poor. Once the idea of a professional army
was introduced, it remained until the very end of
the Roman Empire. The benefits to the army were
numerous, with the unemployed enlisting for military service
alongside the more fortunate citizens. Poorer citizens were drawn to
life-long service, as they were rewarded with the prospect of
settlement in conquered land. This also 'Romanized' the population in
newly conquered provinces reducing unrest and lowering the chance of
revolt against Rome. The new Roman army was always able to provide
reserves in times of disaster. In addition, the growth of the army
ensured continued military success due to the high number of fresh
soldiers available for each campaign.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla came from a good family of moderate means.
When he returned in 83 BC from a successful eastern campaign, he
had no political power beyond that which a man at the head of a
trained army of veterans could command. He used his army to capture
Rome. This accomplished, Sulla had himself appointed not consul, but
dictator. In this capacity his first act was to rid himself of all political
and personal opposition, using the novel method of proscription - the
posting up of lists of undesirable characters whom anyone was now at
liberty to assassinate, and for a reward. For a start, he pronounced
sentence of death on forty senators. Other deaths, expulsions, and
confiscations of property followed.
Sulla then reorganized the constitution to put power effectively back
into the hands of the upper classes. He virtually nullified
the traditional influence of the tribunes of the people. The
power held by the Tribunes of the People was virtually
abolished, as they now no longer possessed the power to challenge the
senate. He doubled the membership of the senate. The power of the
Senate was increased by turning over to it the control of the law
courts. He established new courts to deal with specific offenses, and
sorted out the distinctions between civil and criminal law, To prevent
the too rapid rise of popular young men, Sulla rigidly established the
age and order at which positions could be held.
The Story of
Tiberius
Gracchus