Fact Finder - History

Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus were Roman plebeian tribunes who attempted to address the growing economic crisis in Rome during the 2nd century BCE. As Rome expanded, wealthy senators seized vast amounts of public land, creating huge estates worked by enslaved people, while small farmers (who made up the backbone of the Roman army) were left landless and impoverished. Tiberius Gracchus proposed land reforms to redistribute public land to the poor. His radical methods and popularity with the masses threatened the Senate's power, leading to his assassination in 133 BCE. Ten years later, his brother Gaius attempted even broader reforms, including grain subsidies for the poor, and met a similar violent end. Their deaths marked a turning point in Roman history, signaling the beginning of a century of political violence, civil war, and the eventual transition from Republic to Empire.