The initiative, however, remained on Flaccus’ side of the political divide. For 123, C. Sempronius Gracchus was elected tribune of the plebs. His brother had focused on a single issue; Gaius’ measures (all but one enacted during his first tribunate) point to a comprehensive vision of reform, touching society, economy, financial and provincial administration, and the law (Plut. C. Gracch. 4-12; App. B Civ. 21-6; cf. Cic. Rab. Post. 12).12
A new lex agraria introduced a rent on land allotted under Tiberius’ law and exempted substantial tracts of ager publicus from distribution - probably those occupied by allies, thus laying to rest some of their concerns. Regarding new allocations, Gaius shifted the focus of land reform from individual farms in the country toward the founding of new colonies. The most ambitious of these was Iunonia, on the very site of Carthage, with up to 200 iugera per settler family, and the first colony to be founded outside Italy.
Yet many proletarians born and raised in Rome were impervious to the joys of tilling the soil, and could not be expected to take up farming anywhere. That rapidly growing segment of the urban population needed to be fed, and most of the grain consumed in Rome - not Italy, which remained self-sufficient - arrived from overseas. Interruptions of that supply often drove the price beyond the purchasing ability of the poor. Gaius’ grain law ( lex frumentaria) required the state to buy and store large quantities of grain, and once every month sell it at a rate below the average market price. Attacked immediately as a demagogue’s mass bribe allowing the urban poor to live in idle luxury, the measure was nothing of the sort. It did not give grain away gratis (Cic. Sest. 103; Livy Per. 60). 3 Unlike his critics, Gaius understood that it was in the self-interest of the ruling elite to ensure access to basic necessities of life; food riots do not promote political stability, and discontent, left unaddressed, will in time produce upheaval.
All this cost money, and was accompanied by measures to increase revenue from taxes and tolls. The most important changed the bidding for contracts to collect the tithe ( decuma, an annual 10 percent levy on agricultural products) of Asia. Instead of being conducted locally district by district, it henceforth took place in Rome before the censors, as a single contract for the entire province. This reduced the influence, often corrupting, of the provincial governor and enabled Roman public service providers (publicani) to bid, while maximizing the revenue thus derived; but it effectively shut out any provincial bidders and all but the largest corporations.
Another law allowed Roman citizens to be tried on capital charges only by the People in assembly or in a court set up by law: henceforth, no criminal court (quaestio) could be established merely by Senate decree. A magistrate who, without granting provocatio, executed or forced into exile any citizen in contravention of this law became himself subject to prosecution, as did any magistrate or senator who conspired to have anyone falsely convicted on a capital charge.
The most far-reaching of all his laws, however, ended senators’ monopoly on acting as single judges in most civil cases and as jurors in the permanently established criminal courts. The lex iudiciaria (judiciary law) set up a panel (album) of one-third senators and two-thirds equestrians, from which henceforth all civil judges and - in the same 1:2 proportion - jurors in criminal trials were to be drawn (Plut. C. Gracch. 5.2-6.1; Livy Per. 60).14 A second law, sponsored by the tribune M’. Acilius Glabrio in 123 or 122,15 replaced the jurors on the extortion court (quaestio de repetundis) with equestrians only, keeping senators thus completely from sitting in judgment on a crime that, in effect, only they could be charged with. Far from trying to undermine it, the lex repetundarum aimed at stabilizing the rule of the senatorial elite by enforcing certain restraints that its members were less and less willing to observe on their own.
Both laws had yet another effect, not entirely unintended. They deepened a developing division of the Roman upper class into two distinct groups: a political elite of senatorial families (with the nobles at their center) defined by the holding of elective public office, and an economic elite of landowners and businessmen (soon known as the equestrian order) defined, essentially, by wealth. By effectively pitting equestrians against senators, especially in the extortion court, a new and separate identity was created for each group.
Gaius’ legislation - the judiciary and grain laws in particular - generated strong opposition and resentment in the Senate, but no attempts were made to veto any of these bills. He was reelected to a second tribunate without being a declared candidate.17 Also elected for 122 was an old friend, M. Fulvius Flaccus, recently returned from Gaul: the only instance of a former consul becoming tribune of the plebs.
Gaius now focused on two projects: settling lunonia and improving the status of Rome’s Italian allies. During the first half of 122, he spent over two months in Africa, establishing its initial settlers - 6,000 families drawn from all over Italy. During his absence, persistent reports of negative omens traveled to Rome, and when Gaius returned he found that the popular mood had changed.
A fellow tribune, the noble M. Livius Drusus, had begun to organize the opposition, and with the Senate’s backing announced a proposal to found no less than 12 new colonies, with 3,000 families each, all within Italy. Nothing indicates that these colonies ever materialized or were put to a vote, but it proved a major public relations success. Having shamelessly outbid Gaius on colonies, Drusus took a different approach to the allies. Before going to Africa, Gaius had drafted legislation granting full citizenship to the Latin allies, and voting rights to (all?) others (Cic. Brut. 99; Plut. C. Gracch. 12). Meanwhile Drusus revealed a counterproposal - again, nothing ever came of it, despite ostensibly having the Senate’s backing - that no Latin ally should be subject to flogging, and proceeded to attack Gaius for irresponsibly giving away Roman citizenship. In this he was joined by the consul C. Fannius, who had been elected with Gaius’ support, but now turned against him, painting a horrifying picture of Roman festivals and assemblies overrun by new citizens. When after his return from Africa Gaius finally scheduled a vote on his proposal, it failed.
Gaius was not elected to a third tribunate, despite an apparent attempt at candidacy. In 121, the consul L. Opimius (an old enemy) moved to cancel the colony at Carthage, Iunonia: a severe blow to Gracchus’ and Flaccus’ dignitas. They mobilized their followers, and during a contio on the Capitol, an attendant of the consul was killed in a scuffle with pro-Gracchan toughs. Following demonstrations in the Forum the next day, the Senate, in an unprecedented move, voted to back whatever action the consul took to protect the state, be it in accordance with the law or not (known today as the ‘‘last decree,’’ senatus consultum ultimum; see also Chapter 12). Opimius ordered all senators and equestrians to present themselves, fully armed, on the Capitol at dawn. Flaccus now gathered supporters at his house; Gaius returned to his own home, despondent and sensing that events were slipping out of control, but unable to overcome aristocratic pride and disavow Flaccus’ preparing for armed insurrection. At daybreak, he joined Flaccus in seizing the Aventine. Negotiations failed when Opimius insisted that they disarm and appear before the Senate, and a frontal assault on the Aventine quickly put an end to all resistance. Flaccus was put to death; Gaius Gracchus had his throat cut by a faithful slave. Some 3,000 of their followers perished, either on the Aventine or in summary roundups and executions carried out by Opimius (Cic. De or. 2.132-4; Plut. C. Gracch. 13.1-18.1; App. B Civ. 25-6).19 Again, a political dispute had flared into bloody violence, yet not spontaneously as in 133: this time it carried a whiff of civil war.
Personal catastrophe notwithstanding, we must not think of the Gracchi as having failed: their legislation endured remarkably. In 111, a new law converted much of the ager publicus currently occupied in Italy - up to the Gracchan limit - and all land assigned by the commission into private property, without payment of rent, and fully alienable; but the state still retained plenty of land, especially in allied occupation. Far from dooming Tiberius’ land reform, the law of 111 simply meant that after 22 years the process had run its course:20 Italy was still a land of small and middling farms in the first century BC (see further Chapters 27 and 28).
Although Gaius’ colony at Carthage was dismantled, the settlers in North Africa retained their land. Virtually all his other laws remained in force, some beyond the end of the Republic. For a legislative program often accused of undermining the res publica, such longevity must astonish: unless one accepts that it was the legislator’s personal power, not the substance of his measures, wherein so many nobles perceived the threat.
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