Gaius Gracchus

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Gaius Gracchus (Latin: C·SEMPRONIVS·TI·F·P·N·GRACCVS) (154 BC-121 BC) was a Roman politician of the 2nd century BC. He was the younger brother of Tiberius Gracchus and, like him, pursued a popular political agenda that ultimately ended in his death. Gauis was not killed directly by the Roman faction, who likely gave orders to his slave to kill him.

Gaius was born in 154 BC as the youngest son of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus or Tiberius Gracchus Major (who died in the same year) and Cornelia Africana. The Gracchi, were of noble descent and were one of the politically most important families of Rome, very rich and well connected. His mother, Cornelia Africana, was daughter of Scipio Africanus Major and his sister Sempronia was the wife of Scipio Aemilianus, another important general. Gaius was raised by his mother, a Roman matrona of high moral standards and virtue.

Gaius’ military career started in Numantia, as a military tribune appointed to the staff of his brother in law, Scipio Aemilianus. As a young man, he watched the political turmoil caused by his older brother Tiberius Gracchus, as he tried to pass laws for agrarian reforms. Tiberius was killed in 132 BC near the Capitol, during an armed confrontation with political enemies, led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, their cousin. With this death, Gaius inherited the estate of the Gracchii family. History would prove that he inherited his brother's ideals too.

Gaius started his political career in 126 BC, as quaestor to consul Lucius Aurelius Orestes in Sardinia. After a few years of political peace in Rome, in 123 BC, Gaius is elected for the tribunate of the plebs, as every man in his family before him. The conservators soon understood that they might expect trouble from him. Gaius had similar ideals as Tiberius, but he had time to learn from his brother's mistakes. His program included not only agrarian laws, that stated that lands illegally acquired by the rich should be redistributed to the poor, but also laws that regulated the price of the grain. He also tried to limit the number of years and campaigns a man was obliged to serve in the army. Other measures included the reformation of the extortion court, which prosecuted illegal appropriations of money by members of the senate and a law concerned with the constitution of the jury, which was previously composed only of senators, subject to bribery, who would be judging their peers. His law changed the jury-draft pool to include equites. He also proposed the extension of Roman citizenship to several Italian allied nations. All of this displeased the senators.

In 122 BC, Gaius ran for another term as tribune of the plebs – a very unusual political procedure – and got it, with the overwhelming support of Rome's lower classes. During this year, he continued to pursue his reforms and to deal with increasing opposition of the senate. Gaius tried to run for a third time, with Marcus Fulvius Flaccus as his colleague and partner. But in this year, they lost and could do nothing besides watching the removal of all their laws by the new conservative consuls (Quintus Fabius Maximus and Lucius Opimius). In order to prevent the loss of all his work, Gaius and Fulvius Flaccus resorted to violent measures. The senate responded by tagging them as enemies of the Republic and they eventually had to run. Fulvius Flaccus was murdered with his sons, but Gaius managed to escape with Philocrates, his faithful slave. Gaius fell victim to murder suicide by his slave who was likely ordered by the senate to kill Gaius. Following his death, about 3,000 men suspected of supporting him were killed and their estates confiscated. According to Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans Gaius Gracchus was executed by assassins out to receive a bounty on the weight of his head in gold. One of the co-conspirators in his murder, Septimuleius, then decapitated Gaius, scooped the brains out of his severed head, and filled the cavity of his skull with molten lead. Once the lead hardened, the head was taken to the Roman Senate and weighed in on the scale at over seventeen pounds. Septimuleius was paid in full.[1]

Gaius Gracchus married Licinia Crassa, the second daughter of Publius Licinius Crassus (consul in 131 BC) and Claudia. They had a son and daughter. Their son (whose name is unknown), after Gaius Gracchus was murdered, his fate is unknown. Their daughter Sempronia Gracchae (about 123 BC - 63 BC), who became the future heiress to the Gracchi Estate married Marcus Fulvius Flaccus Bambalio, son to his political ally Marcus Fulvius Flaccus (consul 125 BC). Their only child and daughter was Fulvia Flacca Bambula. Fulvia married the Roman politicians Publius Clodius Pulcher, Gaius Scribonius Curio and Mark Antony.

[edit] References

Life of Gaius Gracchus and Life of Tiberius Gracchus from Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans by Plutarch:
- Dryden's translation of Plutarch's Life of Gaius Gracchus on the MIT classics website
- 19th century translation of Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans on the Project Gutenberg website

^ Plutarch.Gracchus. (75 A.C.E.). Retrieved on September 4, 2006.

Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
Alcibiades and Coriolanus - Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar - Aratus & Artaxerxes and Galba & Otho - Aristides and Cato the Elder
Crassus and Nicias - Demetrius and Antony - Demosthenes and Cicero - Dion and Brutus - Fabius and Pericles - Lucullus and Cimon
Lysander and Sulla - Numa and Lycurgus - Pelopidas and Marcellus - Philopoemen and Flamininus - Phocion and Cato the Younger - Pompey and Agesilaus
Poplicola and Solon - Pyrrhus and Gaius Marius - Romulus and Theseus - Sertorius and Eumenes
Tiberius Gracchus & Gaius Gracchus and Agis & Cleomenes - Timoleon and Aemilius Paullus - Themistocles and Camillus