Under the sign of Tiberius During the Principate of Tiberius (14-37 AD), the concept of the Praetorian Guard was already firmly established. The elite nature of this part of the army was emphasized by its more privileged official position compared to others. For example, the praetorian received

X. Evolution of Tiberius's principate until the year 26 Few princeps were the object of such controversial judgments as Tiberius. To show the contradictions of this man, Tacitus, his critic, contrasted the beginning of the principate, full of wisdom and restraint, with the second

XV. The Gloomy End of Tiberius's Principate Tacitus somewhat straightforwardly portrays Tiberius's principate, focusing on the moral and psychological characteristics and behavior of the ruler: “He was secretive and cunning, pretending to be highly virtuous while Germanicus and Drusus were alive; He

XVI. The private life of Tiberius Caligula was in some way a “student” of Tiberius and went through a good school of training in cruelty, which so clearly marked the ruling principle. As for the well-known voluptuousness of Caligula, here one can also see the influence of Tiberius, who had

XIX. Caligula as the heir of Tiberius Within five years - from the execution of Sejanus on October 18, 31 to the death of Tiberius on March 16, 37 - the fate of Caligula was determined. Nothing more stood between him and the succession to Tiberius, but it was necessary that the old princeps with this

originates from an extremely important idea about the need for a conciliatory rapprochement between citizens and the conquered.
At the end of the second year of his tribunate, Gracchus proposed to grant Roman citizenship to all Latins and Latin citizenship to all Italians. One of the tribunes delayed the discussion with his veto, and Gracchus did not dare to insist on his proposal. This was the first failure of the brave innovator. When the popular assembly did not support the question of citizenship for the allies, Gracchus' enemies realized that the urban mob voted with Gracchus not because of sympathy for his ideas in general, but because he introduced laws directly beneficial to this mob. Then a plan emerged to destroy the dangerous enemy on the same path.
During the absence of Gracchus in Rome, a number of bills were drawn up that promised citizenship much greater benefits than all the measures carried out by Gracchus: it was proposed that all small, recently distributed plots be exempted from all taxes in favor of the state, made them the full, alienable property of their owners and instead of withdrawing colonies overseas, establish 12 new colonies, 3,000 people each, in Italy itself, and finally distribute all the lands of the Latins to citizens. Despite all the inconsistency of these laws, since in all of Italy there was no longer as much undistributed land as would be required for 12 colonies, these laws were adopted at a meeting, and then Gracchus’ opponents managed to arrange it so that in the third year he was already a tribune was not elected.
The question of Gracchus's most useful and most unpopular measure was immediately raised - the founding of a colony in Africa, on the site of Carthage. The mood of both parties was so tense that during the sacrifice before the vote, a quarrel broke out over a completely insignificant issue and one of Gracchus’ supporters killed the lictor. The entire city immediately armed itself. The next day, Gracchus' supporters strengthened themselves on the Aventine, and the Senate gathered troops. On the second day, negotiations began: the aristocracy demanded unconditional submission, Gracchus' supporters wanted some promises in advance. Then the troops were launched to attack. The ranks of Gracchus's followers quickly thinned when it was announced that all who left the rebels before action by force began would receive full forgiveness. Aventine was taken by storm without much difficulty, and up to 250 people were killed. Guy Gracchus wanted to stab himself, but his friends demanded that he try to save himself, and two of them directly sacrificed their lives to give him time to escape. Gracchus hid in a grove beyond the Tiber, but during his flight he injured his leg, and the next day his stay was discovered. Then the Greek slave accompanying him, on his orders, killed him, and then committed suicide.
This is how three great Romans, the last descendants of the conqueror of the Carthaginians, died in the revolution - Scipio Aemilian and the Gracchi brothers. The memory of the Gracchi was officially condemned, but the people honored its blessings.

Scipio Aemilian, the destroyer of Carthage, as a censor, prayed to the gods so that they would not increase the Roman state any more, but would protect it. This change in the censor's prayer was rooted in an alarming premonition of the impending destruction of his fatherland. The Romans extended their dominance to three parts of the world. No people and no king from the Euphrates to the Pillars of Hercules could more seriously threaten their dominion, but the growing malaise within the state should have caused anxious thoughts about the future in such patriots as Scipio. Pushing its limits more and more, the Roman state did not follow natural growth in its internal development.

In the 2nd century BC. a Senate oligarchy of the so-called nobles appears, which included representatives of wealthy Roman houses - Scipios, Sempronians, Valerievs, Claudievs, Emilians, etc. This nobility formed a tightly knit caste and used the highest government power primarily in its own interests. The people existed, as it were, only in order to cast votes in electoral assemblies for representatives of this nobility, and they, for their part, did not miss the opportunity to secure the favor of the crowd with flattery, distribution of bread and brilliant public festivals. The positions gave them ample opportunity to enrich themselves at the expense of the state, especially at the expense of the oppressed provinces, and given the then decline of morals, the nobles did not miss this opportunity. Most of the members of this caste cared little about the honor and welfare of the state, so that by the time of the destruction of Carthage and in the decades that followed, the administration of the Roman state had assumed a character that should deprive the government class of the necessary respect and sooner or later lead the state to destruction.

Economic and social relations developed especially dangerously in the Roman state. Wealth was concentrated in the hands of the nobility and the horsemen engaged in wholesale trade and monetary transactions. At the same time, the class of horsemen no longer meant the serving civilian cavalry, but a special class of wealthy business people. Apart from these two classes, there were only the poor and idle rabble in Rome.

Due to the concentration of money in a few hands, the wealthy middle class almost completely disappeared. The rich bought up or illegally seized one small peasant estate after another and cultivated their vast estates (latifundia) with the help of a huge mass of slaves. The impoverished crowd flocked to Rome and ate here on handouts and the mercy of the rich. Just as in previous centuries economic disorders gave the first impetus to the struggle between patricians and plebeians, so now these same disorders again gave rise to a fierce struggle between the nobility, or Senate party, and the people, a struggle that this time led not to a beneficent agreement, but to bloody civil strife and the fall of freedom.

The more prudent and sensible people among the nobility realized the danger associated with the disappearance of the free peasantry and with the sharp contrast between the rich and poor classes of citizens, and they wanted social unrest to be settled. But they did not have the courage to get down to business seriously and strike evil at the very root. Even Scipio Aemilianus, who most of all seemed called upon to be a deliverer, retreated before this task. And so, not a mature husband, but a young man, in a generous passion, took upon himself the difficult task of eliminating the gap between rich and poor, again creating a free peasantry in Italy by distributing state lands, which were mostly in the possession of nobles, to poor citizens. This noble youth was Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus.

Cornelia and the Gracchi. H. Vogel. 19th century

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus belonged to a noble, respected house. His great-grandfather is known as a worthy commander in the war with Hannibal. His father, who was a censor and twice consul and was highly respected by nobles and non-nobles, was married to Cornelia, daughter of the elder Scipio, one of the most educated and remarkable women in Rome. With the caring care of an intelligent and highly educated woman, both of her talented sons, Tiberius and Gaius, who were her only pride, became excellent people and received that subtle Greek and national education that was in use in Scipionic circles. Tiberius, the eldest of both Gracchi, was of a meek and calm nature, with a benevolent and philanthropic way of thinking, full of simplicity and moral rigor. He proved his courage and bravery while still a 17-year-old youth, when, under the command of his brother-in-law Scipio, he participated in the campaign against Carthage. When the city was taken by storm, he and a certain Fannius were the first to climb the wall. At the same time, he acquired common love in the army. During the following years he was elected to the college of augurs, despite his youth, more on account of his personal qualities than his nobility of birth.

In 137, Gracchus, as a quaestor, accompanied the consul Mancinus in the war against Numantia. When the army was surrounded by the Numantians and seemed irretrievably lost, the Numantians, who knew too well the treachery of the Roman commanders from experience, announced to the consul who asked for a truce and peace that they trusted only Tiberius Gracchus and wanted to negotiate with him alone. The young man owed this confidence partly to the rumor of his own honesty, and partly to the memory of his father, who had previously ruled the Spanish province wisely and justly. Tiberius concluded an agreement with the enemy and thereby saved the lives and freedom of 20,000 citizens, not counting the servants and a large convoy.

The Numantians took all the things in the Roman camp as booty. There were also Tiberius's accounts and notes on his quaestorship. To get them back, he and several of his friends returned back, after the army had already retreated some distance, and called the Numantian authorities outside the city. He asked them to release his accounts, so that he could present an account of his management and not give his enemies a reason to slander him. The Numantians invited him to their city, and when he stood for some time in thought, they approached him, took him cordially by the hands and earnestly asked him not to consider them enemies any longer and to trust them as friends. When Gracchus followed them into the city, they served him breakfast and asked him to sit down and eat with them. Then they returned the bills to him and allowed him to take whatever he wanted from the remaining things. He, however, took nothing except the incense that he needed for public sacrifices, and after that he parted with the Numantians as good friends. But the Roman Senate rejected the treaty of Gracchus and handed over the consul to the Numanians, stripped and bound. The fact that the Senate did not dare to extradite Gracchus himself and the rest of the highest leaders serves as proof of his influence and the love that he enjoyed among the people.

On December 10, 134, Gracchus became tribune of the people for the year 133, during which he intended to carry out his reform plans. Immediately after taking office, he came up with a land law, which, in essence, was a renewal of the Dicinian agrarian law of 367, which remained almost unused. This law determined that of the state lands, which for the most part were taken over by individual nobles and used free of charge, as private property, no one should have more than 500 jugers. In addition, each son under paternal authority should be given another half, but in total no one should have more than 1000 jugers. The land liberated as a result of this measure was to be, with compensation for the structures erected on it, taken by the state and distributed in plots of 30 yugers for a moderate fee to poor citizens and Italian allies in the form of an inalienable hereditary lease.

The bill was moderate and fair. The state had the right to take away the lands that belonged to it, especially since those who used them did not pay any payment for them. Moreover, the opportunity opened up to counteract the growth of the useless, dangerous mob. Moreover, the law left rich landowners with still vast estates.

Before submitting his law to the people's vote, Gracchus discussed it in a number of preliminary meetings. How he addressed the people at these meetings is evidenced by an excerpt from his speech preserved by Plutarch: “The wild animals found in Italy,” he said, “have their own den, each has its own shelter and shelter; but those who fight and die for Italy, except air and light, have nothing else behind them. Without homes, without a fixed location, they wander with their wives and children, and those generals who in battles call upon soldiers to bravely fight for their tombs and shrines are hypocrites; after all, not one of them has a native altar, not one of so many thousands of Romans has the tomb of his ancestors. They fight and die for other people’s prosperity and wealth, called the rulers of the world and, however, not possessing a single piece of land.”.

No one could resist such speeches, delivered with inspiration and deep feeling. The aristocrats abandoned the attempt to defeat him in verbal disputes and resorted to the usual method of eliminating unpleasant bills. They won over Gracchus's comrade, the people's tribune Marcus Octavius, who promised to oppose the law. Octavius ​​was seriously convinced of the harm of Gracchus' proposal, but would hardly have opposed it on his own initiative, since he was a friend and comrade of Gracchus. But the urgent requests of the powerful finally prompted him to declare at the preliminary meeting that he would oppose the law with his objection. In vain did Gracchus beg him to abandon this intention, in vain did he promise that he was ready to compensate him for the loss that he personally would suffer from the law. Since Octavius ​​remained adamant, Gracchus increased the severity of his law by excluding from it the regulation on rewarding the rich. At the same time, he suspended by edict all official actions of government places and persons and put his seal on the state treasury until a decision was made according to his law.

On the day the votes were cast, Octavius ​​forbade the scribe to read the law. To the persistent requests of Gracchus not to interfere with him saving Italy, he firmly answered that exactly how Italy could be saved, opinions differ. The popular and aristocratic parties were in great excitement. The rich flocked to the site in droves and began tearing down and overturning the ballot boxes. The crowd noisily pressed towards them, and the matter would probably have come to bloodshed, if not for two consuls, Manlius and Fulvius, with tears in their eyes, asking Gracchus to stop the matter in the popular assembly and conduct further negotiations in the curia with the Senate. Gracchus agreed with this, but, having met only ridicule and insults in the Senate instead of peaceful courtesy, he returned to the people's assembly. Here he again asked Octavius ​​to yield and agree to the just demands of the people. Octavius ​​rejected his request. Then Gracchus announced that he saw only one means of salvation - one of them was obliged to leave the position of tribune. And then he invited the enemy to first collect the votes of the people about him. If the people want it, he will immediately retire into private life. Octavius ​​refused. Then Gracchus announced that tomorrow he would collect votes about Octavius, if he did not change his mind by then, and dissolved the meeting.

When the people gathered the next day, Gracchus once again tried to convince Octavius. After this, he proposed to remove from office the tribune who was hostile to the people, and immediately invited those gathered to cast their votes. When 17 of the 35 tribes had already spoken out against Octavius, and he, therefore, if another tribe had been added, would have been removed from office, Gracchus ordered to stop, went up to his former friend, hugged him and most convincingly asked him not to be so merciless towards himself himself and not bring upon him, Gracchus, reproach for such a cruel and gloomy act. Octavius ​​was touched and tears welled up in his eyes. He hesitated and was silent for some time, until he finally took courage and said, not without dignity: "Let Tiberius do what he pleases". Thus, the vote continued on its own course, and Octavius ​​was removed. The land law was carried out without difficulty, and a commission of three people was chosen to take upon itself the implementation of the law: Tiberius Gracchus, his father-in-law Appius Claudius and his brother Gaius, who, however, was not then in Rome, but stood under the command of Scipio before Numantia .

The implementation of the land law encountered great difficulties. The Senate and the aristocracy, in bitterness, made every effort to slow down the work of the commission, which was entrusted with the distribution of lands. They submitted to the law willy-nilly, because nothing could be done about it, but they openly threatened that the culprit of the law would not escape their vengeance. Gnaeus Pompey declared that on the day that Gracchus resigned his tribunate, he would bring him to trial. Gracchus even had to fear for his personal safety, so he no longer appeared in the square without a retinue of 3-4 thousand people, and when one of his friends died, with undoubted signs of poisoning, he brought his children out in front of the people in mourning clothes and asked him to take care of them and their mother, since he was no longer sure of his life.

To protect his personality and support his agrarian law, Gracchus tried to bind the people to himself with new benefits and hopes and continue his tribunician position, contrary to the constitution, for the next year. He presented plans for further laws aimed at the benefit of the people, which were partly aimed at weakening the Senate. When at that time Eudemus of Pergamon delivered to Rome the will of the deceased king Attalus III, in which the Roman people were declared the king's heir, Gracchus proposed that the disposal of the royal treasures should not be left to the Senate, but that they should be distributed among the people. This proposal touched a nerve in the Senate, and Pompey stood up and said that he was Tiberius’s neighbor and knew that Eudemus had brought him a diadem and a purple robe from the royal treasures, as if Gracchus intended to become king in Rome.

The election of tribunes has long been scheduled for June or July, perhaps so that the people, busy with the harvest in the field, could not arrive in large numbers in the city for the electoral comitia. So this time, when Gracchus again sought the tribunate, the electoral assembly consisted for the most part of the urban class of the people. But he, too, turned out to be devoted to Gracchus, and already the first tribes spoke in his favor, when the aristocrats created chaos and discord, so that the meeting, at the suggestion of Gracchus, was interrupted and postponed to the next day. Gracchus used the rest of the day to increase the zeal of the people in his favor and in favor of his cause. He put on mourning clothes, again appeared at the forum with his young children and with tears entrusted them to the people. He fears that his opponents will break into his house at night and kill him. This made such an impression on the people that they settled in crowds around his house and watched him all night.

When Gracchus went to the popular assembly at the Capitol the next morning, various bad omens awakened amazement and alarm in him and his companions. When leaving the house, he touched the threshold with his foot, so that the nail from his big toe was torn off and blood appeared through the sole. When he had walked some distance further, fighting crows appeared above the roof on the left, and from one of them a stone flew straight towards Tiberius and fell at his feet. At the sight of this, even the bravest ones became thoughtful and stopped. But at the same time, many of his friends ran to Tiberius from the Capitol and asked him to hurry, since things were going well there. He was greeted by the people with delight and with all kinds of evidence of love. Elections began and protests followed again. Then a follower of Tiberius, Fulvius Flaccus, from the Senate ascended to an elevated place and reported that in the Senate, gathered in the Temple of Fidelity, near the Temple of Jupiter, Gracchus’ opponents decided to kill him and for this purpose armed a crowd of slaves. At this news, those standing around Tiberius girded their togas, broke the stakes of the lictors holding back the people, and distributed broken sticks to repel the attackers. Since those standing at a distance did not know what had happened, Tiberius put his hand on his head in order to let them notice, amid the noise, that his head was in danger.

When the opponents saw this, they ran to the Senate and told that Tiberius was demanding a diadem. Everyone became restless, and the high priest, Scipio Nazica, demanded from the consul Mucius Scaevola to save the state and destroy the tyrant. Scaevola calmly replied that he would not resort to any violent actions and would not take the life of a single citizen without trial. If the people, carried away by Tiberius, decide something illegal, they will consider it to have no force. Then Nazik jumped up and exclaimed: “Since the consul is betraying the state, follow me, whoever wants to save the laws!” With these words, he put the edge of his outer dress on his head and hurried to the Capitol. All those who followed him wrapped their togas around their left hands and pushed back those who stood in the way. Meanwhile, the senators' guides brought ropes and clubs from the house. They grabbed chairs and the remains of benches broken by the fleeing crowd, and pressed against Tiberius and the mass surrounding him. The people still felt such timidity in front of the senators that everyone made way without struggle or resistance. The aristocrats smashed everything they could get their hands on. Tiberius himself fled, but in front of the Capitoline Temple he stumbled and fell on a pile of dead. Before he could get to his feet again, one of his comrades, Publius Satureus, hit him on the head with a bench leg. The second fatal blow was attributed to himself by Licinius Rufus, who boasted of it as a valiant feat. In this case, up to 400 people died - all from stones and clubs and not a single one from iron.

The hatred and anger of the aristocrats were not satisfied with this bloody scene. They refused Tiberius's brother permission to remove the corpse and bury it and, together with others, threw it into the Tiber at night. Of the murdered man's friends, some were expelled without trial, others were imprisoned and killed. They stubbornly defended their bloody cause, never ceasing to assure the irritated people that Gracchus was seeking royal power. Nevertheless, they were forced to make some concessions to the people. They had to leave the land law of Tiberius in force, and they removed Scipio Nazica, the culprit of the bloody scene, who incurred all the hatred of the people, from Rome, entrusting him with an embassy in Asia, where he, driven by remorse, wandered and soon died near Pergamum.

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus came from both the paternal and maternal sides of rich and noble families. Already in his youth, his reform ideas were very popular among the poorer sections of the population.

Origin of Gracchus

The father of the reformer was also named Tiberius Sempronius. The Sempronian paternal family played an important role in the political life of Rome. People from different branches of this family often became senators, tibni and censors. Tiberius's father himself twice held a consular post. Tiberius's mother, Cornelia Africana, was the daughter of the famous commander whose troops conquered Carthage.

When Tiberius's political career was just beginning, there was a problematic situation in Rome. This was due to the fact that most of the land was given only to wealthy families. The poor class was left without land, and this led to constant popular uprisings. This could affect not only the economy, but also the security of the country, since the territories cultivated by slaves reduced yields. With the money with which he had previously maintained a regular army, he had to purchase grain for the entire country from neighboring states.

Reform and death of Gracchus

Since wars in Rome almost never stopped, money to pay soldiers' salaries was taken from wealthy borrowers, who after the war received part of the captured territory or property. This was formalized as a land lease. Gracchus proposed to take away these plots and redistribute them among the poor population. This could achieve three goals at once:

• the unemployed citizens of Rome would find a source of food;
• agriculture would begin to develop again;
• the number of slaves that wealthy landowners imported to work their fields would decrease.

But, since many of the wealthy landowners were themselves senators, they, like other noble Romans, were hostile to the idea of ​​Gracchus and began to accuse him of trying to become king of Rome. At first they tried to bring him to justice and called on the consul to arrest Gracchus. When the consul refused, an attack was organized on Tiberius's supporters, during which Gracchus died on the Capitoline Hill. The name of his exact killer is unknown.

The activities of the tribune Tiberius Gracchus displeased most of the ruling Roman elite.

The tribune decided to convene a popular assembly, but its meeting was disrupted by his opponents, who gathered a large meeting at the Temple of Jupiter. On the second day, Scipio Nazica called on Gracchus' opponents to follow him. Crowds of armed men broke into the Capitol and killed hundreds of supporters of the Roman tribune. Tiberius Crachus also died in this battle.

All of them were brutally beaten with clubs and stones. Many died in the stampede.

The Senate forbade the burial of Gracchus' body. And his body, along with his killed supporters, was thrown into the Tiber.

Rome. Reforms of Tiberius Gracchus

But the task of saving Italy, for which Scipio, who twice led the Roman army from deep decline to victory, lacked the courage, was bravely taken up by a young man who had not yet become famous for any exploits - Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (163 - 133). His father, who bore the same name (consul in 177 and 163, censor in 169), was the model of a Roman aristocrat. As an aedile, he organized brilliant games, and earned money for them by oppressing the provinces, for which he incurred the severe and well-deserved censure of the Senate. In an unworthy trial against the Scipios, who were his personal enemies, he stood up for them and thereby proved his knightly nobility and devotion to class honor, and the energetic measures against freedmen that he took while a censor testified to the firmness of his conservative convictions. As governor of the province of Ebro, with his courage and especially his fair administration, he rendered great services to the fatherland and left a grateful memory in the province. Tiberius's mother Cornelia was the daughter of the winner at Zama, who chose his former enemy as his son-in-law, chose him because he so generously stood up for him. Cornelia herself was a highly educated, outstanding woman. After the death of her husband, who was much older than her, she rejected the offer of the Egyptian king, who asked for her hand, and raised her three children in the behests of her husband and father. Her eldest son Tiberius, a kind and well-behaved young man, with a soft look and calm character, seemed least suitable for the role of a popular agitator. In all his connections and beliefs, he belonged to the Scipionic circle. Both he and his brother and sister received a refined Greek and national education, which distinguished all the members of this circle. Scipio Aemilianus was his cousin and his sister's husband. Under his command, Tiberius, as an 18-year-old youth, took part in the siege of Carthage and received the praise of a stern commander and military honors for his bravery. It is not surprising that the gifted young man, with all the fervor and rigor of his youth, accepted and developed the ideas of this circle about the reasons for the decline of the state and the need to improve the situation of the Italian peasantry. Moreover, not only among young people there were people who considered Gaius Laelius’s refusal to carry out his reform plan a sign not of prudence, but of weakness. Appius Claudius, former consul (143 BC) and censor (136 BC), one of the most authoritative members of the Senate, with all the passion and vehemence characteristic of the Claudian family, reproached the Scipionic circle for that he so hastily abandoned his plan to distribute public lands. It seems that there was also a note of personal hostility in these reproaches; Alpius Claudius had clashes with Scipio Aemilianus at a time when they were both seeking the position of censor. Publius Crassus Mucianus, who was at that time the great pontiff and enjoyed universal respect in the Senate and among the people as a man and as a learned lawyer, spoke in the same spirit. Even his brother Publius Mucius Scaevola, the founder of the science of law in Rome, apparently approved of the reform plan, and his opinion was all the more important because he, so to speak, stood outside the parties. The same views were held by Quintus Metellus, the conqueror of the Macedonians and Achaeans, who was highly respected for his military exploits and even more for his strict morals in family and public life. Tiberius Gracchus was close to these people, especially Appius, whose daughter he married, and Mucianus, whose daughter his brother married. It is not surprising, therefore, that he came to the idea of ​​taking up the reform himself as soon as he received a position giving him the right to legislative initiative. Personal motives may also have strengthened him in this intention. Peace treaty with the Numantines, concluded in 147 BC. Mancinus, was mainly the work of Gracchus. The fact that the Senate cashed the treaty and, as a result, the commander-in-chief was handed over to the enemy, and Gracchus, along with other high-ranking officers, avoided the same fate only due to his popularity among the people could not incline the truthful and proud young man Magche towards the ruling aristocracy. The Hellenic rhetoricians with whom he willingly conversed on philosophical and political topics, Diophanes of Mytilene and Gaius Blossius of Cumae, supported his political ideals. When his plans became known in wide circles, many approved of them; Inscriptions repeatedly appeared on public buildings calling on him, the grandson of Scipio Africanus, to think about the poor people and the salvation of Italy.

December 10, 134 BC Tiberius Gracchus took office as tribune of the people. The disastrous consequences of bad governance, the political, military, economic and moral decline of society became obvious to one and all at this time in all its terrifying nakedness. Of the two consuls this year, one fought unsuccessfully in Sicily against the rebel slaves, and the other, Scipio Aemilian, had been busy for several months with the conquest, or rather, the destruction of a small Spanish city. If a special incentive was needed to force Gracchus to move from plan to action, then this incentive was the whole situation, which caused the greatest anxiety in the soul of every patriot. Gracchus's father-in-law promised to support him with advice and deed; one could also count on the assistance of the lawyer Scaevola, who had recently been elected consul for 133. Having assumed the office of tribune, Gracchus immediately proposed to issue an agrarian law, which in its main provisions was nothing more than a repetition of the law of Licinius-Sextius from 367 to AD He proposed that the state take away all state lands occupied by private individuals and in their gratuitous use (the law did not apply to lands leased, such as the Capuan territory). At the same time, each owner was given the right to retain 500 yugers as a permanent and guaranteed possession, and for each son another 250 yugers, but in total no more than 1,000 yugers, or to receive another plot in return. For improvements made by the previous owner, such as buildings and plantings, it was apparently intended to provide a monetary reward. The lands selected in this way were to be divided into plots of 30 jugeras and distributed to Roman citizens and Italian allies, but not as full ownership, but on the basis of hereditary and inalienable lease with the obligation to cultivate the land and pay a moderate rent to the state. The selection and division of lands was supposed to be entrusted to a board of three persons; they were to be considered valid and permanent officials of the republic and were to be elected annually by the people's assembly. Later they were also entrusted with the difficult and important legal task of determining what was public land and what was private property. Thus, the distribution of lands was intended to last indefinitely until the difficult issue of the vast Italian public lands was resolved. The agrarian law of Sempronius differed from the old law of Licinius-Sextius by a reservation in favor of owners who had heirs, as well as by the fact that land plots were supposed to be distributed on the basis of hereditary and inalienable lease, most importantly in that to implement the law, the organization of a permanent and regular executive was provided for organ; the absence of the latter in the old law was the main reason for its actual ineffectiveness. So, war was declared on the large landowners, who, as three hundred years ago, were mainly represented in the Senate. It has been a long time since an individual official of the republic entered into a serious struggle, as now, against the aristocratic government. The government accepted the challenge and resorted to a technique that has long been used in such cases: it tried to paralyze the actions of one official, considered as an abuse of power, by the actions of another. Gracchus's colleague in the tribunate, Marcus Octavius, a determined man and a staunch opponent of the law proposed by Gracchus, protested the law before the vote; thus, by law, the proposal was withdrawn from discussion. Then Gracchus, in turn, suspended the functioning of state bodies and the administration of justice and put seals on state treasuries. They came to terms with this, because, although it was inconvenient, there was not much time left until the end of the year. The confused Gracchus made his proposal a second time. Octavius, of course, protested again. To the pleas of his comrade and former friend not to interfere with the salvation of Italy, he replied that their opinions differed precisely on the question of what measures could be taken to save Italy; he also referred to the fact that his inviolable right as a tribune to impose his veto on the proposals of another tribune is not subject to doubt. Then the Senate made an attempt to open a convenient way for Gracchus to retreat: two consuls invited him to discuss the whole matter in the Senate. The Tribune readily agreed. He tried to interpret this proposal to mean that the Senate, in principle, approved the division of public lands. However, in reality this was not the meaning of the proposal, and the Senate was not inclined to make concessions. Negotiations remained fruitless. Legal methods have been exhausted. In former times, under similar circumstances, the initiators of the proposal would have postponed it for a year, and then would have submitted it to a vote annually until the resistance of the opponents was broken under the pressure of public opinion and the energy of the demands made. But now the pace of social life has become faster. It seemed to Gracchus that at this stage he could either abandon the reform altogether or start a revolution. He chose the latter. He made a statement in the national assembly that either he or Octavius ​​should renounce the tribunate, and invited his comrade to put to a popular vote the question of which of them the citizens wish to relieve from their position. Octavius, of course, refused such a strange duel; after all, the right of intercession was granted to the tribunes precisely so that such differences of opinion were possible. Then Gracchus interrupted negotiations with Octavius ​​and addressed the assembled crowd with a question: does the tribune of the people who acts to the detriment of the people lose his position? There was an almost unanimous affirmative answer to this question; The national assembly had long been accustomed to answering “yes” to all proposals, and this time it consisted in the majority of rural proletarians who arrived from the countryside and were personally interested in carrying out the law. By order of Gracchus, the lictors removed Marcus Octavius ​​from the bench of the tribunes. The agrarian law was passed amid general rejoicing and the first members of the board for the division of state lands were elected. The initiator of the law, his twenty-year-old brother Gaius and his father-in-law Appius Claudius were chosen. This selection of persons from the same family increased the bitterness of the aristocracy. When the new officials turned, as is customary, to the Senate for funds for organizational expenses and daily allowances, the former were denied leave, and the daily allowance was assigned in the amount of 24 asses. The feud flared up, became more and more bitter and took on an increasingly personal character. The difficult and complex matter of delimitation, selection and division of public lands brought discord into every community of citizens and even into allied Italian cities.

The aristocracy did not hide the fact that, perhaps, it would reconcile itself with the new law out of necessity, but the uninvited legislator would not escape its revenge. Quintus Pompey declared that on the very day when Gracchus resigned as tribune, he, Pompey, would initiate prosecution against him; This was far from the most dangerous of the threats that Gracchus’ enemies showered. Gracchus believed, and probably correctly, that his life was in danger, and therefore began to appear at the forum only accompanied by a retinue of 3-4 thousand people. On this occasion, he had to listen to sharp reproaches in the Senate, even from the lips of Metellus, who in general sympathized with the reform. In general, if Gracchus thought that he would achieve his goal with the implementation of the agrarian law, now he had to make sure that he was only at the beginning of the path. “The people” owed him gratitude; but Gracchus faced inevitable death if he had no other protection than this gratitude of the people, if he failed to remain absolutely necessary for the people, did not make new and broader demands and thus did not associate new interests and new hopes with his name . At this time, according to the will of the last king of Pergamon, the wealth and possessions of the Attalids passed to Rome. Gracchus proposed to the people to divide the Pergamon state treasury among the owners of new plots in order to provide them with funds to purchase the necessary equipment. Contrary to established custom, he defended the position that the people themselves had the right to finally decide the issue of a new province.

Gracchus is said to have prepared a number of other popular laws: reducing the length of military service, expanding the right of protest of the tribunes of the people, abolishing the exclusive right of senators to serve as juries, and even including Italian allies among Roman citizens. It is difficult to say how far his plans extended. Only the following is known for certain: in his second election to the position of tribune protecting him, he saw the only way to save his life, and in order to achieve this illegal extension of his powers, he promised the people further reforms. If at first he risked himself to save the state, now he had to put the well-being of the republic at stake for his own salvation. The tribes met to elect tribunes for the following year, and the first votes were cast for Gracchus. But the opposing party protested the elections and at least achieved that the assembly was dissolved and the decision was postponed until the next day. On this day, Gracchus used all legal and illegal means. He appeared before the people in mourning clothes and entrusted them with custody of his minor son. In case the opposing party again disrupted the elections by protest, he took measures to forcefully expel the adherents of the aristocracy from the meeting place in front of the Capitoline Temple. The second day of elections has arrived. The votes were cast as on the previous day, and protest was again made. Then the dump began. The citizens fled, and the electoral assembly was effectively dissolved; The Capitoline Temple was locked. All sorts of rumors circulated in the city: some said that Tiberius had removed all the tribunes; others that he decided to remain in his position without being re-elected.

The Senate met in the temple of the goddess of Fidelity, near the Temple of Jupiter. The most bitter enemies of Gracchus spoke out. When, amid terrible noise and confusion, Tiberius raised his hand to his forehead to show the people that his life was in danger, the senators began to shout that Gracchus was already demanding that the people crown him with the royal diadem. Consul Scaevola was demanded to order the immediate killing of the traitor. This very moderate man, who was not generally hostile to reform, indignantly rejected the senseless and barbaric demand. Then the consul Publius Scipio Nazica, a zealous aristocrat and an ardent man, shouted to his like-minded people to arm themselves and follow him. Almost no one from the villagers came to the city to vote, and the cowardly townspeople were frightened when the noble people of the city, with eyes blazing with anger, rushed forward with chair legs and sticks in their hands. Gracchus, accompanied by a few supporters, tried to escape. But while running, he stumbled on the slope of the Capitol, in front of the statues of the seven kings, near the temple of the Goddess of Loyalty, and one of the furious pursuers killed him with a blow to his temple. Subsequently, Publius Satureus and Lucius Rufus challenged each other for this honor of executioner. Three hundred more people were killed along with Gracchus, not one of them was killed with iron weapons. In the evening the bodies of the dead were thrown into the Tiber. Guy Gracchus asked in vain to give him his brother's corpse for burial.

There has never been such a day in the entire history of Rome. The strife of parties that lasted more than a hundred years during the first social crisis never resulted in the form of such a catastrophe with which the second crisis began. The best people among the aristocracy should also have shuddered in horror, but the routes of retreat were cut off. He had to choose one of two things: to sacrifice many of the most reliable members of his party to popular vengeance, or to hold the entire Senate responsible for the murder. We chose the second path. It was officially stated that Gracchus sought royal power; his murder was justified by citing the example of Agala. A special commission was even appointed to further investigate the accomplices of Gracchus. It was the responsibility of the chairman of this commission, the consul Publius Popilius, to ensure that the large number of death sentences over people from the people gave a kind of legal sanction to the murder of Gracchus. The crowd was especially angry against Nazika and wanted revenge; he, at least, had the courage to openly admit his actions to the people and defend his innocence. Under a plausible pretext, he was sent to Asia and soon (130 BC) he was elevated to the rank of Great Pontiff in absentia. The moderate party senators acted in concert with their colleagues in this case. Gaius Laelius participated in the investigation of the adherents of Gracchus. Publius Scaevola, who tried to prevent the murder, later acquitted it in the Senate. When Scipio Aemilianus, after his return from Spain (132 BC), was asked to make a public statement whether he approved of the murder of his son-in-law or not, he gave at least an ambiguous answer that, since Tiberius was plotting to become king, his murder it was legal.

Let us now move on to assessing these important and fraught events. The establishment of an administrative board to combat the dangerous ruin of the peasantry and create a mass of new small plots from the state land fund in Italy, of course, did not indicate a healthy state of the national economy. But given the prevailing political and social conditions, it was appropriate. Further, the question of dividing state lands in itself was not of a political nature; all these lands, down to the last piece, could be distributed without deviating from the existing state structure and without at all shaking the aristocratic system of government. There could also be no question of an offense here. No one denied that the owner of the occupied lands was the state. Those who occupied them were only in the position of temporarily admitted owners and, as a rule, could not even be considered bona fide applicants for the right of ownership. In cases where, as an exception, they could be considered as such, a law was applied against them, which did not allow the right of prescription in relation to the state in land relations. The division of public lands was not a violation of property rights, but an exercise of this right. All lawyers agreed in recognizing the formal legality of this measure. However, if the proposed reform was not a violation of the existing state system and a violation of legal rights, then this did not in the least justify from a political point of view attempts to now implement the legal claims of the state. One could, with no less, and even more right, object to the Gracchian projects, the same thing that would be said in our time if some large landowner suddenly decided to apply in full the rights that belong to him by law, but in fact for many years not used. It is certain that a portion of these occupied public lands were for three hundred years in hereditary private ownership. Land property of the state in general, by its nature, loses its private law character more easily than the property of individual citizens. In this case, it could be said to have been forgotten, and the current owners quite often acquired their lands by purchase or in some other possible way. No matter what the lawyers said, in the eyes of business people this measure was nothing more than the expropriation of large landholdings in favor of the agricultural proletariat. And indeed, not a single statesman could look at her differently. That the ruling circles of the Cato era judged this way is clearly evident from how they acted in a similar case that occurred in their time. Kaluan territory converted in 211 BC into state ownership, in the subsequent troubled years it mostly passed into the actual ownership of private individuals. In subsequent years, when for various reasons, but mainly due to the influence of Cato, the reins of government were pulled tighter, it was decided to again take away the Capuan territory and lease it to the state (172 BC).

The possession of these lands rested not on a preliminary call for those wishing to occupy them, but, at best, on the connivance of the authorities, and nowhere did it last more than one generation. Nevertheless, expropriation was carried out in this case only with the payment of monetary compensation; its dimensions were determined by order of the Senate by the city praetor Publius Lentulus (about 165 BC).

Perhaps less reprehensible, but still questionable, was that the new plots were to be leased by heredity and be inalienable. Rome owed its greatness to the most liberal principles in the field of freedom of contract. Meanwhile, in this case, new farmers were prescribed from above how to manage their plots, the right to select a plot for the treasury was established, and other restrictions on freedom of contract were introduced. All this was poorly consistent with the spirit of Roman institutions. The above objections to Sempronian agrarian law must be considered very weighty. However, they are not the ones who decide the matter. Undoubtedly, the actual expropriation of the owners of public lands was a great evil. But it was the only means of preventing - if not completely, then at least for a long time - another, worse evil that threatened the very existence of the state - the death of the Italian peasantry. It is clear that the best people even from the conservative party, the most ardent patriots, like Scipio Aemilian and Gaius Laelius, approved in principle the distribution of public lands and desired it.

Although the majority of far-sighted patriots recognized the goal of Tiberius Gracchus as good and salutary, none of the prominent citizens and patriots approved or could approve of the path chosen by Gracchus. Rome at that time was governed by the Senate. To carry out any measure in the field of government against the majority of the Senate meant going towards revolution. A revolution against the spirit of the constitution was the act of Gracchus, who submitted the issue of public lands to the permission of the people. The revolution against the letter of the law was that it destroyed the right of tribunal intercession, this instrument with which the Senate made adjustments to the operation of the state machine and repelled encroachments on its power through constitutional means. By eliminating his fellow tribune with the help of unworthy sophisms, Gracchus destroyed the right of intercession not only for this case, but also for the future. However, this is not the moral and political wrongness of the Gracchus case. For history there are no laws on high treason. Whoever calls one force in the state to fight against another is, of course, a revolutionary, but perhaps at the same time an astute statesman who deserves all praise. The main drawback of the Gracchian revolution was the composition and character of the then popular assemblies; this is often overlooked. The agrarian law of Spurius Cassius and the agrarian law of Tiberius Gracchus basically coincided in their content and purpose. But the work of both these people is as different as the Roman people who once shared with the Latins and Hernicians the spoils taken from the Volscians, and the Roman people who, in the era of Gracchus, organized the provinces of Asia and Africa. Then the citizens of Rome formed a city community and could gather and act together. Now Rome had become a vast state, the custom of gathering its citizens in the same original form of popular assemblies and inviting it to make decisions now led to pitiful and ridiculous results. This reflected the main defect of ancient politics, that it could never completely move from the urban system to the state system, in other words, from the system of popular assemblies in their original form to the parliamentary system. The assembly of the sovereign Roman people was what the assembly of the sovereign English people would become today, if all the English voters wanted to sit in parliament themselves, instead of sending their deputies there. It was a rude crowd, violently carried away by all interests and passions, a crowd in which there was not a drop of reason, a crowd incapable of making an independent decision. And most importantly, in this crowd, with rare exceptions, several hundred or thousands of people, randomly recruited on the streets of the capital, participated and voted under the name of citizens. Usually citizens considered themselves sufficiently represented in the tribes and centuries through their actual representatives, in much the same way as in the curiae, in the person of thirty lictors who represented them in law. And just as the so-called curiat decrees were in essence only the decrees of the magistrate who convened the lictors, so the decrees of the tribes and centuries were reduced in essence to the approval of decisions proposed by the official; those gathered answered the entire proposal with an invariable “yes.” However, if at these public meetings, comitia, no matter how little attention was paid to the eligibility of the participants, still, as a rule, only Roman citizens participated, then at simple gatherings (contio) any two-legged creature, Egyptian and Jew, street boy and slave True, in the eyes of the law, such a meeting did not matter: it could neither vote nor make decisions. But in fact she was the master of the street, and the opinion of the street had already become a force in Rome; it was impossible not to take into account how this rude crowd would react to the message made to it - whether it would be silent or shout, whether it would greet the speaker with applause and rejoicing or whistles and roars. Few had the courage to shout at the crowd as much as Scipio Aemilian did when they booed his words regarding the death of Tiberius: “Hey you, for whom Italy is not a mother, but a stepmother, shut up!” And when the crowd began to make even more noise, he continued: “Do you really think that I will be afraid of those whom I sent in chains to the slave markets?”

It was evil enough that the rusty machine of the comitia was resorted to in elections and in the making of laws. But when these masses of the people, first in the comits, and then in fact at simple meetings (coneiones), were allowed to interfere in the affairs of government and wrested from the hands of the Senate the instrument that served as a defense against such interference; when this so-called people were allowed to decree the distribution in their favor at the expense of the treasury of lands and implements; when anyone to whom his position and personal influence among the proletariat brought, even for a few hours, power in the streets, could impose on his projects the legal stamp of the sovereign popular will - this was not the beginning of popular freedom, but its end. Rome came not to democracy, but to monarchy. That is why, in the previous period, Cato and his associates never brought such issues up for discussion by the people, but discussed them only in the Senate. That is why the contemporaries of Gracchus, people from the circle of Scipio Emilnan, saw in the agrarian law of Flaminius from 232 BC, which was the first step on this path, the beginning of the decline of the greatness of Rome. That is why they allowed the death of the initiator of the reform and believed that his tragic fate would serve as a barrier to similar attempts in the future. Meanwhile, with all their energy they supported and used the law on the distribution of state lands. Things were so sad in Rome that even honest patriots were forced to be disgustingly hypocritical. They did not prevent the death of the criminal and at the same time appropriated the fruits of his crime. Therefore, Gracchus’ opponents, in a certain sense, were right in accusing him of striving for royal power. This idea was probably alien to Gracchus, but for him it is more a new accusation than an excuse. For the rule of the aristocracy was so destructive that a citizen who could overthrow the Senate and take its place would perhaps bring more benefit to the state than harm.

But Tiberius Gracchus was not capable of such a brave game. He was, in general, a rather talented man, a patriot, a conservative, full of good intentions, but not aware of what he was doing. He addressed the mob in the naive confidence that he was addressing the people, and extended his hand to the crown, without realizing it, until the inexorable logic of events carried him along the path of demagoguery and tyranny: he established a commission from members of his family, extended his hand to the state treasury , under the pressure of necessity and despair, he sought more and more “reforms”, surrounded himself with guards from the street rabble, and it came to street battles; Thus, step by step, it became clearer and clearer to himself and to others that he was nothing more than a regrettable usurper. In the end, the demons of the revolution, which he himself summoned, took possession of the incompetent spellcaster and tore him to pieces. The shameful massacre in which he ended his life passes judgment both on himself and on the aristocratic gang from which it came. But the halo of a martyr with which this violent death crowned the name of Tiberius Gracchus, in this case, as usual, turned out to be undeserved. The best of his contemporaries judged him differently. When Scipio Aemilianus learned of the disaster, he recited a verse from Homer: “Let anyone who commits such deeds thus perish.” When Tiberius’s younger brother discovered an intention to follow the same path, his own mother wrote to him: “Will there really be no end to folly in our family? Where will the limit be for this? Haven’t we disgraced ourselves enough by causing confusion and disorder in the state?” This was spoken not by an alarmed mother, but by the daughter of the conqueror of Carthage, who experienced an even greater misfortune than the death of her sons.