Gracchi

The Gracchus brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, were Romans who both served as tribunes in the late 2nd century BC. They attempted to pass land reform legislation that would redistribute the major aristocratic landholdings among the urban poor and veterans, in addition to other reform measures. After achieving some early success, both were assassinated by enemies of these reforms.

Early life

The brothers were born to a plebeian branch of the old and noble Sempronia family. Their father was the elderly Tiberius Gracchus major or Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, who was tribune of the plebs, praetor, consul and censor. Their mother was a patrician named Cornelia Africana; her father was Scipio Africanus. Their parents had 12 children, but only one daughter (who later married Scipio Africanus the Younger) and two sons, Tiberius and Gaius, survived childhood.

After the boys' father died while they were young, responsibility for their education fell to their mother. Cornelia ensured the brothers had the best available Greek tutors, teaching them oratory and political science. The brothers were also well trained in martial pursuits; in horsemanship and combat they outshone all their peers. The older brother Tiberius was elected an augur at only 16 – according to the historian J.C. Stobart, had he taken the easy path rather than the cause of radical reform, he would have been clearly destined for consulship. Tiberius was the most distinguished young officer in the Third Punic War, Rome's last campaign against Carthage. He was the first to scale Carthage's walls; before that he saved an army of 20,000 men by skilled diplomacy. As the boys grew up, they developed strong connections with the ruling elite.