Tiberius Gracchus, reformer and demagogue, died in 133, not by assassination, but by open mob violence.
With his death the Senate thought to return Rome to its traditional order.
They passed some of his reforms and tried to placate the people.
But rule of the mob is a specter not so easely quelled.
and Cornelia, mother of Tiberius, that famous Roman matron, had another son.
Gaius had grown up in the shadow of his brother.
He was just a boy when their father died, so he always looked up to the brother ten years as elder.
In many ways they were the same. They were both bold and brave.
They were both eloquent and could move a crowd. And they were both desirous of reform.
But where Tiberius had been staid and sober, Gaius was histrionic and emotional.
Where Tiberius would move the people with his calm words and somber voice,
Gaius would rend his toga and shout,
he would rain insults down on his enemies and seem almost possessed by fervor.
He even had a specially trained slave who would sit behind him during speeches with a lyre
and, whenever he was getting to high pitched or whenever his voice was cracking
because he'd whipped himself up into such a frenzy,
the slave would pluck a note to remind him to bring it back town to that tone.
But when his brother died, Gaius was still young.
At first he tried to withdraw from public life, disappearing from the public eye
to focus instead on honing his powers of oratory.
But then one of his friends was forced to stand trial, and Gaius stood to defend him.
He whipped up the crowd to such a pitch, that the court almost erupted in demostration for his friend.
And when he saw this power, he began to get ideas.
And the senators began to whisper their fears to each other about the rise of another Gracchi.
So he ran for Quaestor and was elected.
He was sent to Sardinia, where he served as an able and active administrator.
But while he served, the island was beset by an unusually harsh winter.
The rank and files suffered terribly, not having clothes or gear for such a cold.
So Gaius went to the people of the island and implored them to donate clothes to the soldiers.
In this action the senators saw a hint of the populist leanings of his brother.
Perhaps it was paranoia, but it drove them to a plan.
You see, Gaius served under a proconsul named Orestes.
A proconsul was an ex-consul who had been assigned to be the governor of one of the Roman provinces
and administer it for Rome. But there's a quirk in that system.
Usually proconsuls would be appointed for one year terms, but not infrequently the term would get extended
to allow the proconsul to finish dealing with a crisis or to simply not shake up the local administration too much.
Thing is, by Roman tradition, the proconsul's staff always stays on with him.
So the Senate extended Orestes's term. If Orestes was in Sardinia,
it would mean that his quaestor would have to stay in Sardinia.
But the Gracchi were never much ones for tradition.
With a resounding 'I see what you did there,' Gaius took the first boat back to Rome.
On his return, everybody was shocked.
Not only the senators, but the people couldn't believe that he would abandon his post,
that he would break with tradition.
But, when called before the censors, he defended himself and swayed the people against the unfairness of the Senate.
And as there was no law, only tradition, to say that he must stay, he was let free.
But the Senate wasn't done with him.
A faction of the Senate now accused him of conspiring against Rome and encouraging the Italians to revolt.
But here too Gaius was able to clear his name, and the instant he became free
he began to plan his run for Tribune, with a vengeance.
The great and powerful all aligned against him.
But so strong was the memory of his brother and so volatile and explosive his rhetoric,
that vast waves of people poured into the city to support him.
So many that there weren't houses enough in Rome to hold them,
and the Campus Martius was too small to contain them.
So people climbed atop the buildings surrounding the field to express their support for Gaius.
But for all that, the campaigns of the elite were effective.
He came not in first, but fourth in the voting. But, as there were ten men being elected to hold the tribunate,
Giaus did indeed take up the mantle of Tribune and realized the Senate's worst fear.
He immediately pressed the legacy of his brother, shaming the people for standing idle
while a tribune was killed before them.
At every chance he elevated the memory of Tiberius, and whipped up the people's simpathy and rage.
Then, when he had the support, he pushed through a bill that legitimized Tiberius's unheard-of deposition of another tribune,
and another one, that made it a crime for any magistrate to banish a citizen without trial.
But the key was: he made this laws retroactive.
They weren't there to protect against future offenses, but rather as a tool to get at one of his rivals.
For, after Tiberius had been slain, a man named Popilius Laena, who was a praetor at the time,
had tried and banished or executed many of Tiberius's followers.
Popilius didn't even wait for the trial; as soon as that law was passed he fled Italy ,
Phase one of settling scores: complete.
Now, piece by piece, Gaius plans to dismantle the power of the Senate,
as he whipps the populace up into a frenzy.
First: he appealed to the rural poor, bringing back his brother's agrarian reforms with an eye to
breaking up the voting blocks that, under Roman law, came with having vast landed estates.
Next: he appealed to the army, mandating the Republic pay for their clothes and some of their equipment,
inadvertently laying the groundwork for the move from Rome dependence on its citizen soldiers
to the fully paid professional military, which would doom the Republic.
Third: he began to float the idea of giving citizenship to those Italians that didn't live directly in Rome.
An idea whose specter we'll see later.
Fourth: he appealed to the middle class, the equestrians, by offering them a seat as judges in the courts of law,
a position which before had been reserved for senators.
Finally: he appealed to the urban poor.
A grain shortage had been going on, and the price of food was skyrocketing.
So he put a cap on the price of grain.
The State would buy grain at its own expense and then sell it to the people at a loss
to ensure that grain was readily available to those who needed it,
laying the groundwork for the grain dole that will be such an important part of the imperial period.
With great action and diligence he applied himself to all of these projects,
as well as the construction of roads and granaries. And his efficacy reinforced his popularity.
When it came time for the next elections, everybody expected him to run for Consul.
But instead he supported a friend's bid and actually stepped out of politics, running for nothing that year.
But fate stepped in, for that year so many people were running for Tribune that the vote was so divided
not enough candidates got the minimum number of votes required by Roman law to fill all ten slots.
And, by law, the remaining tribunes simply picked people to fill any vacant positions.
And so, without even running for it, Gaius won himself the unthinkable second term as tribune.
He had now achieved by accident what his brother had lost his life grasping for.
Join us next time, as we find out whether he can fulfill the legacy of his brother,
or if he'll be thwarted at every turn.