because the gap between rich and poor had widened to
unprecedented levels and because there were hordes of
discontented citizens in Rome ready to rebel in response to
these injustices and turn against the Roman aristocracy.
But political power rested with the rich landowners of the
senatorial class, who were the beneficiaries of the changes
that had gone on over the last two centuries. Most had no
intention of changing the system that had served them so
well.
According to the Roman historian Plutarch, Tiberius
Gracchus, when traveling through Etruria, a region in what
is now central Italy, became aware of the hardship that
families of citizen-soldiers were suffering. Whether
because of this experience or because of other frictions
with the powerful senators of his time, he would soon
embark upon a daring plan to change land allocation in
Italy. He stood for plebeian tribune in 133 BC , then used his
office to propose land reform: a commission would
investigate whether public lands were being illegally
occupied and would redistribute land in excess of the legal
limit of three hundred acres to landless Roman citizens.
The three-hundred-acre limit was in fact part of an old law,
though ignored and not implemented for centuries. Tiberius
Gracchus’s proposal sent shockwaves through the
senatorial class, who were able to block implementation of
his reforms for a while. When Tiberius managed to use the
power of the mob supporting him to remove another tribune
who threatened to veto his land reform, his proposed
commission was finally founded. The Senate, though,
prevented implementation by starving the commission of
funds.
Things came to a head when Tiberius Gracchus claimed
for his land reform commission the funds left by the king of
the Greek city Pergamum to the Roman people. He also
attempted to stand for tribune a second time, partly
because he was afraid of persecution by the Senate after
he stepped down. This gave the senators the pretext to
charge that Tiberius was trying to declare himself king. He
and his supporters were attacked, and many were killed.
Tiberius Gracchus himself was one of the first to fall, though
his death would not solve the problem, and others would
attempt to reform the distribution of land and other aspects