Three Slices of Bread
Dropped out of Sky: one for Gracchus Brothers, the rest stolen by evil
Unluckily the
two historical events took place in the Roman Republic in the late second
century BC were not happy ending fairytales for Gracchus Brothers, Tiberius and
Gaius.
The brothers
were born to an old and noble family. In 133 BC tribune Tiberius Gracchus
introduced a bill to redistribute the public lands from patricians to peasants
whose lands had been confiscated. Inspite of resistance of landholders who were
also senators, the law was enacted. Thereafter Tiberius declared that he would be
up for re-election as a tribune despite the fact that the office was annual,
and he implied that new legislation would be introduced. Hereupon, senators
accused him of intending to become a king. After having prevented his
re-election senators clubbed to death Tiberius and his 300 supporters with the
help of armed gangs. In this way the legal immunity of the tribuneship was
violated and a political conflict ended in violent and bloodshed for the first
time. From that time forth armed gangs featured in the Roman political arena.
Although Tiberius’ land reform was in effect, it was never enforced.
10 years
later Gaius became a canditate for the position of tribune in order to continue
his brother’s activities. Younger Gracchus was elected as tribune two
consecutive year (123 and 122 BC), and he enacted various laws in the public
interest such as reviving the land reform and providing grain at reduced price
for the public. But his law proposal to extend citizenship rights to Latin
people was vetoed. Gaius failed to be re-elected the third time in 121 BC. The
Senate repealed the laws enacted by Gaius immediately. In response, he and his
supporters protested against this. On the grounds that the Republic got into
danger senators wasted no time in
getting Gaius and his 3000 supporters killed.
Well then,
what is the important consequence of these two tragic events? The Senate dug
its own grave, so to speak since magisters were entitled to all kinds of
authority by senatus consultum ultimum.
As a matter of course the Gracchi failed at their attempts because all kinds of
achievements could not go beyond a certain point without an army. Consequently,
the failures of the Gracchi would be a good lesson for posterity. The Senate
led a way to the authority, which would destroy the system being under the
domination of the Senate. Armed forces would become decisive factor in
politics, that is to say that those who held the army would keep the political
power, disregarding the constitution completely.
The Gracchus
brothers might have been considered to sow the seeds of socialism. Both of them
obviously had class consciousness, and they were idealists. However, they
failed to foresee or underestimate that the Roman aristocrats would fight for
protecting their benefits at any rate.
What if the
Gracchus brothers had succeeded in their struggles how would have been our
lives? If so, three apples would have dropped out of sky: all for working class
for once.
Best wishes,
Nilufer Akcay
Dublin June 29, 2012
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