Transcription
Tiberius drove government to a standstill and broke all bounds of Roman tradition, deposing a tribune so that he might get his way. But even as he pushed his reforms through with the people, other sentiments were brewing.
Tiberius secured the vacated position of tribune for one of his clients and began the survey of Roman public lands to enact his law. But once all was calm, the dismissal of the tribune Octavius sat well with no one. Even some of the public who had supported Tiberius looked with shame on how they'd let their republic be controlled by fickle whims.
So he looked to shore up his support with the public when the perfect opportunity fell into his hands. The king of Pergamon died and in his will, he left his kingdom to Rome. This may sound shocking, but he had no heir and he didn't want his people to face a civil war or eventually a war with Rome. He could better safeguard them by ensuring their good treatment in his will than by facing Rome on the battlefield.
Tiberius seized on this and said that the wealth of the king should be used to give poor farmers the tools they needed to get their farms started. And while the senate was debating on how to administer the cities of the realm, Tiberius declared that this was not a matter for them to discuss and that he himself would personally submit a proposal to the people.
The senate was incensed. Foreign affairs had always been the purview of the senate. Now, even those senators who had previously stayed on the sideline got involved. On the floor of the senate, senator after senator began to give speeches berating Tiberius for acting like a king.
One of these speeches stung so deep that Tiberius ran out of the senate house, gathered the people, and ordered that the senator who spoke be brought before them so Tiberius could denounce him. But the senator simply said to the people: 'If thou wish to heap insult upon me and degrade me, and I invoke the aid of one thy colleagues in office and he mount the rostra to speak in my defence, and thou fly into a passion, come, wilt thou deprive that colleague of his office?'
This was a sarcastic reference to the removal of Octavian. And seeing the effect this had on the people, Tiberius simply dismissed the assembly and let the senator go. But now, fearing for his life and needing the sacrosanctity that came with being a tribune, Tiberius ran for tribune again. And I should mention that in 200 years, no man had ever served as tribune twice in a row.
He started making all sorts of promises to the people about what he would do as tribune, not all of which might be seen as in the best interests of Rome. But even this was not enough. On the day of the vote, Tiberius was clearly falling behind. His friends stood up and made speeches and hurled insults at the other candidate, in an attempt to slow things down, managing to stall just long enough that the voting had to be closed for the day. They would be back the next day and they would be rallying many more of their supporters to bring to the forum.
At dawn, against many ill omens, Tiberius went to the forum for the election. A great crowd was gathered, but the voting couldn't be started. A disturbance on the periphery of the crowd kept interrupting the proceedings as the vote was being called to order. Then, a senator standing in the crowd motioned to Tiberius that he wished to speak. Tiberius waved to the crowd to let him through.
The senator came forward with a warning: He stated that a faction of wealthy Romans planned to have Tiberius assassinated. The men close enough to hear this armed themselves with clubs and prepared for violence. Those a little further off, confused over this commotion, tried to ask what was going on, but the tumult of the crowd was too great.
So Tiberius rose up and pointed to his head to indicate that his life was in danger, but this wasn't exactly a clear signal. At the border of the crowd, one man saw this and immediately ran to the senate to tell them that Tiberius was asking for a crown. The senate, shocked at this, called upon the consul to act, but the consul merely replied that 'Hey, if the people voted for anything unlawful, he would nullify the vote. Chill out!'
This was not a satisfactory answer for one of the senators though, who leapt to his feet with the words: 'Since, then, the chief magistrate betrays the state, do ye who wish to succour the laws follow me?' And with many like-minded senators and their attendance in tow, he marched toward the forum, grabbing clubs and staves and even the legs of benches to enact what they saw as the law. They lay into the crowd with their cudgels, and the panic began.
Tiberius's men tried to fight back, but in the whirling melee and the trampling throng, Tiberius fell as he tried to escape, and his assailants fell upon him. One beat him with the leg of a bench, another with a stone, until at last... he and 300 others lay dead in the forum.
After this came the retributions: more of Tiberius's followers were executed or exiled. The bodies of those who had defended him were tossed into the Tiber, and when Gaius asked for his brother's body, he was denied, for even Tiberius had been thrown into that river for which he was named.
It was the first great act of political violence in the Roman republic, and it would set the tone for the next 100 years. In Roman law, a tribune was "sacrosanct," which meant that it wasn't just a crime but a sacrilege to harm them. It was the highest taboo and the stabilizing factor that kept the Roman republic from descending into a rule of the strong. But now that taboo was shattered. And once a collective taboo is broken, there is no going back. Violence had now been introduced into political life, and no democracy can survive the weight of violence.
But our story doesn't end here. Tiberius was known to be of a calm and rational disposition, but he wasn't the only Gracchi brother. Join us next time as Gaius takes up his cause.