Greek reform

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The Gracchische Reform was the attempt of the brothers Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus , in ancient Rome in the 2nd century BC. Chr. Agriculture and social reforms carried out.

Roman society crisis

The traditional view of the events, which goes back in particular to the reports of the two imperial Greek authors Appian and Plutarch , is the following: As a result of the Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC), Roman society fell into a crisis. The Roman army at that time consisted of small farmers who were raised for military service and who had to equip themselves. The long duration of the Second Punic War meant that many fields could not be cultivated for a long time and the farmers were ruined as a result. This in turn led to problems with new excavations. According to older research, many peasants fled to the cities, which greatly increased the number of proletarians there . The winners of this development were the elites of Rome, who got rich through trade and investments in farms. These larger estates or latifundia were created at the expense of the ager publicus , the "public land". This development generated, it was believed, aggression in the countryside and culminated in a political battle in the Senate .

More recently, however, ancient historians such as Klaus Bringmann and Jochen Bleicken have vehemently expressed doubts about this point of view: 20 years after the Punic War and barely 50 years before Tiberius Gracchus, around 180 BC. BC, there was so much ager publicus and so few landless interested parties that at that time the possibility of simply occupying the land was granted in the first place and at the same time the establishment of citizen colonies was initially discontinued. Also, according to Bringmann, as a rule not peasants but only their younger sons were drafted; the long wars could hardly have led to an agrarian crisis, since on the contrary, those who died in the field tended to die in the fields that were superfluous on the farm. Most people would have given up their farms voluntarily because they hoped for a better life in the rapidly growing city of Rome; this was the reason for the shortage of soldiers. Land reform could not have changed that much. Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg takes an opposing position .

Therefore, the motives of the reformers are increasingly being questioned today: According to some researchers such as Ulrich Gotter , the senators who stood behind the Gracchen wanted to use the reform to target those rivals who had occupied much of the ager publicus in recent years weaken, since they themselves apparently had other forms of possession. If one follows this hypothesis, it was really never about relieving the burden on the poor, but about aristocratic disputes within the nobility . This could explain the initially surprising lack of compromise on both sides. According to modern research, it was a power struggle within the Senate, not a conflict between rich and poor. While Tiberius Gracchus was primarily driven by the desire to save his career, which had recently suffered a severe setback, Gaius Gracchus then primarily sought revenge for his older brother, as the aristocratic ideal demanded. The agrarian reform was therefore never the real core of the conflict.

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus

The tribune Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus had around 133 BC. Distribute land from community property ( ager publicus ) to proletarians to restore small farmers . Large estates in excess of a statutory limit of 500 iugera (approx. 125 hectares ) were to be distributed by a three-man commission. These measures served at least superficially to restore military strength and to eliminate the consequences of proletarianization. In addition, the Gracchus project was intended to save his career, which had been damaged by a serious setback a few years earlier; According to the sources, behind Gracchus stood a group of the richest and most powerful senators.

The opposition to these reforms was strong and came mainly from the ranks of the less wealthy senators on the use of the ager publicus were dependent. When the people's tribune, Marcus Octavius, initially prevented the reform from being implemented by veto , Gracchus had him voted out in the popular assembly and, after this breach of the constitution, passed the agricultural law by the popular assembly. When he was about to be re-elected to the people's tribune due to another breach of the constitution, his opponents in the Senate sensed an attempted coup and killed him.

Tiberius Gracchus was likely an unwilling revolutionary as his goals were conservative but his methods were revolutionary. Modern historians have concluded that the decline of the Roman Republic began with him, or with the inability of the Roman aristocracy to peacefully resolve their growing rivalry, as illustrated by its fate. With Gracchus, breach of the constitution and violence found their way into Roman domestic politics. The reform efforts of Tiberius Gracchus ended with his assassination by the Roman elites on the Field of Mars . None of his killers came to justice.

Agrarian reform summary

In 133 BC Tiberius, who was appointed tribune of the people, strove for a fundamental agrarian reform in which the size of the public common land, the ager publicus, was to be limited upwards. 500 iugera (approx. 125 ha ) were set which a citizen was allowed to own. The land that became free was supposed to be given to the dispossessed citizens in small parcels between 20 iugera (5 ha) and 30 iugera (7.5 ha) in order to be able to provide for themselves and to generate sufficient wealth for military service. So that the small farmers were safe from attacks by the large landowners, the land was not allowed to be sold. A commission should organize and monitor land redistribution and resolve possible disputes in the distribution. Although influential senators supported Tiberius' plan, the majority opposed it. Many of the senators were themselves in possession of latifundia , which also extended to state land, and would have lost property through redistribution. Tiberius then took a different, completely new path and bypassed the Senate: he represented the draft law directly before the plebeian people's assembly. When numerous nobiles tried to prevent the law by vetoing another tribune, Tiberius had the tribune dismissed for violating the interests of the people by the people's assembly - a unique event in Roman history. Thereafter, Tiberius's proposal was passed into law by the popular assembly.

Gaius Sempronius Gracchus

The tribune Gaius Sempronius Gracchus had similar but more far-reaching goals than his brother Tiberius ( Leges Semproniae ). His concern was to restore the honor of his noble family; In addition, it was considered the duty of a Roman aristocrat to take revenge for relatives. Ten years after the assassination of Tiberius, Gaius began to renew the agricultural law and to supply the needy urban population with cheap grain. Like his brother, he did not find a majority in the Senate. He had certain judicial posts occupied by members of the knights ( Lex iudiciaria ) in order to win this class for his plans. In addition, he introduced regular taxation for the province of Asia , but failed because of the resistance of the Senate majority and the lower classes with his application for full citizenship rights to the Latins and Roman citizenship to the other allies .

The majority of the Senate, who feared Gracchus' popularity, succeeded in turning his supporters away from him by means of demagogy and in 121 BC. To prevent his re-election as tribune. Now he was facing charges of breach of the constitution. There was street fighting; Gaius Gracchus and his followers occupied the Aventine , whereupon the Senate declared a state of emergency for the first time ( SCU = Senatus consultum ultimum ). Gracchus' followers were slain by the hundreds, he himself let himself be killed by a slave . The agricultural commission stopped working a few years later.

The Gracchi were already glorified by popular politicians in antiquity as champions of the common people, and this view has an intense effect to this day. However, in the almost unanimous opinion of today's ancient historians, it has little to do with historical reality.

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literature

  • Jochen Bleicken : Reflections on the tribunate of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. In: Historical magazine . Vol. 247, 1988, pp. 265-293.
  • Klaus Bringmann : The agrarian reform of Tiberius Gracchus. Legend and Reality (= Frankfurt historical lectures. Vol. 10). Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-515-04418-3 .
  • Karl Christ : Crisis and Fall of the Roman Republic. 5th, unchanged edition, Darmstadt 2007, ISBN 978-3-534-20041-2 , pp. 117-150.
  • Bernhard Linke : The Roman Republic from the Gracchen to Sulla. Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-15498-3 .
  • Joachim Molthagen : The implementation of the Gracchischen agrarian reform. In: Historia . Vol. 22, Issue 3, 1973, pp. 423-458.
  • Francisco Pina Polo : The “tyranny” of the Gracchi and the concordia of the optimates: an ideological construct . In: Roberto Cristofoli, Alessandro Galimberti, Francesca Rohr Vio (eds.): Costruire la memoria , Rome 2016, pp. 5-33.
  • Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg : Reflections on the social program of the Gracchen, in: Ders., Roman studies. Historical awareness - age of the Gracches - crisis of the republic (= contributions to antiquity. Vol. 232). Munich / Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-598-77844-9 , pp. 245-263.

Remarks

  1. ^ Klaus Bringmann: The agrarian reform of Tiberius Gracchus. Legend and Reality (= Frankfurt historical lectures. Vol. 10). Stuttgart 1985, pp. 11-12, 24; Jochen Bleicken: Reflections on the tribunate of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. In: Historical magazine . Vol. 247, 1988, pp. 265-293.
  2. ^ Klaus Bringmann: The agrarian reform of Tiberius Gracchus. Legend and Reality (= Frankfurt historical lectures. Vol. 10). Stuttgart 1985, pp. 18-19.
  3. ↑ Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg: Thoughts on the social program of the Gracchen, in: Ders., Roman studies. Historical awareness - age of the Gracches - crisis of the republic (= contributions to antiquity. Vol. 232). Munich / Leipzig 2006, pp. 245-263.
  4. ↑ Appian, Bellum Civile I 8, 11, Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus 8-9, 13.1.
  5. ↑ Appian, Bellum Civile I 12, Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus 10.2-10.6.
  6. ↑ Appian, Bellum Civile I 12, Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus 10.7-13.1.

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