Gaius Gracchus

I was reared in Cornelia’s house, brother to Tiberius, and learned early that honors bind a man to duty. As quaestor in Sardinia (126–124), I kept my hands clean while others took gifts. When a consul sought to prolong my service, I returned to Rome without permission, laid my accounts before the people, and won the tribunate for 123.

As tribune I revived my brother’s agrarian law, set the land commission to work, instituted monthly grain sales at a low price, eased the burdens of soldiers, and bound Italy with roads and milestones. I required that consular provinces be fixed before elections, so no man might bargain for a war. On the rostra I burned hot; a slave with a flute stood behind me to cool my voice.

I shifted juries in the extortion court from senators to equites, so governors would fear judgment. In Asia the taxes farmed by those same equites swelled their wealth; the check upon one order raised another. I sought rules where profit had sat, and I learned how laws beget new powers.

Reelected for 122, I planted colonies—yes, even at ruined Carthage—and pressed to grant Roman citizenship to the Latins and Latin rights to our Italian allies. The Senate set up Drusus with gifts and promises to break my following. In 121 Opimius moved against my laws; after blood was spilled, the Senate pronounced its first “final decree.” I withdrew, was hunted across the Tiber, and near the Grove of Furrina chose death rather than capture. Judge me by this: I tried to bind Rome’s greatness to Roman justice.