Life of Tiberius Gracchus
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The purpose of this research is to examine the life of Tiberius Gracchus (166 133 B.C.). The plan of the research will be to set forth the character of Tiberius Gracchus by means of a review of biographical material, and then to develop a putatively autobiographical apology for Tiberius Gracchus's life and work. The two principal primary sources of the basic facts surrounding Tiberius Gracchus's life are Plutarch and Appian. Plutarch's life of Tiberius Gracchus is set forth in comparison to that of his younger brother Gaius (Caius). He is on the whole generous in his discussion of Tiberius Gracchus, whom he perceives to have been of noble and virtuous bearing,1) and of a steadiness of disposition that contrasts to his brother Gaius's more temperamental character. Appian, writing a generation after Plutarch,2 also chronicles Tiberius Gracchus's political career, which followed a successful military career under the son of Scipio Africanus in Spain. The principal features of Tiberius Gracchus's life are framed by the fact that he appears to have been groomed for a career in public service. Further, he seems somehow to have been destined (or doomed) to be a reformer. Wells says that the road to the first century B.C. civil wars began with Tiberius Gracchus, "the first conspicuous leader to appeal to the gathering revolutionary feeling in Italy . . . [who] looks more like an honest man than any other figure in this period of history."3 Montanelli agrees, noting that it
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ast and mighty have been established under the control of powerful landholding families. Such lands cannot be worked by the families themselves, and for that reason, powerful, rich landowners have imported slaves to work the lands. As Roman conquests have extended, these landowners have even further expanded their holdings, throughout conquered territories, using slave labor for that purpose. As a result, yeoman (free) laborers have been excluded from the labor market, and we have created a dreadful citizen underclass that, though free, lives worse than the slaves. Meanwhile, slaves have become more populous in Rome than Roman citizens. The idle rich live off the labor of others, and the idle poor are forced to scavenge and rob for their bread.
Even the yeoman farmers are affected. The large estate farms have driven farm prices down so artificially low that it does not pay for the small farmer to bring his wares to market because he cannot compete on price. Gradually, he is forced to raise crops for his family only. But this is subsistence living, not a living that might have been available to a respectable farmer with markets for his goods. The result is that yeoman lands either lie fallow or are sold at a loss to greedy estate
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Approximate Word count = 5842
Approximate Pages = 23 (250 words per page)
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