who attempted to institute land reform against the impact of latifundia, were in the forefront of what was to degenerate into civil war and consolidation of imperial rule. In 133 B.C., Tiberius Gracchus stood for election as tribune of the people with a formal land-reform program aimed at closing the gap between rich and poor, involving resettlement of small farmers on land plots and grain subsidies for farmers remaining in Rome. Rejected by the Senate, the proposal was passed by the Assembly of Tribes (Greer and Lewis 103).
What happened next caused an important historical turn in Rome. It is here that the account of the Gracchi by Greer and Lewis differs from that of Kebric. According to Greer and Lewis, Tiberius's program had not been completed by the end of his term as tribune, by custom and practice limited to one year. Kebric also notes that by custom and practice tribunes' persons were considered "sacrosanct" and therefore immune from physical attack (38). Tiberius's running for reelection, against custom, "gave his opponents an excuse to instigate and condone his murder, along with those of hundreds of his supporters" (Greer and Lewis 103). When Gaius continued Tiberius's reforms, he, too, was attacked by the Senate; Kebric says that he committed suicide (39).
Greer and Lewis characterize the Gracchi as "compassionate and well-meaning" but also "a futile attempt to turn back the clock of Roman history" (103). Kebric takes the view that personal political ambition for gaining support of the masses, as well as a rather naive reliance on the great dignity of his family, was part of Tiberius's calculation (38-39). In this regard, Kebric makes use of Plutarch's account of Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, who was the daughter of the Punic War general Scipio Africanus and who even after her sons' deaths was respected throughout Rome for her noble bearing of grief (38-9). Kebric acknowledges the self-interested motives of oppo...