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From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS
VIII. THE GREAT AGE OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC, 264-31 B.C.
» Contents of this Chapter
Page 18
GAIUS GRACCHUS BECOMES TRIBUNE, 123 B.C.
Tiberius Gracchus, in his efforts to secure economic reform, had unwittingly provoked a conflict between the Senate and the assemblies. Ten years after his death, his brother, Gaius Gracchus, came to the front. Gaius quickly made himself a popular leader with the set purpose of remodeling the government of Rome. He found in the tribunate an office from which to work against the Senate. After the death of Tiberius a law had been passed permitting a man to hold the position of tribune year after year. Gaius intended to be a sort of perpetual tribune, and to rule the Roman assemblies very much as Pericles had ruled the people at Athens. One of his first measures was a law permitting the sale of grain from the public storehouses to Roman citizens at about half the market price. This measure, of course, won over the city mob, but it must be regarded as very unwise. It saddled the treasury with a heavy burden, and later the government had to furnish the grain for nothing. Indiscriminate charity of this sort increased, rather than lessened, the number of paupers.
MEASURES OF GAIUS TO RELIEVE THE POOR
Having won popular support, Gaius was able to secure the additional legislation which he deemed necessary to carry out his brother's work. He reenacted the land laws for the benefit of the peasantry and furnished work for the unemployed by building roads throughout Italy. He also began to establish colonies of poor citizens, both in Italy and in the provinces. This was a wise policy. Had it been allowed to continue, such state-assisted emigration, by providing the landless poor of Italy with farms abroad, would have relieved the economic distress of the peninsula.
THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents
url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp
Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy
