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Gracchi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Gracchi were a Patrician family of ancient Rome. (The word "gracchus" means grackle or blackbird).[1])
The most notable members were:
- The elder Tiberius Gracchus Major or Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, who was consul in 177 BC and married Cornelia Africana, the daughter of Scipio Africanus Major, who was the archetype of the ideal Roman matron
- His elder son, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, tribune in 133 BC
- The younger son of the consul, Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, also tribune in 123 and 122 BC
- Both Brothers were denied the position of Senator, which in turn inspired them to support the Plebians
The Gracchi brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, went down in history as martyrs to the cause of social reform. Tiberius was killed by members of the Roman Senate for attempting to make the system friendlier to the lower classes of Rome. They tried to limit the size of the large farms that the patricians (upper class) owned to keep the plebeians (lower class) able to compete with their smaller farms.
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Gaius and many of his followers were killed in 121 BC owing to the Senate being made up of patricians who owned large farms.
The Gracchi were connected through marriage to the Scipiones, Cornelii, Claudii, and Aemilii.
Fictional Gracchi also appear in many epic films, such as Spartacus (1960) and Gladiator (2000).
- ^ Davenport, Guy. "The Hunter Gracchus", in The Hunter Gracchus and Other Papers on Literature & Art (Counterpoint, Washington D.C., 1996), p. 2
There are arguments out there that the Lex Sempronia was actually an attempt by the Claudius and Gracchus faction to win more clientalia and not an honest attempt at reform.