How Did Gracchi Brothers Law Contribute To The Downfall Of The Roman Republic?
Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, better known as the ‘Gracchi Brothers’ were a pair of tribunes descending from the plebs from the 2nd century BCE who sought to introduce land reforms and other legislations that aligned with their populist views/ideas. It can be said that the career of the two brothers was marked by murder, riots and outright manipulation of the power they were granted which completely altered the state of Roman politics- aiding in the breakdown of the Roman Republic. The legislation they sought to pass essentially redistributed major aristocratic land ownership among the commoners such as the urban poor and veterans. After achieving little success during the early stages of the reforms, both were assassinated by enemy parties. …show more content…
The brothers' actions that assisted in the fall of the Roman Republic are those of; manipulating the power they were entrusted with to their own agenda and the repercussions that came about after the land reforms were sent into place.
The brothers' law reforms played a key part in assisting the downfall of the Roman Republic. Tribune of the plebs for 133 BC, Tiberius proposed a land reform directly to the citizen assembly, as opposed to proposing it to the Senate- the traditional method. During this time-period, the republican constitution was constantly undermined by a military monarchy, known as the
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Reasonable and noble concepts on the surface, however, were underlying with their own contempt for the Senate and optimate party. What could be seen on one side as an attempt to rectify a dangerous and debilitating social system was viewed on the other as nothing more than a power grab and a flagrant attack on the Republican institutional ideas of the time. The goal of the betterment of society as a whole was lost, and victory became the only objective. As ambition and personal motivation became the predominant theme of the Late Republic, the social fabric that long-held Rome together, against all odds, was being torn apart due to the reforms that were set in
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