Tiberius Gracachus Traditions

I believe that perhaps something more powerful than law, is tradition and I don’t necessarily say this as if it is a good thing. Tiberius Gracchus’ story more or less seems to prove this statement.

After the second Punic War, there was severe collateral damage that arose tremendous economic and social problems in Rome. The countryside was utterly destroyed and farms were found in horrible conditions. Hence, many people chose to sell their lands to the newly rich. These people were in majority veterans of war that were now landless and moving into the cities with their families to find a job. However, the scene in the cities was more distressing, because many jobs were already taken by slaves who provided extremely cheap labor. Their last hope

He pursued a land reform for the eligibility of more people to serve in the military if they were land owners. He tried to revive an old principle which said that excess public land held by citizens should be returned. His idea did not have a complete support in the Senate but did not give way for absolute rejection either.

Now, Tiberius, as practically all famous people had different types of popularity. To some, he was a renowned reformer sincerely seeking the good of the poor, but to others, he was an ambitious politician whose disrespect for Roman tradition was a perilous indication of urge to flatter the people and become very powerful. Why and how exactly did he violate tradition?

Well, their is a wide range of possibility that Tiberius was seeking the good of his fellow citizens for the mere reason that he said it was not righteous for a wild beast in Italy to have shelter and for a man who fought for Italy to be roaming around the land with his family and without a place to lay his head. Therefore, he desired to distribute land to these veterans. The manner in which he fought for this to be accomplished might also hint at his

Not willing to give up, Tiberius then asked for the resignation of Octavius and held a vote of the Assembly to remove him as tribune. 35 people voted and when 17 were in favor of his removal and only one vote was needed to decide, Tiberius halted the voting and pleaded Octavius to withstand from his position to prevent dishonor upon himself as he was cast out in this way. After a moment of silence, Octavius yielded and removed his veto. Asking for the resignation of Octavius violated the tradition of collegiality (companionship in government) in