Who are the Graki Brothers? What did they do about the fall of the Roman Republic?

Who are the Graki Brothers? What did they do about the fall of the Roman Republic? What does their experience tell us?

Tiberius and Jaus Glachus.

So they were the sons of a very influential and popular politician, whom we will call Gracchus Sr (his name is also Tiberius).

Gracchus Sr's career has been fantastic. He was elected Consul twice and managed to marry the daughter of Scipio Africanus (yes that Scipio).

His eldest son was Tiberius. The calm, cautious, intelligent, and motivated Tiberius is a natural force.

In his first military deployment, he witnessed the entire legion being beaten and nearly destroyed in Spain. Because of the respect his father gained among the Spanish enemies in Rome, Tiberius was able to negotiate a safe return to Italy for the legions.

Back in Rome, Tiberius became popular. The families of the soldiers he saved loved him, and Tiberius took a rather radical political stance and ran for office.

You'll see that Rome has 100% volunteers. The landlords will join, buy their own equipment, and then fight for free. As Rome expanded, although these men found themselves deployed for years, large slave plantations slowly took over in their absence. These people returned from the war, had no land, went bankrupt and emigrated to Rome, where jobs were never enough.

So basically the rich are getting richer, the poor are still poor, and the middle class is dying.

Tiberius wanted to turn the tide. He got elected Tribune of the Plebs and immediately proposed legislation to fix this mess.

Tiberius was vetoed, so he was furious. He himself had veto power as a Tribune, so he vetoed every action of the government. The Senate is really dead. Tiberius then dismissed the man who vetoed him.

Let's stop here because it's big. Otherwise it's just to stop the Senate from making a big mistake. It is a divine right to believe that it will not be abused. Tiberius simply weaponized it completely

Also, imagine that, because he disagreed, kicked out a law chosen official. What would happen if Biden forcibly kicked Ted Cruz out of the Senate — only to kick him out without an election. Imagine how bad that would be.

Well, Tiberius got away with it. The land reform was adopted and his term ended.

However, Tiberius wanted to be re-elected – something that was unheard of at the time. As the elections went on, chaos broke out. Tiberius pointed to his head and warned his bodyguards of danger, but the Senate thought it was a crown he had asked for.

The senator and their guards attacked the crowd and killed Tiberius. His body was dumped in the Tiber River, which bears his name.

Next up was the young Grachi gaius. Gaius was loud, aggressive, and mean. He would attack his opponents and humiliate them everywhere, and could incite crowds to use violence.

Gaius would be a Tribune and settle accounts like his brother. He passed a number of reforms and passed laws punishing those who killed his brother. His tenure was quite successful and at the end he did a lot.

Gaius then unexpectedly won a second term. Not enough Tribunes won the majority, so the ruling Tribune could only elect its 10th member (10 per year). Gaius thus became the protagonist of the forum again.

He began to carry out more reforms, expanding citizenship, establishing new colonies, and expanding welfare. Still, the Senate began to oppose him. They would cut him off and propose his policies as their own. As people saw the Senate as their friend rather than him, his popularity began to slowly decline.

What Gaius wanted to do most was to grant citizenship to all Italians, not just Romans. The Senate lashed out at this and began to say that Gaius would give everyone the little extra rights that ordinary people had. Ordinary Romans began to dislike Gaius's view of the post.

When his second term ended, he ran for third place. Gaius called the non-citizen Italians to vote for him and thought they might take him to a third term.

So the Senate passed a law that made all non-citizens must leave Rome and not vote. Gaius therefore offered to protect them if they came to his house.

The election came and Gaius lost.

Gaius, however, refused to accept the defeat and claimed that the system was manipulated against him. He gave a fierce speech that provoked popular anger.

Gaius, the mob in his hands, began to march toward the Senate. On the way, one of his supporters killed a Senate supporter. Now the Senate can say that the mob is "violent" and treats it that way.

The army was ordered into Rome, and Gaius's mob was surrounded. Gaius offered peace, the Senate refused, and the army attacked the mob. Gaius and his supporters were slaughtered.

Gracchi changed everything.

They were the first to truly use the common people as a platform for power

They were the first to weaponize office power

They were the first to propose and pursue radical reforms

Overnight, they established a political party, the People's Party. In the last years of the republic, the party will become one of the two main political parties in Rome.

Other members of the party include the legendary Marius and Caesar himself.

Gracchi reforms were necessary and correct, but they did it wrong. They created conflict and division, and they showed how abuses of power and incitement to the mob led to political victory.

The conflict between the optimists (conservatives) and the people (reformers) will lead to no less than 6 civil wars and lead to the fall of the republic and the rise of the empire.

We know that political divisions and abuses of power can lead to instability and civil war, and the Grakis are its inventors.