Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/209

CHAPTER XII A CENTURY OF REVOLUTION AND THE END OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC (133-30 B.C.) I. THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN SENATE AND PEOPLE 227. The Gracchi and their Attempted Reforms (133-121 B.C.). The crying needs of the farmer class in Italy failed to produce any effect on the blinded and selfish aristocrats who made up the Roman Senate. But the people found a leader in Tiberius Gracchus, the grandson of Scipio the hero of Zama. Elected tribune in 133 B.C., he was wont with passionate eloquence to remind the people of their wrongs. "You fight and die to give wealth and luxury to others. You are called the masters of the world, yet there is no clod of earth that you can really call your own." Tiberius Gracchus brought a law before the Assem- bly providing for a redistribution of the public lands and the protection of the farming class. But the Senate regarded him as a dangerous agitator, and he was slain by a mob of senators who rushed from their meeting place and attacked him and his supporters. This murderous deed was the prelude to a century of struggle between the leaders of the Senate and those of the people, which finally destroyed the Republic and led to the establishment of the Empire. Ten years later Gaius, the brother of Tiberius Gracchus, under- took to force through similar reforms in behalf of the farmers and to reduce the power of the Senate. He too was killed in a riot. In spite of their failure these two brothers won enduring fame in their efforts to improve the lot of the people at large. 228. Marius, the People's Commander. The Gracchi had taught the people to look up to a leader, and this tendency was the beginning of the one-man power which was to develop in the MS