The Gracchi

May 1, 2025

Guest

Federico Santangelo

In this conversation, Kathryn Tempest, a Roman history lecturer, Catherine Steel, a professor of Classics, and Federico Santangelo, an ancient history expert, delve into the tragic tale of the Gracchi brothers. They discuss Tiberius's land reforms aimed at helping soldiers and Gaius's ambitious proposals for cheap grain and senatorial accountability. The brothers’ populist efforts ignited fierce elite backlash, culminating in their assassinations, which marked a chilling turn towards political violence in Rome and foreshadowed the rise of emperors.

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INSIGHT

Political Violence and Legacy of Gracchi

The murder of the Gracchi brothers increased violence as an accepted political tool in Rome.
Their reforms influenced subsequent leaders to bypass the Senate and appeal directly to the people.

INSIGHT

Shift to Large-Scale Political Violence

Though Rome was inherently violent, the Gracchi period marked a shift to large-scale political violence.
The killings of Tiberius and Gaius differed: one by a priest-led riot, the other state-sanctioned repression.

INSIGHT

Fear of Tyranny Fueled Violence

Fear of tyranny triggered the violence against Tiberius, rather than his land reforms alone.
Senate reactions differed widely to the deaths of the two brothers, reflecting uncertainty about political violence.

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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus whose names are entwined with the end of Rome's Republic and the rise of the Roman Emperors. As tribunes, they brought popular reforms to the Roman Republic at the end of the 2nd century BC. Tiberius (c163-133BC) brought in land reform so every soldier could have his farm, while Gaius (c154-121BC) offered cheap grain for Romans and targeted corruption among the elites. Those elites saw the reforms as such a threat that they had the brothers killed: Tiberius in a shocking murder led by the Pontifex Maximus, the high priest, in 133BC and Gaius 12 years later with the senate's approval. This increase in political violence was to destabilise the Republic, forever tying the Gracchi to the question of why Rome’s Republic gave way to the Rome of Emperors.

With

Catherine Steel Professor of Classics at the University of Glasgow

Federico Santangelo Professor of Ancient History at Newcastle University

And

Kathryn Tempest Lecturer in Roman History at the University of Leicester

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Reading list:

Appian (trans. John Carter), The Civil Wars (Penguin Classics, 2005)

Valentina Arena, Jonathan R. W. Prag and Andrew Stiles, A Companion to the Political Culture of the Roman Republic (Wiley-Blackwell, 2022), especially the chapter by Lea Beness and Tom Hillard

R. Cristofoli, A. Galimberti and F. Rohr Vio (eds.), Costruire la Memoria: Uso e abuso della storia fra tarda repubblica e primo principato (L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2017), especially ‘The 'Tyranny' of the Gracchi and the Concordia of the Optimates: An Ideological Construct.’ by Francisco Pina Polo

Suzanne Dixon, Cornelia: Mother of the Gracchi, (Routledge, 2007)

Peter Garnsey and Dominic Rathbone, ‘The Background to the Grain Law of Gaius Gracchus’ (Journal of Roman Studies 75, 1985)

O. Hekster, G. de Kleijn and D. Slootjes (eds.), Crises and the Roman Empire (Brill, 2007), especially ‘Tiberius Gracchus, Land and Manpower’ by John W. Rich

Josiah Osgood, Rome and the Making of a World State, 150 BCE-20 CE (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

Plutarch (trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert and Christopher Pelling), Rome in Crisis (Penguin Classics, 2010)

Plutarch (trans. Robin Waterfield, ed. Philip A. Stadter), Roman Lives (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Nathan Rosenstein, ‘Aristocrats and Agriculture in the Middle and Late Republic’ (Journal of Roman Studies 98, 2008)

A. N. Sherwin-White, ‘The Lex Repetundarum and the Political Ideas of Gaius Gracchus’ (Journal of Roman Studies 72, 1982)

Catherine Steel, The End of the Roman Republic, 146 to 44 BC: Conquest and Crisis (Edinburgh University Press, 2013)

David Stockton, The Gracchi (Oxford University Press, 1979)

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