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132-610: His political future was imperilled during his quaestorship when he was forced to negotiate a humiliating treaty with the Numantines after they had surrounded the army he was part of in Spain. Seeking to rebuild that future and reacting to a supposed decline in the Roman population which he blamed on rich families buying up Italian land, he carried a land reform bill against strong opposition by another tribune during his term as tribune of

264-486: A legate or military tribune under his brother-in-law, Scipio Aemilianus during his campaign to take Carthage during the Third Punic War . According to Plutarch , Tiberius – along with Gaius Fannius – was among the first to scale Carthage's walls. He served through to the next year. Some time in his youth, perhaps before his Numantine campaign, he was co-opted into the augural college . In 137 BC he

396-421: A basic progression that one first had to hold the quaestorship before being considered for higher office as praetor or consul , with quaestor as the lowest office. After Sulla's reforms , the cursus honorum was cemented, with the added requirement that to stand for the quaestorship, one first needed to have been one of the vigintiviri and have held the military tribunate . The reforms also established that

528-457: A bribe and shutting down the Roman treasury, and thereby, most government business. When the Assembly eventually assembles to vote, a veto is presumed. They attempt to adjudicate the matter in the senate, to no avail, and the Assembly votes to depose Octavius from office when he maintains his veto. Following the deposition, Tiberius' freedmen drag Octavius from the Assembly and the Assembly passes

660-439: A cap of 500 jugera (with an additional 250 jugera for up to two sons). The exact legislative history of the bill is disputed: Appian and Plutarch's accounts of the bill's passage differ considerably. At a broad level, the bill was proposed before the concilium plebis ; Tiberius forwent the approval of the senate before a bill was to be introduced. In response, the senate secured one of his tribunician colleagues to veto

792-420: A commission, staffed following elections, by Tiberius Gracchus, his brother Gaius Gracchus, and his father-in-law, Appius Claudius Pulcher , to survey land and determine which illegally occupied land was to be seized for redistribution. People possessing more than 500 jugera of land opposed the law strongly. While previous laws had fined occupation in excess of the limit, those fines were rarely enforced and

924-496: A fall in Rome's population and, therefore, the number of leviable citizens; modern archaeology, however, has shown that this apparent decline was illusory. Nobody at the time connected unwillingness to serve in Spain with evasion of conscription by avoiding censorial registration. The Romans eventually righted their census undercount in the census of 125/4 BC, which showed the population had actually increased. Tiberius believed that

1056-431: A family. This led to underemployment of farmers; close to Rome, where demand for land was high, those farmers sold their lands to richer men and engaged in wage labour, which was a major source of employment around harvest time. Some of those farmers also found wage work in the cities, such as jobs in public works, itinerant manual labour, and selling food; their material livelihoods declined, however, after 140 BC when

1188-489: A formula for levying soldiers in an emergency – "anyone who wants the community secure, follow me" ( Latin : qui rem publicam salvam esse volunt me sequatur ) – and led a mob to the comitia with his toga drawn over his head . In doing so, he attempted to frame the killing as a religious rite ( consacratio ) taken to free the state from an incipient tyrant. Tiberius and supporters did not fight back; killed with stones and other blunt weapons, their bodies were thrown into

1320-424: A group, even a majority, of fellow countrymen. While the framing of Tiberius Gracchus' murder in terms of religious ritual sets it aside from the explicitly political killings of Gaius Gracchus and Marcus Fulvius Flaccus that were authorised by the senate , the use of violence in of itself subverted the norms of consensual republican government. The death of Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC has been viewed, both in

1452-487: A higher magistrate were supervised by their superior. Quaestors could be dismissed by their superiors, but this appears rare; there is only one known case thereof, when then-proconsul Marcus Aurelius Cotta dismissed his quaestor Publius Oppius in 73 BC. In the early Republic, one quaestor was attached to each consul, both when the consul was in Rome for civic duties and on military campaign. By 227 BC, every magistrate with imperium (consuls and praetors) left

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1584-888: A major political norm. Senators also feared that Tiberius intended to appropriate Attalus' bequest to hand out money to his personal benefit. This was compounded by his attempt to stand for re-election, claiming that he needed to do so to prevent repeal of the agrarian law or possibly to escape prosecution for his deposition of Octavius. Attempts at such consecutive terms may have been illegal. The bid, however, certainly violated Roman constitutional norms: magistrates were immune while in office and continuous officeholding implied continual immunity. Some ancient historians also report that Tiberius, to smooth his bid for re-election, brought laws to create mixed juries of senators and equites but this likely emerges from confusion with his brother's law to that effect. The deadly opposition to Tiberius Gracchus' reforms focused more on his subsequent actions than on

1716-473: A pause in monumental building projects caused wage rates to fall. Alternate occupations included the army, but by the late 130s BC, army life was hard; the plunder of the early 2nd century's armies had ended and Rome was instead engaged in sanguinary and unprofitable wars in Hispania. There are many contemporaneous reports of endemic desertion, draft evasion, and poor morale. A recent census also recorded

1848-416: A plebeian. Although this law was occasionally violated by the election of two patrician consuls, Sextius himself was elected consul for 366, and Licinius in 364. At last, the plebeian tribunes had broken the patrician monopoly on the highest magistracies of the state. Following their victory in 367, the tribunes remained an important check on the power of the senate and the annual magistrates. In 287 BC,

1980-913: A previous law – commonly identified by modern scholars as the Licinio-Sextian rogations of the early fourth century BC – had limited the amount of public land that any person could hold to 500 jugera (approximately 120 hectares ). This legal maximum on land holdings, if it actually existed, was largely ignored and many people possessed far more than the limit, including Marcus Octavius , also serving as tribune in that year, and Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio , then pontifex maximus . The accounts of Appian and Plutarch are largely based on Tiberius and his supporters' political rhetoric and argumentation. Modern scholars have argued that those arguments were tendentious and did not reflect contemporaneous conditions objectively. Source difficulties also emerge, inasmuch as some modern scholars also doubt whether

2112-454: A role "analogous to... that [of] other members of the governor's entourage, such as his legates". At times, the quaestor could get into tension with the governor's legates over respective spheres of responsibility or accountability; officially, however, the quaestor was "higher up the chain of command... [as], besides the governor, he was the only magistrate [and] representative of the Senate and

2244-601: A similar name (the quaestor sacri palatii ) emerged during the Constantinian period with judicial responsibilities. Quaestor derives from the Latin verb quaero , quaerere , meaning "to inquire" (probably ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root of interrogative pronouns *kʷo- ). The job title has traditionally been understood as deriving from the original investigative function of

2376-423: A soft landing for his career. Tiberius offered no forceful support for the treaty and seems to have distanced himself from it; it was proposed to send Tiberius in chains along with Mancinus, but that proposal was defeated. Tiberius was elected as plebeian tribune for 133 BC. While Livy 's depiction of the domestically placid middle republic is an overstatement, the political culture in Rome at this time still

2508-471: A specific task without lot (i.e., extra sortem ), likely with the approval of the senate to a magistrate's request. Some quaestors were assigned to specific tasks (the management of the treasury or of the grain supply in Ostia), but most were assigned to assist a higher magistrate. Those assigned to the treasury were supervised by the Senate (usually with the consuls as intermediaries), while those assigned to

2640-437: A substantial gain from his actions. In 48 BC, the senate bestowed the tribunicia potestas (tribunician power) on the dictator Gaius Julius Caesar , who, as a patrician, was ineligible to be elected one of the tribunes. When two of the elected tribunes attempted to obstruct his actions, Caesar had them impeached, and taken before the senate, where they were deprived of their powers. Never again did Caesar face opposition from

2772-417: A superior) in the late republic, quaestorian responsibilities increased dramatically as the only Roman magistrate present. At times, quaestors were sent without superiors to peaceful acquisitions to inventory property, auction them if necessary, and transport proceeds to Rome. During normal times under a governor, the quaestor would handle administrative tasks related to supply of the armies. He would oversee

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2904-414: A tacit approval of Tiberius' murder. Tiberius' brother, Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, continued his career without incident until he too stood for the tribunate and proposed similarly radical legislation, before also being killed with now explicit approval of the senate. Part of Gaius' land programmes was to start establishing Roman colonies outside of Italy, which later became standard policy in consequence of

3036-418: A treaty with Rome a few years earlier under Quintus Pompeius , but Rome had reneged on its terms; the senate refused to ratify the treaty on the grounds that its terms were too favourable to the Numantines. Tiberius' negotiations were successful in part because of the influence with the Numantines he inherited from his father's praetorship in the area in 179–78 BC. During the negotiations, Tiberius requested

3168-512: Is "rhetorical oversimplification [and that] the idea there had been a calm consensus at Rome between rich and poor until [133 BC] is at best a nostalgic fiction". More modern commentators also express similar views. For example, Andrew Lintott writes: In this way Sigonio has helped to create the standard modern periodisation, whereby the Conflict of the Orders ends in 287 and the decline of

3300-551: Is also possible the money was to be used to finance the commission itself. After this proposal, Tiberius was attacked in the senate by Quintus Pompeius and accused of harbouring decadent regal ambitions. One of the former consuls also brought a lawsuit against Tiberius arguing the deposition of Octavius violated magisterial collegiality and was a dangerous precedent which a sufficiently powerful tribune could exploit to bypass all checks on his power. Tiberius' proposal usurped senatorial prerogatives over finance and foreign policy, breaking

3432-403: Is both incompatible with two republican censuses and the ancient necessity for productive lands to be close to market. Illegal occupation of the ager publicus for commercial production was unlikely due to the ager 's inaccessibility by urban markets; if displacement consistent with the ancient sources happened, it likely occurred only in farmlands areas close to Rome. Slave-staffed estates,

3564-475: Is preserved in Plutarch: The wild beasts that roam over Italy... have every one of them a cave or lair to lurk in; but the men who fight and die for Italy enjoy the common air and light, indeed, but nothing else; houseless and homeless they wander about with their wives and children. And it is with lying lips that their [commanders] exhort the soldiers in their battles to defend sepulchres and shrines from

3696-476: The quaestores parricidii . The earliest quaestors were quaestores parricidii , chosen to investigate capital crimes, and may have been appointed as needed rather than holding a permanent position. Under the Republic , these quaestores parricidii persisted, as prosecutors for capital cases in trials before the people. They disappear, however, by the second century BC. Ancient authors disagree on

3828-559: The aerarium under senatorial direction. It is also around this time that Livy reports a relationship between the quaestors and the public treasury. After 267 BC, four more quaestors were added, possibly with assignments to various towns in Italy (e.g., Ostia for management of the food supply). The specific number elected year-to-year is difficult to determine at any time, but before Lucius Cornelius Sulla 's reforms in 81 BC, there were 19 quaestors; his reforms created one for

3960-584: The Appius Claudius Pulcher who was consul in 143 BC. Appius was a major opponent of the Scipios, a family with which Tiberius was related in his maternal line. The date of the marriage is uncertain; it could have been related to a plan to reconcile the two families. His marriage to Pulcher's daughter, however, did cement an intergenerational friendship between their two families. Tiberius began his military career in 147 BC, serving as

4092-464: The Roman Republic's decline and eventual collapse. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was born in 163 or 162 BC. He was, from birth, a member of the Roman Republic 's aristocracy . His homonymous father was part of one of Rome's leading families. He served as consul for 177 and 163 BC, and was elected censor in 169. He also had celebrated two triumphs during the 170s, one for

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4224-669: The Social War between Rome and its Italian allies. This interaction between the Italians and land reform also brought up later proposals, including those of Tiberius' younger brother, to trade the Italian aristocracy's occupied lands for Roman citizenship or provocatio rights. Quaestor A quaestor ( British English : / ˈ k w iː s t ər / KWEE -stər , American English : / ˈ k w i s t ər / ; Latin: [ˈkʷae̯stɔr] ; "investigator")

4356-473: The Tiber . Tiberius' agrarian law was not repealed. His position on the agrarian commission was filled; the commission's business continued over the next few years: its progress can be observed in recovered boundary stones stating the commissioners' names. Most of those boundary stones bear the names of Gaius Gracchus, Appius Claudius Pulcher, and Publius Licinius Crassus. An increase in the register of citizens in

4488-479: The plebeian assembly alone. However, they functioned very much like magistrates of the Roman state. They could convene the concilium plebis , which was entitled to pass legislation affecting the plebeians alone ( plebiscita ), and beginning in 493 BC to elect the plebeian tribunes and aediles. From the institution of the tribunate, any one of the tribunes of the plebs was entitled to preside over this assembly. The tribunes were entitled to propose legislation before

4620-746: The Gracchan narratives in Plutarch and Appian are based more on tragic dramas about their deaths rather than credible historical narratives. According to Plutarch, referencing a pamphlet attributed to Tiberius' brother Gaius, Tiberius developed his measures after being moved by the dearth of free Italians tilling the fields in Etruria on the march to the Numantine war. The poor, without land, became unavailable for military service and stopped reproducing, causing population decline. A quote from Tiberius Gracchus

4752-676: The Republic begins in 133, the intervening period displaying the constitution at its best. In the second edition of The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Republic , Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg similarly writes: It was Tiberius' assassination that made the year 133 BC a turning point in Roman history and the beginning of the crisis of the Roman Republic. Contrary to Appian's claims about how Tiberius acted to give Rome's Italian allies land, there are no seeming indications that Tiberius Gracchus' reforms helped them in any way. Moreover, it

4884-524: The Roman people", giving him "greater authority than legates in all areas of provincial command". Quaestors are documented at various times leading and raising troops and fleets under the command of their governors. Some quaestors were delegated significant open-ended responsibilities far exceeding administrative tasks: Lucullus , for example, during the First Mithridatic War as Sulla 's proquaestor, led troops, assembled fleets, travelled

5016-410: The Roman period and in modern scholarship, as the start of a new period in which politics was polarised and political violence normalised. In the ancient period, Cicero remarked as much in saying "the death of Tiberius Gracchus, and, even before his death, the whole character of his tribunate, divided one people into two factions". Modern historians such as Mary Beard, however, warn that Cicero's claim

5148-484: The action of a tribune. If a magistrate, the senate, or any other assembly disregarded the orders of a tribune, he could "interpose the sacrosanctity of his person" to prevent such action. Even a dictator (and presumably an interrex ) was not exempted from the veto power, although some sources may suggest the contrary. The tribunes could veto acts of the Roman senate. The tribune Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus imposed his veto on all government functions in 133 BC, when

5280-405: The ancient world. If the tribune decided to act, he would impose his ius intercessionis ("right of intercession"). Although a tribune could veto any action of the magistrates, senate, or other assemblies, he had to be physically present in order to do so. Because the sacrosanctity of the tribunes depended on the oath of the plebeians to defend them, their powers were limited to the boundaries of

5412-519: The army), a short-lived joint military-administrative post covering the border of the lower Danube . The quaestor sacri palatii survived long into the Byzantine Empire , although its duties were altered to match the quaesitor by the 9th century AD, who was a judicial officer in charge of resolving various disputes. The office survived into the 14th century as a purely honorific title. Plebeian tribune Tribune of

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5544-477: The assembly. By the third century BC, the tribunes also had the right to call the senate to order, and lay proposals before it. Ius intercessionis , also called intercessio, the power of the tribunes to intercede on behalf of the plebeians and veto the actions of the magistrates, was unique in Roman history. Because they were not technically magistrates, and thus possessed no maior potestas , they relied on their sacrosanctity to obstruct actions unfavourable to

5676-405: The belly and the limbs, likening the people to the limbs who chose not to support the belly, and thus starved themselves; just as the belly and the limbs, the city, he explained, could not survive without both the patricians and plebeians working in concert. The plebeians agreed to negotiate for their return to the city; and their condition was that special tribunes should be appointed to represent

5808-423: The bequest to finance the land commission, which triggered a wave of opposition. The ancient sources disagree on what the bequest would be used for: Plutarch asserts it was to be used to buy tools for the farmers, Livy's epitome asserts it was to be used to purchase more land for redistribution in response to an apparent shortage. The latter is unlikely, as the process of surveying and distribution were incipient; it

5940-460: The bill. In Appian's account, however, there is only one bill: opposition from Octavius appears only at the final vote, leading to the dispute to be taken to the senate, and then Octavius' deposition followed by the bill's passage. Prior to the vote, Tiberius gives a number of speeches, in which Appian asserts that Tiberius passed the bill on behalf of all Italians. The political dispute between Tiberius and Octavius lacked clear resolution because of

6072-483: The cities. Altogether, these trends reduced urban workers' incomes, driving them closer to subsistence. Most of the population remained outside the cities in the countryside but similar issues plagued the rural poor as well. The end of colonisation projects caused an oversupply of rural free labour, driving down wages. The Roman state owned a large amount of public land ( ager publicus ) acquired from conquest. The state, however, did not exploit this land heavily. While it

6204-522: The city accompanied by a quaestor. This close cooperation led these provincial quaestors to take a more active role in assisting their superiors with military – even assuming command at times – and administrative tasks. The expanding use of prorogation also affected quaestors, who were regularly prorogued with their superiors pro quaestore ; more frustratingly, ancient sources did not always differentiate between quaestors and their proquaestorian counterparts, regularly calling both quaestors. Quaestors in

6336-496: The city of Rome. A tribune traveling abroad could not rely on his authority to intervene on behalf of the plebeians. For this reason, the activities of the tribunes were normally confined to the city itself, and a one-mile radius beyond. In 471 BC the Lex Publilia transferred the election of the tribunes from comitia curiata to the comitia tributa , thus removing the influence of the patricians on their election. In 462,

6468-468: The college was increased to ten in 457 BC, and remained at this number throughout Roman history. They were assisted by two aediles plebis , or plebeian aediles. Only plebeians were eligible for these offices, although there were at least two exceptions. Although sometimes referred to as plebeian magistrates, the tribunes of the people, like the plebeian aediles , who were created at the same time, were technically not magistrates, as they were elected by

6600-552: The commission's work rushed and inaccurate. Furthermore, the land given in exchange for land taken per the lex agraria might have been of inferior quality, also stoking resentment. By altering this implicit agreement, the loyalty of the Italian allies during the Punic Wars and other conflicts therefore had won nothing. In the end, Roman enforcement of its long-unexercised rights over the ager publicus , stoking resentment and removing disincentives to rebellion, contributed to

6732-423: The death of that commander. The relationship between a governor and his quaestor was similar to that between a patron and a client, but was entirely official. While in office together, a quaestor was expected to show "reverence, courtesy, and loyalty" to his governor; the governor was likewise obliged to respect his subordinates. This relationship often continued past the designated terms of either individual, and

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6864-406: The driver for displacement in that narrative, also did not become common until the first century BC, after the lex Sempronia agraria . It is more likely that the expanded population of Italy through the second century BC had led to greater demands for land redistribution and pressure on food supplies. Due to partible inheritance , modest farms had become divided into plots too small to feed

6996-495: The eastern Mediterranean as a diplomat, intervened to overthrow governments, commanded naval battles, captured prisoners, and levied taxes and indemnities. When a governor left the province, he normally left it to his quaestor's command (though this was at times given instead to one of his high-ranking legates). If a governor died, however, the quaestor generally assumed command of the forces until replacement, possibly with imperium pro praetore . The specifics of how this imperium

7128-498: The elite that the bill was for his personal and familial political interests instead of his stated objectives. The complex motives of Tiberius and his ally and father-in-law Appius Claudius Pulcher were not limited to pro-natalist policymaking and its concomitant effects for army levies; they also may have calculated that land distributions would co-opt the loyalties of the soon-to-return Numantine war veterans. Passage would have served to balance against Aemilianus' political influence – he

7260-483: The enemy; for not a man of them has an hereditary altar, not one of all these many Romans an ancestral tomb, but they fight and die to support others in wealth and luxury, and though they are styled masters of the world, they have not a single clod of earth that is their own. To resolve what he identified as the problem, Tiberius proposed a lex agraria to enforce a limit on the amount of public land that one person could hold; surplus land would then be transferred into

7392-466: The exact manner of selection for this office as well as on its chronology, with some dating it to the mythical reign of Romulus . This view, however, is "not at all credible" and there is no clear evidence for a specific date for the quaestorship's beginning. The classical quaestors with financial responsibilities may be unconnected with the older questores parricidii . However, the debate still continues, but has more recently trended against connecting

7524-539: The following year, and the abuses of their authority became clear to the people, the decemvirate was abolished and the tribunate restored, together with the annual magistrates. Among the laws codified by the decemvirs was one forbidding intermarriage between the patricians and the plebeians; the Twelve Tables of Roman law also codified that the consulate itself was closed to the plebeians. Worse still, in 448, two patricians were co-opted to fill vacant positions in

7656-543: The former duties of the quaestors were subsumed by imperial officials, but, in the senatorial provinces, they "retained some financial functions through the Principate". During the reign of the Emperor Constantine I , a new quaestorship was established, called the quaestor sacri palatii ( lit.   ' the quaestor of the sacred palace ' ). The office functioned as a spokesman for the emperor and

7788-477: The granting of this authority was a means of designating a favoured member of the imperial court as the emperor's intended successor. Agrippa , Drusus the Younger , Tiberius , Titus , Trajan , and Marcus Aurelius each received the tribunician power in this way. With the regular assumption of the tribunician power by the emperors and their heirs, the ancient authority of the tribunes dwindled away. Although

7920-450: The hands of poor Roman citizens. Benefitting the poor was not the only goal of his legislation: Tiberius also intended to reduce the level of inflammation in the city by moving the poor into the countryside while also endowing those people with the necessary land to meet army property qualifications and reverse apparent population decline. This agrarian policy, focusing on people with agricultural skills, led to much of his support coming from

8052-464: The land commission set up by the law and distributed over 3,000 square kilometres (1,200 sq mi) of land over the next few years. A decade later, Gaius too was plebeian tribune and proposed in his year much more wide-ranging reforms that also led to his death. Tiberius and his brother Gaius are known collectively as the Gracchi brothers . The date of Tiberius' death marks the traditional start of

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8184-429: The land commissioners were unfairly seizing land from Italians. Scipio Aemilianus, arguing on behalf of the Italians, convinced the state to move decisions on Italian land away from the land commissioners to the consuls; the consuls promptly did nothing, stalling the commission's ability to acquire new land to distribute. However, over the few years of the commission's most fruitful activities, the amount of land distributed

8316-440: The land possession itself was not disturbed. This led them to invest into improvements to that land, with some protests that the land was part of wives' dowries or the site of family tombs. Tiberius Gracchus' law would seize the land explicitly, a novelty. According to Plutarch, Tiberius initially proposed compensation, but the compromise offer was withdrawn after opposition; his later proposal was to compensate by securing tenure over

8448-417: The last two centuries of the Republic. After the formation of the permanent courts ( quaestiones perpetuae ), the urban quaestors were also responsible for assembling the jury pools and allocation of portions of those pools to the various courts. These quaestors also handled various tasks assigned ad hoc by the Senate, such as meeting and accompanying foreign dignitaries on state visits or leaving Rome to

8580-403: The law's supporters of their impetus, the senate agreed to increase the number of tribunes to ten, provided that none of the tribunes from the preceding years should be re-elected. However, the new tribunes continued to press for the adoption of Terentillus' law, until in 454 the senate agreed to appoint three commissioners to study Greek laws and institutions, and on their return help to resolve

8712-595: The minimum age for candidates had to be 30. Quaestors were elected last in the electoral comitia, as they were of the lowest rank. During the late Republic, however, their terms of office started before their more senior colleagues, on 5 December rather than 1 January. This was the earliest term start of the major magistracies of the Republic, being earlier than that of the tribunes of the plebs (who came into office on 10 December). After election, they were assigned – usually by lot on their first day in office – to their tasks. Very rarely were quaestors directly assigned to

8844-418: The money in the aerarium . Returning magistrates and governors also had to produce detailed account books for their handling of public money, which would then be deposited in the treasury, where the urban quaestors and their staff would audit them. These records were supposed to total a running ledger of starting balances, a line-by-line itemised accounting of all inflows and outflows, and ending balances for

8976-461: The more general realisation that Italy was insufficiently large to fulfil popular demands for agricultural land. Personally, the killing of Tiberius also caused a greater break between Scipio Aemilianus and his Claudian and Gracchan relatives, especially after Scipio Aemilianus approved of Tiberius' murder. The impact of Tiberius' murder started a cycle of increased aristocratic violence to suppress popular movements. By introducing violent repression,

9108-505: The next decade suggests a large number of land allotments. But that registration could also be related to greater willingness to register: registration brought the chance of getting land from the commission. It also could have been related to lowering of the property qualifications for census registration into the fifth class from four thousand to 1.5 thousand asses . The activities of the land commission started to slow after 129 BC. The senate pounced on complaints from Italian allies that

9240-418: The next year), and other younger, junior senators. The amount of land each beneficiary would have received is unknown. Thirty jugera is often suggested. That amount, however, is greatly in excess of the regular amount of land distributed viritim in colonisation programmes (only 10 jugera ). There were also restrictions on alienation and possibly rents (a vectigal ). While these conditions place

9372-488: The number of quaestors to forty. During the Principate , the number was halved back to twenty by Augustus . He also removed the quaestors from government of the aerarium (with a short interlude under Claudius when this was reversed). The emperor and the two consuls each had two quaestors, with the emperor selecting his own, the quaestores Caesaris , who were often up-and-coming men from noble families. Over time,

9504-454: The office of the quaestor worked in conjunction with the praetorian prefect of the East to oversee the supreme tribunal, or supreme court, at Constantinople . There, they heard appeals from the various subordinate courts and governors. Emperor Justinian I also created the offices quaesitor , a judicial and police official for Constantinople , and quaestor exercitus (quaestor of

9636-481: The office was further impaired when, in 59 BC, the patrician Publius Clodius Pulcher , who aspired to hold the tribunician power, had himself adopted by a plebeian youth, and renounced his patrician status, in order to be elected tribune for the following year. Although considered outrageous at the time, Clodius' scheme was allowed to proceed, and he embarked on a program of legislation designed to outlaw his political opponents and confiscate their property, while realizing

9768-423: The people returned to the city. The first tribuni plebis were Lucius Albinius Paterculus and Gaius Licinius , appointed for the year 493 BC. Soon afterward, the tribunes themselves appointed Sicinius and two others as their colleagues. The ancient sources indicate the tribunes may have originally been two or five in number. If the former, the college of tribunes was expanded to five in 470 BC. Either way,

9900-418: The people"). Once invoked, this right required one of the tribunes to assess the situation, and determine the lawfulness of the magistrate's action. Any action taken in defiance of this right was illegal on its face. In effect, this gave the tribunes of the people unprecedented power to protect individuals from the arbitrary exercise of state power, and afforded Roman citizens a degree of liberty unequalled in

10032-437: The place of consuls prevented any plebeians from assuming the highest offices of state until the year 400, when four of the six military tribunes were plebeians. Plebeian military tribunes served in 399, 396, 383, and 379, but in all other years between 444 and 376 BC, every consul or military tribune with consular powers was a patrician. Beginning in 376, Gaius Licinius Calvus Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus , tribunes of

10164-527: The plebeians to the brink of revolt, and there was talk of assassinating the consuls. Instead, on the advice of Lucius Sicinius Vellutus , the plebeians seceded en masse to the Mons Sacer (the Sacred Mount), a hill outside of Rome. The senate dispatched Agrippa Menenius Lanatus , a former consul who was well liked by the plebeians, as an envoy. Menenius was well received, and told the fable of

10296-446: The plebeians, and to protect them from the power of the consuls. No member of the senatorial class would be eligible for this office (in practice, this meant that only plebeians were eligible for the tribunate), and the tribunes should be sacrosanct; any person who laid hands on one of the tribunes would be outlawed, and the whole body of the plebeians entitled to kill such person without fear of penalty. The senate agreeing to these terms,

10428-439: The plebeians. Being sacrosanct, no person could harm the tribunes or interfere with their activities. To do so, or to disregard the veto of a tribune, was punishable by death, and the tribunes could order the death of persons who violated their sacrosanctity. This could be used as a protection when a tribune needed to arrest someone. This sacrosanctity also made the tribunes independent of all magistrates; no magistrate could veto

10560-520: The plebs in 133 BC. To pass and protect his reforms, Tiberius unprecedentedly had the tribune who opposed his programme deposed from office, usurped the senate's prerogatives over foreign policy, and attempted to stand for a consecutive tribunate. Fears of Tiberius' popularity and his willingness to break political norms led to his death, along with many supporters, in a riot instigated by his enemies. His land reforms survived his death; family allies, including his younger brother Gaius , took places on

10692-584: The plebs , tribune of the people or plebeian tribune ( Latin : tribunus plebis ) was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians , and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of the Roman Senate and magistrates . These tribunes had the power to convene and preside over the Concilium Plebis (people's assembly); to summon

10824-474: The plebs, used the veto power to prevent the election of any annual magistrates. Continuing in office each year, they frustrated the patricians, who, despite electing patrician military tribunes from 371 to 367, finally conceded the consulship, agreeing to the Licinian Rogations . Under this law, military tribunes with consular power were abolished, and one of the consuls elected each year was to be

10956-439: The poor rural plebs rather than the plebs in the city. Thousands reportedly flooded in from the countryside to support Tiberius and his programme. Tiberius was not, however, alone in his views: he was supported by one of the consuls for the year (the jurist Publius Mucius Scaevola ), his father-in-law Appius Claudius Pulcher (who had served as consul for 143 BC), Publius Licinius Crassus Mucianus (elected pontifex maximus

11088-420: The private ownership of the distributed land into question, and therefore also question whether an owner could be registered in the census as owning that land. Later laws indicate that it was legally treated as private with tenure maintained given payment of the vectigal . An unpaid vectigal would trigger reverter to the state, which would then be able to redistribute it again. The law would also create

11220-478: The proceedings. Both versions agree on obstruction from Marcus Octavius, one of the other tribunes, and his deposition. In Plutarch's account, Tiberius proposes a bill with various concessions, which is then vetoed by Marcus Octavius , one of the other tribunes. In response, he withdraws the bill and removes the concessions. This latter bill is the one debated heavily in the forum. Tiberius tries various tactics to induce Octavius to abandon his opposition: offering him

11352-401: The proceeds to be deposited in the public treasury. They were also responsible for public auction of property seized from citizens who had debts or fines owed to the state if they were unable to pay. These responsibilities over public debts also included the collection of fines in general, where a convict ordered to pay a fine would be required to make a surety to the urban quaestors and deposit

11484-403: The province. They also included, for generals, detailed lists of all the money, gold, silver, spoils, and other assets acquired during a governorship. The scribes checked the account books, looking for transactional documentation and arithmetic errors, the results were then approved or disapproved by the quaestors. A negative audit could provide fodder for corruption charges, which was regular in

11616-477: The provinces generally remained in the same province as their superiors for the duration of the superior's term, but this was not obligatory, as the quaestorian careers of Gaius Gracchus , Julius Caesar , and the rotating names of quaestors serving under Gaius Verres attest. Terms in the provinces usually lasted one or two years. Quaestors acted militarily solely under the auspices and imperium of their commanders, except under exceptional circumstances such as

11748-623: The provinces on special assignments. In earlier Republic, the quaestors also controlled the distribution of the legionary aquilae (eagle standards), which were kept in the treasury before distribution to generals before they were returned on the conclusion of a campaign. This likely, however, fell into disuse as Rome expanded across the Mediterranean. Because consuls, praetors, and their promagisterial counterparts were "practically... plenipotentiary agent[s] upon [which all] aspect[s] of government associated with that provincia depended",

11880-446: The provinces – from precious metal stocks on hand. The provincial quaestor also had to carefully record all the money that fell into the provincial government's hands. Other assets acquired by conquest or otherwise classed as war spoils – from gold to grain, arms, and ships – also had to be inventoried, recorded, and deposited in the public treasury at Rome. Captives captured in war were usually sold into slavery in that province, which

12012-456: The quaestor could be called upon for assistance or other needs by the consul. Also related were the need to maintain a working relationship to avoid tensions that could endanger the province, as well as a "certain degree of complicity [needed...] to conceal anything that could compromise the magistrates' reputations". There were usually two quaestors assigned to the city of Rome (termed urban quaestors), with both simultaneously responsible for

12144-414: The quaestor's responsibilities could vary widely, including not only financial and administrative matters but also sometimes encompassing military command and judicial functions. In general, however, the core administrative duty of the quaestor was to "[extract] whatever material assets the Roman military apparatus might need". When quaestors were sometimes assigned to a province alone (without attachment to

12276-649: The reforms themselves. At the electoral comitia counting the votes for the tribunes for 132 BC, Tiberius and his entourage seized the Capitoline hill where the voting was taking place to dictate the result. At a senate meeting on the tribunician elections, Tiberius' first cousin Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio , the pontifex maximus , attempted to induce consul Publius Mucius Scaevola use force and stop Tiberius' re-election. When Scaevola refused, Scipio Nasica shouted

12408-507: The republic itself was temperamentally unsuited for producing the types of economic reforms wanted or hypothetically needed, as in Tiberius' framing, by the people. However, Tiberius' actions did not mark him as an enemy of the senate seeking to destroy its authority: he sought a traditional career in the senate and irresponsibly engaged in excessive popular indulgences to further his career. Yet, his aggressive political tactics also showed that

12540-418: The republic's norms and institutions were far weaker than expected, that a non-existential political issue such as distributing public land to help with army recruitment, could overwhelm the republican constitution. The senate's continued pursuit of Tiberius Gracchus' supporters also entrenched polarisation in the Roman body politic, while at the same time endorsing private use of violence to enforce or suppress

12672-629: The return of his quaestorian account books which were taken when the Numantines had captured the Roman camp; the Numantines acquiesced. The new treaty brought back in defeat was also rejected: the Romans rejected the terms as humiliating, revoked Mancinus' citizenship, and sent him stripped and bound to the Numantines. However, by the time the terms of this agreement were being debated in the senate, Numantine ambassadors had also arrived and Mancinus likely argued in favour of his own ritual surrender, felt confident in his safety, and wanted to look towards making

12804-878: The same cities from governor to governor) and the remaining copy returned to Rome for presentation. Then, at least according to custom, both the quaestor and the governor would return to Rome to present the provincial accounts. Upon the close of the term, the quaestor would coordinate to divide the remaining money between the incoming provincial administration and the treasury in Rome. These great responsibilities with little immediate oversight gave both provincial quaestors and their governors many opportunities for corruption by misappropriating funds, demanding exorbitant taxes, getting involved in various business schemes, or taking bribes outright. Quaestors' behaviour did not always comport with their administrative and legal responsibilities. On campaign, provincial quaestors acted as subordinate military officers to their attached superior, taking

12936-415: The same. The quaestors were aided by assistants called apparitores , who likely served multi-year terms to familiarise themselves with the job; their number multiplied during the later Republic to meet administrative needs. As part of administering the treasury, they also handled the receipt and auditing of war reparations and tribute from polities defeated by Rome. Collections of taxes were also handled by

13068-400: The senate attempted to block his agrarian reforms by imposing the veto of another tribune. Tribunes also possessed the authority to enforce the right of provocatio ad populum , a precursor of the modern right of habeas corpus . This entitled a citizen to appeal the actions of a magistrate by shouting appello tribunos! ("I call upon the tribunes") or provoco ad populum! ("I appeal to

13200-573: The senate by bringing the lex agraria without its consent; Octavius similarly extra-constitutionally attempted to obstruct the manifest will of the people by veto. After passage of the bill, the senate allocated very little money for the commissioners, making it impossible for the commission to do its job when it needed to pay for surveyors, pack animals, and other expenses. After this meagre allotment, however, news arrived that Attalus III of Pergamum had died and that he had bequeathed his treasury and devised his kingdom to Rome. Tiberius proposed using

13332-433: The senate formally recognized the plebiscita as laws with binding force. In 149 BC, men elected to the tribunate automatically entered the Senate. However, in 81 BC, the dictator Sulla , who considered the tribunate a threat to his power, deprived the tribunes of their powers to initiate legislation, and to veto acts of the senate. He also prohibited former tribunes from holding any other office, effectively preventing

13464-416: The senate under the supervision of the consuls for 132 BC. The special court, however, was not some kind of political purge; it largely acted against politically unimportant people and non-citizens. Scipio Nasica, after being brought up on the charge of murdering Tiberius Gracchus, was sent on a convenient delegation to Pergamum , where he died the following year. The senate, in so doing, conveyed at least

13596-496: The senate; to propose legislation; and to intervene on behalf of plebeians in legal matters; but the most significant power was to veto the actions of the consuls and other magistrates, thus protecting the interests of the plebeians as a class. The tribunes of the plebs were typically found seated on special benches set up for them in the Roman Forum . The tribunes were sacrosanct , meaning that any assault on their person

13728-453: The senatorial oligarchy created norms making future repression more acceptable. Political disputes in the middle republic were not resolved by killing political opponents and purging them from the body politic; before this point domestic political strife basically never resulted in violent death. Roman republican law, when passing ostensibly capital sentences, permitted convicts to flee the city into permanent exile. His death also suggested that

13860-420: The strife between the orders. On the return of the envoys, the senate and the tribunes agreed to the appointment of a committee of ten men, known as the decemviri , or decemvirs, to serve for one year in place of the annual magistrates, and codify Roman law. The tribunate itself was suspended during this time. But when a second college of decemvirs appointed for the year 450 illegally continued their office into

13992-596: The transport of public money assigned by the Senate to the province, record its uses, and use it to pay soldiers' wages or purchase supplies. He also helped manage the taxation of the province in terms of collecting food, supplies, and money from local leaders. In terms of taxation, quaestors also handled the local auction of raw goods to public contractors ( publicani ) or merchants; at times, they also made requisitions from local provincials on orders of their superior or at times on their own accord. This remit also extended to minting coinage – usually to pay soldiers serving in

14124-452: The treasury. While some older scholars believed that the urban quaestors were forbidden from leaving the city, this is now rejected. The normal main duty of the urban quaestors was to handle the aerarium (the public treasury). This involved control and management of the gold and coins stored there, safekeeping of the keys to the treasury, supervision of all public expenses and tax receipts, validation of official documents, and archival of

14256-553: The treaty was later invalidated by the Senate) and Sulla negotiated the capture of Jugurtha at the end of the Jugurthine War . There were initially two quaestors; they were initially appointed by the consuls, but according to Tacitus after 447 BC, they were elected by the comitia tributa . When plebeians were permitted to stand for the quaestorship in 421 BC, two more were added, with assignments to administer

14388-422: The tribunate, although they proved to be of moderate views, and their year of office was peaceful. To prevent future attempts by the patricians to influence the selection of tribunes, Lucius Trebonius Asper promulgated a law forbidding the tribunes to co-opt their colleagues, and requiring their election to continue until all of the seats were filled. But relations between the orders deteriorated, until in 445,

14520-416: The tribune Gaius Terentillius Arsa alleged that the consular government had become even more oppressive than the monarchy that it had replaced. He urged the passage of a law appointing five commissioners to define and limit the powers of the consuls. By threat of war and plague, the issue was postponed for five contentious years, with the same college of tribunes elected each year. In 457, hoping to deprive

14652-504: The tribunes, led by Gaius Canuleius , were able to push through a law permitting the intermarriage of patricians and plebeians, and allowing one of the consuls to be a plebeian. Rather than permit the election of a plebeian consul, the senate resolved upon the election of military tribunes with consular power , who might be elected from either order. Initially this compromise satisfied the plebeians, but in practice only patricians were elected. The regular election of military tribunes in

14784-413: The tribunes; he held the tribunician power until his death in 44. In 23 BC, the senate bestowed the tribunician power on Caesar's nephew, Octavian , now styled Augustus . From this point, the tribunicia potestas became a pre-requisite for the emperors, most of whom received it from the senate upon claiming the throne, though some had already received this power during the reigns of their predecessors;

14916-438: The two offices, which are connected by nothing other than a name. The two general theses are that the classical quaestorship related with financial matters either was created entirely separately from the older judicial quaestorship or that it evolved from that older quaestorship to meet greater administrative needs. The traditional cursus honorum (career path) was loosely regulated, but after 197 BC, became more so, with

15048-469: The unwritten Roman constitution's flexibility. The system, which worked best when magistrates worked cooperatively, broke down when magistrates exploited the legal extent of their powers fully and contrary to existing norms. Both men, being tribunes, represented the plebs and their interests. Octavius insisted on maintaining his veto against his constituents; Tiberius' response was to unconstitutionally depose Octavius. Tiberius had extra-constitutionally bypassed

15180-420: The urban quaestors and their staff, with overpayments reimbursed when funds became available. They also made the appropriate withdrawals from the treasury to cover various expenses – including building, army pay, temple maintenance, state visits, state funerals, road maintenance, minting of coins, etc – as directed by the Senate. They were also in charge of auctions for public land ( ager publicus ). Such land

15312-443: The use of the tribunate as a stepping stone to higher office. Although the tribunes retained the power to intercede on behalf of individual citizens, most of their authority was lost under Sulla's reforms. Former tribunes were once again admitted to the annual magistracies beginning in 75 BC, and the tribunician authority was fully restored by the consuls Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus in 70. The dignity of

15444-415: The victorious establishment of a twenty-year-long peace in Spain. His mother, Cornelia , was the daughter of the renowned general Scipio Africanus . His sister Sempronia was the wife of Scipio Aemilianus , another important general and politician. Tiberius was brought up by his mother, who dedicated herself after the elder Tiberius' death to her children's education. Tiberius married Claudia, daughter of

15576-483: The water supply, raising the total to 20. He also made holding the quaestorship compulsory for advancement to future offices. These reforms also established a minimum age for the office, established at 30. Additionally, the reforms granted quaestors automatic membership in the senate upon being elected, whereas previously, membership in the senate was granted only after censors revised the Senate rolls every few years. During Julius Caesar 's dictatorship, he doubled

15708-537: Was quaestor to consul Gaius Hostilius Mancinus and served his term in Hispania Citerior (nearer Spain) during the Numantine War . The campaign was unsuccessful; Mancinus and his army lost several skirmishes outside the city before a confused retreat in the night led to the army being surrounded. Mancinus then sent Tiberius to negotiate a treaty of surrender. The Numantines had previously signed

15840-439: Was a public official in ancient Rome . There were various types of quaestors, with the title used to describe greatly different offices at different times. In the Roman Republic , quaestors were elected officials who supervised the state treasury and conducted audits . When assigned to provincial governors, the duties were mainly administrative and logistical, but also could expand to encompass military leadership and command. It

15972-435: Was able to find solutions through negotiation, peer pressure, and deference to superiors. There was substantial demand among the poor for land redistribution; Tiberius enjoyed unprecedented levels of popularity in bringing the matter before the assemblies. Tiberius' unwillingness to stand aside or compromise broke with political norms. A similar land reform proposal by Gaius Laelius Sapiens during his consulship in 140 BC

16104-493: Was acquired by conquest and became the property of the Roman people. Land sales could be directed by the Senate to meet funding shortfalls, as during the Second Punic War , when the urban quaestors auctioned lands around Capua to raise funds. These quaestors were also responsible for handling public auction of war booty returned to the public treasury by victorious generals. This included objects as well as slaves, with

16236-533: Was charged with the creation of laws and management of legal petitions, serving as de facto minister of justice. The formal judicial powers of the office were slim, but, as chief legal advisor to the emperor, holders gained substantial influence. Various famous lawyers held this quaestorship, including Antiochus Chuzon and Tribonian , who contributed greatly to the production of the Theodosian Code and Code of Justinian , respectively. From 440 onward,

16368-502: Was delegated after the death of its actual possessor are unclear: some scholars believe that this was automatic, whereas others believed that a proconsul had to first endow his quaestor with propraetorian imperium . A provincial quaestor also could be sent as a diplomatic representative. Two famous examples thereof are those of Tiberius Gracchus and Sulla : Gracchus negotiated a peace treaty on behalf of his proconsul allowing some twenty thousand soldiers to leave with their lives (though

16500-477: Was managed by the quaestor for funds also to be noted in the account books. They also were expected to register those provincial records in Rome upon conclusion of their terms for review by the urban quaestors, which were supposed to record all movements of funds. Loss of those records could give rise to damaging charges of corruption. After Julius Caesar 's lex Julia , these records had to be made in triplicate, with two copies lodged in provincial cities (not always

16632-431: Was punishable by death. In imperial times , the powers of the tribunate were granted to the emperor as a matter of course, and the office itself lost its independence and most of its functions. Fifteen years after the expulsion of the kings and establishment of the Roman Republic, the plebeians were burdened by crushing debt. A series of clashes between the people and the ruling patricians in 495 and 494 BC brought

16764-563: Was substantial: the Gracchan boundary stones are found all over southern Italy. They distributed some 1.3 million jugera (or 3,268 square kilometres), accommodating somewhere between 70,000 and 130,000 settlers. Shortly after this intervention, Scipio died mysteriously, leading to unsubstantiated rumours that his wife (also Tiberius Gracchus' sister), Gaius Gracchus, or other combinations of Gracchan allies had murdered him. These charges are not believed by modern historians. Some Gracchan supporters were prosecuted in special courts established by

16896-490: Was the Italian allies who launched the fiercest opposition to the land reform programme; Tiberius Gracchus' supporters also are never Italians in Appian's account, but only rural plebeians. After Rome acquired its public lands via conquest, the Italians expected that their rights to use it continually were surety for their loyal conduct. While those who complained the most were likely rich over-occupiers, Appian also reports that

17028-546: Was the commander in the final campaign of the Numantine war – after his expected victory. At the time of Tiberius' tribunate in the late 130s BC, there were a number of economic issues before the Roman people: wage labour was scarce due to a dearth of public building, grain prices were likely high due to the ongoing slave rebellion in Sicily, population growth meant there were more mouths to feed, and declining willingness to serve on long army campaigns had increased migration to

17160-465: Was the lowest ranking position in the cursus honorum (course of offices); by the first century BC, one had to have been quaestor to be eligible for any other posts. In the Roman Empire , the position initially remained as assistants to the magistrates with financial duties in the provinces, but over time, it faded away in the face of the expanding imperial bureaucracy. A position with

17292-451: Was theoretically Roman property, Rome had allowed allies to work and enjoy it after its de jure seizure. In the traditional story, derived from Appian and Plutarch (two historians writing during the imperial period), the ager publicus had been occupied by rich landowners operating large latifundia staffed largely by slaves, driving poor farmers into destitution between military service and competition with slave labour. This narrative

17424-444: Was withdrawn after bitter opposition and its defeat in the senate. Tiberius' stubbornness, however, was motivated in part by his need to recover politically from the affair with the treaty. Moreover, victory on the matter of the lex agraria would have, for Tiberius, won him considerable support among the people and buttressed his prospects for higher office. His refusals to compromise or withdraw his proposals led to suspicion among

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