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124-495: lex Cassia may refer to: lex Cassia tabellaria (137 BC) – introduced secret votes in court jury decisions lex Cassia de senatu (104 BC)  – required any senator to be expelled from the senate if they had been convicted of a crime, or if their power ( imperium ) had been revoked while serving as a magistrate lex Cassia (44 BC?) – allowed Julius Caesar to add new individuals to

248-489: 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

372-416: A Senator. Voters might be reluctant to offend their family, their landlords, or their military commanders. More significantly, Rome had a strong system of patronage. In this system, a wealthy patron would support his less wealthy client with food, money, business advice, and legal assistance. In exchange, the client would grant the patron favours in his personal and public life. One of the most significant

496-399: A ballot by an attendant ( rogator ). The voter would mark the ballot and deposit it into a ballot box ( cista ) made of wicker. The cista was watched over by guards ( custodes ). It was a great honor to be asked to be a rogator or custos , and only distinguished men were assigned to these roles. In addition to the guards appointed by the presiding officer, each candidate was entitled to

620-488: A citizen voted for him. If that was the intention, the ballot laws had the opposite effect. Candidates could no longer rely on the support of their clients or of other citizens to whom they owed favours, making canvassing more important. In addition, candidates could previously bribe voters by promising payment upon receiving their vote. With the secret ballot, this was no longer possible, making it necessary to bribe potential as well as actual voters. Furthermore, voters had

744-433: A citizen's wealth, geographic location, and age (junior or senior). The centuries were heavily weighted in favor of the wealthy, so that the equites and first class, despite comprising a small portion of the population, were only 8 votes short of a majority of the centuries. Similarly, the landless proletarii , which might have made up 14% of the population, were allocated one century. The centuries voted by class, so that

868-421: 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

992-404: A democratic reform that increased voter choice and reduced the influence of the upper classes. This is the view taken by Cicero, an aristocrat and opponent of the ballot laws: Everyone knows that the ballot law has deprived the optimates of all their influence…The people should not have been provided with a hiding place, where they could conceal a mischievous vote by means of the ballot, and keep

1116-551: 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

1240-433: 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

1364-493: 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

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1488-426: 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

1612-408: A guard at each ballot box. To elect magistrates, voters expressed their preference by inscribing the initials of their preferred candidate with a stylus. They were expected to write in their own hand, and discovering multiple ballots with the same handwriting was considered evidence of fraud. When voting to fill multiple positions, such as the ten tribunes , it is unclear whether citizens inscribed

1736-526: A humiliating agreement to save the lives of the soldiers. The agreement was considered unacceptable at Rome, and Coelius planned to prosecute him in an assembly of the people. Before he did so, he introduced the final ballot law. The law was passed and the prosecution was successful, resulting in Popilius being sentenced to exile. Cicero, who wrote in relation to the Cassian law that the optimates dreaded

1860-473: A land reform bill against strong opposition by another tribune during his term as tribune of 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

1984-420: A law that narrowed the causeway leading to the ballot box, in order to prevent non-voters from standing on the causeway and intimidating voters. The law was passed despite vigorous Senate opposition. The other secrecy-enforcing laws are not explicitly mentioned by ancient sources, but Cicero indicates their existence by proposing to abolish: all the laws, passed thereafter [after the ballot laws], which ensure

2108-894: 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

2232-429: A militia, and together with Cretan archers who happened to be near the city, attacked Gaius and his supporters. Gaius committed suicide rather than be captured, and Opimius subsequently executed 3000 of his supporters. The first three ballot laws were apparently not perfectly effective, as they were followed by a series of further laws enforcing the secrecy of the ballot. In 119 BC, the tribune Gaius Marius introduced

2356-475: 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

2480-921: 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

2604-469: A riot instigated by his enemies. His land reforms survived his death; family allies, including his younger brother Gaius , took places on 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

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2728-545: A significant change in Roman coin designs. Crawford noted that the denarius of 137 BC marked a ‘decisive break with the traditional approach to selection of coin types’. Coin designs began to show a great variety of different themes, changing each year, and this continued until the end of the Republic . The process was summarised by Flower: Traditionally, the Roman mint had favored repetitive coin types in patterns similar to

2852-426: 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

2976-416: 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

3100-509: A time of rising popular sentiment that saw the rise of populares politicians, who gained power by appealing to the lower classes. Most notably, these included Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC and Gaius Gracchus a decade later. The resulting conflict between populares and optimates would lead to the dissolution of political norms and the rise of political violence. Within decades, mob violence , political assassination , and even civil war would become routine. These conflicts would cause

3224-479: 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

3348-513: 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

3472-554: 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

3596-406: 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,

3720-537: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Lex Cassia tabellaria From the founding of the Roman Republic in 509 BC to the mid second century BC, Rome had expanded from a small city state to a world power. After decisively winning the Macedonian Wars , destroying Carthage in 146 BC, and destroying Corinth in the same year, Rome became

3844-587: Is no record of any further attempts to violate the secrecy of the ballot after the Marian law. The fourth and final law was introduced in 107 BC by the tribune Gaius Coelius Caldus , and expanded the Cassian law to cases of treason. In 107 BC, a Roman army under the consul Lucius Cassius Longinus was dealt a crushing defeat by the Tigurini at the Battle of Burdigala . His legate Gaius Popilius Laenas negotiated

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3968-406: Is not any less aristocratic after the laws than before. In the last two centuries of the republic, more than half of the consuls were sons or grandsons of former consuls, and a third of consuls had at least one son who would become a consul. One of the practical effects of the ballot laws was to increase the amount of time needed for voting, as ballot voting was much slower than voice voting due to

4092-475: 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

4216-497: Is the one debated heavily in the forum. Tiberius tries various tactics to induce Octavius to abandon his opposition: offering him 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

4340-586: 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

4464-588: The Gracchi brothers . The date of Tiberius' death marks the traditional start of 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

4588-460: The Roman people , therefore, was critical to the functioning of the Republic. It was necessary not only for elections , but also for legislative and judicial reasons. Before the ballot laws were introduced, votes were conducted by voice. Voters in a certain century or tribe would gather together in a venue and express their preference, one by one, to a teller ( rogator ). The teller would tabulate

4712-477: 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

4836-615: The patrician (aristocratic) class lex Cassia Terentia frumentaria (73 BC) – required the distribution of corn among the poor citizens Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Lex Cassia . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lex_Cassia&oldid=805602249 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Roman law Hidden categories: Short description

4960-405: The "impetuosity of the masses and the licence accorded by the ballot" on matters affecting their safety, wrote: "as long as he [Coelius] lived he repented of having injured the republic, for the purpose of oppressing Caius Popilius". The ballot itself was a small wooden tablet covered with wax, called a tabella cerata . Voters would walk across a narrow causeway, called the pons , and be handed

5084-435: The 170s, one for 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

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5208-749: 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

5332-478: The Plebeian Council, proposed legislation, and could veto the actions of all other magistrates. The plebeian aediles had a similar role to the curule aediles. The Centuriate Assembly consisted of 193 groupings called centuries, each of which had one vote. The vote of a century was determined by the votes of the members of that century who were present to vote. Membership in a century was determined by

5456-559: 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

5580-575: The Roman army, fighting in Africa during the Third Punic War and in Spain during the Numantine War . 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

5704-413: 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

5828-467: The Roman system." Hall and Harris both claim because literacy was uncommon in ancient Rome and the written ballot would have required literacy, the Gabinian law must have restricted voting to a small and prosperous minority, with Harris suggesting that this was intentional. However, Alexander Yakobson argues that the Gabinian law was a genuine piece of popular legislation benefiting a broad section of

5952-506: The Tribal and Plebeian assemblies could try judicial cases. The Centuriate Assembly also served as the court of highest appeal, especially for capital cases. In summary, Rome had a mixed constitution , with monarchic , oligarchic , and democratic elements represented by the senior magistrates, the Senate, and the assemblies respectively. The ancient Greek writer Polybius wrote that at

6076-598: The amount of land distributed 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

6200-412: The appropriation of previously public land, many small farmers found it impossible to compete with the latifundia and were forced to sell their farms. The dispossession of these farmers, many of whom moved to Rome and became part of the landless poor, caused profound social tension and political upheaval. The 130s and 120s BC were a turning point for Roman politics. The ballot laws were introduced at

6324-508: The assembly was voting, a group of senators beat Tiberius to death, along with more than 300 of his supporters. This act of violence marked the first instance of political bloodshed in Republican history, and was considered especially egregious because the person of a tribune was sacrosanct. The third ballot law was introduced in 131 BC by Gaius Papirius Carbo , and applied to the ratification and repeal of legislation—which, by this point,

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6448-456: The ballot law (lex tabellaria), and how much its author was both approved and condemned. The first ballot law (the lex Gabinia tabellaria ) was introduced in 139 BC for the election of magistrates by the tribune Aulus Gabinius , whom Cicero called "an unknown and sordid agitator". The law mandated a secret ballot for the election of magistrates in all assemblies. Gabinius, the first person of that name known to hold political office in Rome,

6572-408: The ballot laws as evidence that literacy was widespread in Rome. Subsequent improvements or extensions to the law were the lex Papiria (131 BC), the lex Maria and lex Caelia (107 BC), all aimed at limiting corruption. Together these laws are called leges tabellariae . The second law was introduced by Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla in 137 BC. It extended the secret ballot for trials in

6696-426: The ballot to indicate that the matter is unclear to him. For legislation, voters wrote V for Uti rogas (“as you ask”) or A for antiquo “as they are” to express approval or disapproval of a proposal. A coin from 63 BCE (right) depicts a voter dropping a ballot inscribed with "V" into a cista, indicating approval of a proposal. The ballot laws had various effects on the republic. In the traditional view, they were

6820-455: The ballot." 133 BC was a turning point in Roman politics, marking the beginning of the crisis of the Roman Republic . In that year, Tiberius Gracchus was elected tribune and forced through a land redistribution law without consulting the Senate and against the veto of another tribune—both of which violated custom, if not the law. At the end of the year, he sought re-election, breaking another unwritten rule forbidding consecutive terms. While

6944-424: 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

7068-508: The bill on behalf of all Italians. The political dispute between Tiberius and Octavius lacked clear resolution because of 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

7192-482: The boni in ignorance of their real opinions. Cicero further comments: "the people cherishes its privileges of voting by ballot, which allows a man to wear a smooth brow while it cloaks the secrets of his heart, and leaves him free to act as he chooses, while he gives any promise he may be asked to give". This reduction in influence was especially true for patrons and clients, as clients were expected to do favours for their patrons in return for financial support. With

7316-485: 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

7440-600: The city. This was followed by (among others) Sulla's civil war , the Catiline Conspiracy , Caesar's Civil War , the Battle of Philippi , and finally the War of Actium . After the Final War ended in 30 BC, Octavius controlled all of Rome. He concentrated the powers of consul, tribune, and pontifex maximus in his own hands, ruling as an autocrat in all but name. Octavius, renamed Augustus in 27 BC, would be

7564-402: The classes still voted in sequence. It is not clear whether these changes occurred before or after the ballot laws. There are other possible reasons for the change to simultaneous voting, including putting the tribes on an equal footing, or avoiding the bandwagon effect. Therefore, it is not certain that the ballot laws were the cause of the change. The voting reforms have also been linked to

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7688-409: The coins of Greek cities, especially of those in southern Italy. Now coin types started to change annually and to reflect designs chosen by the individual officials in charge of the mint each year. The new coins displayed a varied array of types that could refer to religious symbols, political ideas, anniversaries of historical events, monuments or buildings in Rome, or to the achievements and status of

7812-609: 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

7936-429: The deposition, Tiberius' freedmen drag Octavius from the Assembly and the Assembly passes 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

8060-408: 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

8184-561: The electorate. He points out that the law applied just as much to the Tribal Assembly, which had no property qualification, as it did to the Centuriate Assembly. He also claims that the level of literacy necessary for voting was low as voters only had to write the initials of the preferred candidate. The assumption that literacy was low is itself controversial. In fact, Edward Best flipped the argument around, using

8308-499: 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

8432-541: The end of the republic in 27 BC. This extended period of unrest is termed the crisis of the Roman Republic . The constitution of the Roman Republic consisted of a complex mix of elected officials (magistrates), popular assemblies, and the Senate. The assemblies elected all magistrates, in addition to passing legislation and having some judicial functions. The magistrates had a wide range of duties, including leading armies, presiding over assemblies, judging cases, managing state finances, and managing public works. The Senate

8556-484: 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

8680-562: The first Roman emperor . These events marked the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Principate . Although the assemblies continued to meet during the Principate, Augustus removed their judicial role and began transferring their electoral power to the Senate; his successor Tiberius would completely end the electoral role of the assemblies. The assemblies continued to have legislative powers, but even under Augustus this power

8804-583: The first election laws to be passed. Due to the apparent ineffectiveness of the anti-corruption lex Baebia of 181 BC, the Cornelian-Fulvian law of 159 BC was passed, again targeting corruption. Extending the sumptuary law ( lex Orchia ) of 182 BC, the lex Didia of 143 BC restricted spending on banquets in all of Italy. In 145 BC, a bill by the tribune Lucius Licinius Crassus proposed that priesthoods be elected instead of co-opted . While advocating for his proposal, he pointedly turned his back on

8928-463: The founding of overseas colonies to help the landless; a reduction in the length of military service; and citizenship for Italian allies. In 121 BC, after Gaius failed re-election, one of his supporters killed an attendant of the consul Lucius Opimius . A confrontation ensued between the Gaius and the Senate, which quickly turned violent after the Senate urged the overthrow of Gaius. The consul rallied

9052-453: 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

9176-751: The hegemonic power of the Mediterranean. Aside from controlling the Italian Peninsula , it had gained provinces in Iberia , Greece , Corsica , Sardinia , Sicily , and North Africa , in addition to its many client states and allies. During this 400 year expansion, Roman politics was largely peaceful, with no civil wars and no recorded political murders. However, the conquest of an empire would cause significant political and social changes. With an empire, political office offered more opportunities for wealth and personal advancement, increasing

9300-408: The higher magistrates, including the two consuls , who held extensive powers over all Roman citizens and were commanders-in-chief of the army. The Tribal Assembly elected the lower magistrates: the quaestors , who managed state finances, and the curule aediles , responsible for public works. The Plebeian Council elected the plebeian tribunes and the plebeian aediles. The tribunes presided over

9424-399: The initials of only one candidate or of all ten. Nicolet argues for the single vote theory, pointing out that one round of voting sometimes failed to fill all tribune positions or even both consulships. Taylor believes the balance of evidence is against the single vote theory. However individuals were expected to vote and however the votes were aggregated, it is clear that a century or tribe

9548-455: 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,

9672-399: 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

9796-431: The law was undoubtedly justified as giving freedom to the people, but may also have been intended to curb bribery of voters by candidates. Ursula Hall believes that the law "was undoubtedly largely supported by men of substance wanting to challenge aristocratic control of office. In purpose this law was not, in a modern sense, 'democratic', not designed to give more power to voters, much less candidates, from lower ranks in

9920-437: The moneyer's ancestors. The effort put into coin designs suggests that an audience for these images was envisioned, presumably beyond the circle of the moneyer's immediate family and friends. At the same time, the shift gave the moneyers themselves and their traditionally relatively humble job at the mint much more publicity and symbolic political capital than ever before. It has been argued that these new coin designs were aimed at

10044-472: The moneyer's name to the public, whose votes he would soon seek in his bid for the quaestorship … The object was self-promotion. After the violent deaths of Tiberius Gracchus in 133 BC and Gaius Gracchus in 121 BC, political violence in Rome continued to intensify, soon becoming the norm and not the exception. The following century was occupied by numerous civil wars . In 88 BC, for the first time in Republican history, Sulla marched on Rome and occupied

10168-463: 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,

10292-508: 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

10416-422: 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

10540-452: The option of accepting bribes from every candidate and voting for the highest bidder, or voting their conscience. This made bribery a more competitive affair as candidates attempted to outbid each other, either by holding lavish games and feasts or by directly promising money to voters. Despite the expansion in voter freedom, the ballot laws did not reduce the aristocratic dominance of elections. The list of consuls and other elected officials

10664-410: The passage of the ballot laws; the three subsequently criticize the laws and propose repeal or alteration. Cicero, an opponent of the laws, portrays the sponsors of the ballot laws as demagogues currying favor with the masses. The ballot laws were highly controversial and strongly opposed by the optimates . Pliny remarks: You remember, no doubt, having often read what commotions were occasioned by

10788-441: 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

10912-411: The popular assembly. It mandated the secret ballot for judicial votes, with the exception of cases on treason. The passing of the law was resisted by the tribune Marcus Antius Briso who threatened to apply his veto , with the support of one of the consuls of the year. The threat of veto was unusual, since it was not customary for it to be applied on matters held to be in the plebeians ' interest. Briso

11036-421: 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

11160-651: 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

11284-509: 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

11408-419: 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

11532-632: 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

11656-441: The rise of another populares tribune-- Gaius Gracchus , the brother of Tiberius Gracchus . In both 123 BC and 122 BC, Gaius was elected tribune of the people. He proposed a series of popular laws, far more wide-ranging than those of his brother. These included an extension to Tiberius' land redistribution bill; a grain subsidy for poorer citizens; reforms to the judicial system; the free issue of clothes and equipment to soldiers;

11780-450: The secrecy of the ballot in every possible way, providing that no one shall look at a ballot, and that no one shall question or accost the voters. The Marian Law even made the passages (pontes) narrow. Yakobson views this passage as evidence that these laws were effective at ensuring the secrecy of the ballot, which explains why Cicero, an opponent of the ballot laws, proposed to abolish them. As additional evidence, he points out that there

11904-425: The secret ballot, clients could simply vote for the candidate of their choice without losing their patrons’ support. Yakobson suspects that this "must have had its impact on the nature of patron-client relations in this period." One of the justifications for the ballot laws—aside from protecting the freedom of the people—may have been to curb corruption, since it was no longer possible for candidates to check whether

12028-411: The senate secured one of his tribunician colleagues to veto 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

12152-421: 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

12276-456: 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

12400-521: The senators in the comitium and spoke directly to the people in the Roman Forum . The only detailed ancient account of the ballot laws is Cicero 's De Legibus (III. 33–9). Written in the last years of the Republic, De legibus is a fictional dialogue between Cicero , his brother Quintus , and their mutual friend Atticus . In the dialogue, the three discuss their conception of the ideal Roman constitution. In Book III 33–9, Cicero summarizes

12524-402: The stakes of elections. The Italian land conquered by Rome—technically ager publicus , or public land—in practice fell into the hands of rich aristocrats, leading to the rise of large estates called latifundia . These large estates were worked by slaves from conquered territories, who flooded into Italy in the hundreds of thousands. Due to economies of scale , the use of slave labor , and

12648-452: The time needed to hand out the ballots, inscribe them, and count the votes. As a possible consequence, voting for elections in the Tribal Assembly became simultaneous in the late Republic. Previously, the tribes voted sequentially, with the votes of each tribe announced after the members finished voting. Voting in the Centuriate Assembly also became simultaneous in the late Republic, with the centuries in each class voting at one call—although

12772-566: The time of the Second Punic War , the aristocratic element was dominant in Rome. Even so, the people of Rome ( populus romanus ) held important practical and theoretical standing in the Roman state. Only the people, as represented by the assemblies, could elect magistrates, declare war, or try capital cases. In the second century BC, the assemblies would pass important laws on a wide range of issues, including citizenship, finance, social matters, religion, and war and peace. Voting by

12896-470: The tribes 1000 asses. In the course of the second century BC, a long series of laws were passed to crack down on ambitus . This included the lex Orchia of 182 BC, which restricted the amount one could spend on banquets, and the lex Baebia one year later, aimed at directly combating ambitus. Despite Plutarch's claim that the giving of gifts in exchange for votes was punishable by death, these laws appeared to have little effect. The ballot laws were not

13020-442: The vote of a tribe was determined by the votes of the members. Unlike in the Centuriate Assembly, there is no property requirement. The Plebeian Assembly was similar to the Tribal Assembly, except that only plebeians were permitted, and it was presided by a plebeian tribune. The Plebeian Assembly eventually became the main legislative body of the republic. In addition to their roles in electing magistrates and passing legislation,

13144-415: The voters, who were now less open to more direct forms of pressure and influence. Thus, as the mint magistrates were mostly young men at the start of their political career , the selection of coin design now offered an unrivalled opportunity to canvass the entire voting population: The moneyer had the right to put a design of his own choosing on the state's money. Each coin offered the chance to introduce

13268-426: The votes and announce the result to the presiding official. Votes were therefore impossible to keep secret. Although there are few recorded instances of direct voter intimidation, a variety of social pressures reduced voter freedom. For example, both centuries and tribes were based on geographic location, so voters voted with the people most likely to know them. The rogator himself was a man of distinction, such as

13392-400: The wealthiest centuries voted first, followed by the less wealthy centuries, and so on. When a majority was reached, voting stopped. The poorer centuries, therefore, rarely had a chance to vote. The Tribal Assembly was composed of groupings called tribes, where membership in a tribe was determined by geographic location and not, as the name implies, by ancestry. Each tribe had one vote, and

13516-479: 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

13640-439: 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

13764-442: Was apparently dissuaded from actually applying the veto by Scipio Aemilianus , perhaps displaying populares sentiments. Cassius was a noble Plebeian who would become consul in 127 BC and censor in 125 BC. Cicero writes of the opposition to this law: [this law] was long opposed by the tribune of the plebs M. Antius Briso with the help of M. Lepidus the consul, and it became a matter of reproach to Publius Africanus that Briso

13888-473: Was believed to have withdrawn his opposition to it through the influence of Africanus. In his speech Pro Sestio , he further comments that "A ballot law was proposed by Lucius Cassius. The people thought that their liberty was at stake. The leaders of the State held a different opinion; in a matter that concerned the safety of the optimates, they dreaded the impetuosity of the masses and the licence afforded by

14012-427: Was exercised more and more rarely. Rome became an autocratic state in all but name, and the ballot laws became irrelevant to the running of the state. Tiberius Gracchus Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus ( c. 163 – 133 BC) was a Roman politician best known for his agrarian reform law entailing the transfer of land from the Roman state and wealthy landowners to poorer citizens. He had also served in

14136-484: Was expected to send forth as many names as there were positions to be filled. For judicial assemblies, jurymen were handed pre-inscribed ballots with A on one side and D on the other, representing Absolvo ("I acquit") or Damno ("I condemn"). The jurymen were expected to erase one of the letters without revealing their verdict. It was also possible for the ballot to contain L ("libero") instead of A, or C ("condemno") instead of D. The juror could even erase both sides of

14260-555: Was from a family that had low-status (possibly slave origins) in Cales , and was able to enter politics due to the military success of his father. The reasons behind the law are unclear, as are the circumstances surrounding its passage. It is thought that this law was adopted following the acquittal that Lucius Aurelius Cotta obtained by corrupting the judges in 138 BC. According to the Cambridge Ancient History ,

14384-411: Was mainly the duty of the Plebeian Council. Carbo, called a "rabble-rouser" by Cicero, was at the time on the land commission charged with implementing Tiberius Gracchus ' land redistribution law. Pointing to this association, Hall argues that unlike the earlier lex Gabinia , the lex Papiria was undoubtedly passed in the interests of popular reform. Serious political violence would erupt again with

14508-416: Was political support, which included campaigning for the patron and voting for him in elections. Another major source of influence was largess (largitio), also called ambitus . In an attempt to buy votes, candidates would hold lavish banquets and games, or even directly bribe voters with wine, oil, or money. For example, Titus Annius Milo , when canvassing for the consulate in 53 BC, promised each voter in

14632-492: 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

14756-548: 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

14880-507: Was the only deliberative body of the republic, and was composed of ex-magistrates appointed by a magistrate known as the censor. It nominally had largely advisory powers, but in practice its advice was almost always taken, and it was the predominant body in charge of foreign policy and the treasury. The Republic had three popular assemblies: the Centuriate Assembly , Tribal Assembly , and Plebeian Council . The first elected

15004-453: 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

15128-422: Was to compensate by securing tenure over 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,

15252-666: Was to unconstitutionally depose Octavius. Tiberius had extra-constitutionally bypassed 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

15376-449: 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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