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Gracchus (TIBERIUS SEMPRO- NIUS a Roman)

TIBERIUS SEMPRO- NIUS, a Roman politician, son of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africanus Major; born about 168 B. C. He was already a distinguished soldier when in 137 he served as quæstor to the army of the consul Manicus in Spain, where the remembrance of his father's honor, after 40 years, enabled him to gain better terms for the 20,000 Roman soldiers who lay at the mercy of the Numantines.

But the peace was repudiated at Rome, and Mancinus was stripped naked and sent back to the Numantines. Elected tribune of the people in 133, he endeavored to reimpose the agrarian law of Licinius Stolo, and after violent opposition on the part of the aristocratic party, who had bribed his colleague M.

Octavius Cæcina, he succeeded in passing a bill to that effect. Tiberius Gracchus, his brother Caius, and his fatherin-law Appius Claudius were appointed triumvirs to enforce its provisions.

Meantime Attalus, King of Pergamus, died, and bequeathed all his wealth to the Roman people. Gracchus proposed that this should be divided among the poor, to enable them to procure agricultural implements and to stock their newly acquired farms. It is said that he also intended to extend the franchise, and to receive Italian allies as Roman citizens. But fortune turned against the good tribune. He was accused of having violated the sacred character of the tribuneship by the deposition of Cæcina.

In the midst of the next election for the tribuneship, in 133 в. c., Tiberius Gracchus, with some hundreds of his friends, was murdered.