Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/110

 98 THE ROMAN DOMINION exclusively by the dwellers in Rome itself, the city rabble. We shall see that in effect the only available remedy was to be found in the concentration of power in the hands of a single person ; since the idea of representation, that is of Assemblies composed of elected representatives, had not come into being. Neither the Senatorial families nor the Roman populace could stand for the Roman people. The revolutionary period is the period during which one man after another endeavours to exer- cise supreme power till the condition of success becomes mani- festly the personal control over the military forces of the state. But this was not the revolution at first contemplated. The grievances which it was at first intended to remedy were not Tiberius political but agrarian. There had been vast addi- Gracchus, 133. tions to the Public Lands during the Italian wars, but practically these had passed into the possession of the great families, although technically the state had the power of resuming them. That the state should resume these lands and parcel them out among the rural population which had become landless was the remedy proposed by Tiberius Gracchus. Gracchus having secured his election to the Tribunate, intro- duced a law to this effect. The holders of Public Land induced another tribune to interpose his veto. Gracchus moved that the opposing tribune should be deposed. The vote was carried, and then the Agrarian Law was passed. As soon as the period of office which made his person inviolable was over, Gracchus was killed in a riot by the opposing party. A brief interval elapsed before the place of Tiberius was taken by his younger brother Gaius Gracchus. But the aims of Gaius Gaius were much wider and more revolutionary. He was Gracchus. determined not only to satisfy the popular demand for land, but also, partly from motives of vengeance, to destroy the power of the Senate, and to give Italy a new unity by raising the Italians to the full status of Roman citizens. This was a demand which the allies had for long been making; it would have the advantage of bringing much public land which was occupied by the allies under the operation of the Agrarian Law, but it was not desired by the Roman populace. The means by which Gaius hoped to force through his reforms