The Tribunates of the Gracchi initiated the fall of the to a greater degree than the actions of the early warlords. Discuss.

The Tribunates of Tiberius and were, to a minor extent, responsible for initiating the fall of the Roman Republic. While their reforms greatly influenced the development of Roman politics, they were considerably less impactful than the actions of early warlords such as Marius and .

The Gracchi brothers were the first prominent members of society to carry out reforms against the aristocratic . Born into the ‘very highest level of Roman society’ (Hildinger), the brothers’ decisions to become Plebeian instead of moving up the broke the Roman tradition which had been established centuries prior. Tiberius’s Tribunate of 133 BCE was highly controversial and Cicero described that he ‘shattered the stability of the state’ through his reforms, in particular the lex Agraria (land bill) of 133 BCE which undermined the power of the Senate through his decision to pass the law through the Concilium Plebis (people’s assembly). Like his brother, Gaius Gracchus also attempted to carry out many social and political reforms, including Tiberius’s aims of reducing the power of the nobility and to further the agrarian settlements. However, the Gracchi were not the first to initiate actions against the Senate, and Beard suggested that the idea that Tiberius shattered the ‘calm consensus between rich and poor […] is at best a nostalgic fiction’. The Gracchi were significant in demonstrating that the tribunate could be instruments of change, however their results were limited as the ‘Senate re-established control over Rome after their deaths’ (Bradley), and hence their actions had little lasting impact in Rome.

On the contrary, the actions of early warlords destabilised the Republic to a far greater extent than the Gracchi. The military reforms of were largely responsible for the destabilisation of the Roman Republic. Hildinger described Marius as ‘one of the most powerful men in Roman history [who dismantled] the constitution on his way there’. The Marian Reforms were effective in shifting the loyalty of its recruits from the state to its individual commander through supporting the Proletarii (the landless poor) by recruiting them with promises of land at the end of their service. Marius was successfully able to receive the support of the lower class and the army, as demonstrated when the senate’s decision to appoint Metellus instead of Marius as commander in the Jugurthine War (112 – 106) was overruled by the Concilium Plebis. Bradley stated that people’s act of ‘usurping the senatorial right to appoint military leaders’ significantly weakened the power of the senate. Furthermore, the actions of Marius in 86 BCE, where he and his army murdered 14 senators and many others who failed to support him ‘demonstrated the army could destroy the established order just as easily as to maintain it’ (Bradley). Marius, through having the support of the equestrians and military, posed as a far greater threat to the Roman Republic than the Gracchi, who only had the support of the lower class.

Additionally, the harmful actions of Lucius Cornelius Sulla initiated the fall of the republic to a greater degree than the Gracchi. While Sulla intended to preserve the , his actions ultimately worked to further weaken the senate. By marching on Rome twice in 88 BCE and 82 BCE and declaring himself dictator, Sulla greatly undermined the sovereignty of the Roman Republic. Gwynn portrayed Sulla as a ‘warlord with his private army’ who ‘threatened the very nature of the republic’ rather than a loyal republican, demonstrating the negative effects of his reforms which failed to achieve political stability. Sulla also further strengthened his army which was no longer loyal to Rome, and Hildinger stated that ‘the Roman army’s success contributed more than the natural division of the people did to the dissolution of the republic’, illustrating how the rise of the Roman army had disastrous impact on Roman society which ultimately led to the downfall of the Republic. While the Gracchus brothers were among the first to attempt to take action against the oligarchical senate, the fall of the Roman Republic was largely initiated by the loss of the loyalty of the military to individual commanders rather than the tribunates of the Gracchi.