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I assume you're referring to Vicellinus. There's a big difference here, that he was given a trial and executed within the bounds of the system, as corrupt as t
by Kamq 3y ago
I assume you're referring to Vicellinus.
There's a big difference here, that he was given a trial and executed within the bounds of the system, as corrupt as that system may have been.
The extra-legal violence with Gracchus was quite new, and much more likely to spiral out of control.
- thom 3y agoScipio Nascia wasn’t punished for Tiberius’ murder. Spurius Maelius didn’t get a trial but people celebrate Cincinnatus as a hero. Seems to me that the same undercurrents were always there, they never got resolved, and sure, eventually things blew up. But they would have done so without the Gracchi. I don’t know what the right solution was - obviously agrarian reform led to increased tensions with the socii who were experiencing the same disenfranchisement. But what we ultimately got were the Marian reforms, and that’s what really caused violence to dominate politics for the rest of Rome’s history.
- Kamq 3y ago> But they would have done so without the Gracchi. I agree. I don't think the Gracchi brothers were essential to what happened. But they were in the middle of it when it did. Once it did, it basically guaranteed the later split into Optimates and Populares, and the rise of Sulla/Caesar