The people of the Republic are restless. The middle class bears the weight of decades of endless wars abroad while elite fortunes balloon to heights once thought unimaginable. Compounding matters, the people find themselves strangers in their own land as hordes of foreign laborers overwhelm the cities and the countryside. Class strife and social discontent threatens to boil over into political violence.
But this isn’t America in 2026, this is Rome in 133 BC.
The social discord facing Rome did not occur overnight. Since her founding 376 years prior, the Republic endures a great many trials and tribulations. From the sack of Rome in 390 BC by Gallic marauders, to the capture of an entire army by the implacable Samnites in 321 BC, to Hannibal’s destruction of three Roman armies killing over 120,000 men in the years of 218-216 BC, the will of the Roman people remains unbreakable. And yet, in the midst of her success, the Republic is creating the conditions for its very demise.
Although Rome is a Republican government, guided by a Senate of 300 men from the noble Patrician families, the Roman military follows a similar structure as of the Greek city-states: middle class males are required to serve in the army when called upon and help supply some of their own weapons and armaments. This is the foundation of the Roman Legion. It is the Legion, the Roman middle class, possessing that unconquerable spirit, which rebuilds after the Gallic sack, rearms and counterattacks their Samnite foes, and by dogged tenacity, outlasts and ultimately defeats Hannibal in pitched battle at Zama 14 years later.
Roman victories did not stop there.
Rome moves quickly to secure former Carthaginian possessions on the Iberian Peninsula and seizes the rich silver deposits. The Republic, in the midst of its death struggle with Hannibal, initiates 66 years of persistent warfare to conquer the remnants of the Macedonian Empire. Finally, Rome ignominiously wages a war of annihilation against the Carthaginians in a third and final campaign where all inhabitants are either killed or enslaved, every building is destroyed, and the ground itself is ritualistically salted to render the earth eternally infertile.
This is the might of Rome. But at what cost?
From the beginning of the First Punic War in 264 BC to the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC, Rome’s Legions wage near-constant war in locales outside the Italian Peninsula. As a result, middle-class Roman landowners abandon their farms for years at a time to fight Rome’s wars. The inevitable occurs. Being unable to manage their farms, Rome’s veterans are forced to sell their estates, evaporating the legacy of countless familias and turning once proud landowners who served in the victorious Legions into dispossessed laborers.
Meanwhile, throughout the conquests of her invincible legions, Rome acquires new farmlands across Italia which fall under the control of the Republic. However, rather than redistribute this land to the deserving veterans, the land falls under the control of the Senate and its rich allies. Sprawling estates of the ultra-rich begin to dominate the Italian countryside. Yet, this is not the end of woes for Rome’s middle class.
Slaves, the unfortunate captives of Rome’s victories, flood into Italia. This once rare occurrence within the Republic become ubiquitous as the price of slaves plummet with every successive Roman triumph. As a result, the wages of laborers also plummet. After all, slave labor is cheaper than free men.
Although the costs of Rome’s victories are borne by the Plebians, the mass of common folk, the primary beneficiaries of Rome’s wars are the Patricians, Rome’s oldest and richest families, and a new commercial class, the Equestrians. Positioned at the top of Rome’s political and commercial hierarchy, these classes are best positioned to capture the majority of gains from Rome’s conquests. Monopolizing the loot captured in sacks to the slaves brought back to Rome, the riches of Rome’s elites grows. And with these newfound riches, Rome’s elites purchase the property of the Legions’ veterans.
The Plebeians, the people and the backbone of Rome itself, find themselves increasingly dispossessed. The gap between the haves and the have nots accelerates rapidly. The poor veterans, dispossessed of their homes by the rich and dispossessed of work by foreign slaves, find themselves unable to marry and participate in the civic life of the Republic. Birth rates fall as unrest rises.
However, the Plebians are no strangers to controversy. A mere 18 years after the Republic’s founding, the Plebeians, in the midst of a joint invasion by the Sabines, Aequi, and Volsci, refuse to fight unless given political rights in the Republic. Faced with utter ruin, the Patricians fold, and the Tribune of Plebs is created in 494 BC. With this new office, a Tribune can veto any action of the Senate or magistrates. Additionally, the Tribune is sacrosanct meaning no one can interfere with or threaten the activities of the Tribune under penalty of death.
Despite these remarkable political gains, the Conflict of the Orders, that running political battle between the status quo interests of the Patricians and the revisionist interests of the Plebians, is only beginning. From the establishment of the Lex Publilia in 471 BC enabling the election of Tribunes by the Tribal Assembly of the Plebs, to the ratification of the Twelve Tables in 449 BC marking the first written constitution in world history, to the guarantees that the Consulship - that premier position of Roman political authority in which two men would serve for a year - could be filled by a Plebeian, each of these triumphs of Roman people over the interests of Rome’s elites occurred only through mass mobilization and political escalation forcing the status quo to give ground lest the Republic itself be dashed to ruins.
While the Hegelian dialectic of reform, counter reform, and resolution persists for another two centuries, Rome finally achieves a tolerable justice and a tolerable peace between its elites and the masses of the people by the mid-200s BC, just in time for the Republic to be challenged with existential crisis of its death wars with Carthage. It is because of the peace between the Patrician and Plebian orders that Rome is able to triumph in her darkest hours. But now, after over a century of persistent conflict, the pre-war consensus is breaking down. There must be reform lest the Republic herself be threatened.
Enter Tiberius Gracchus.
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, although a Plebeian, is a member of Rome’s leading families. His father, a former consul who celebrated two triumphs and his mother is the daughter of none other than Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, that illustrious hero of Rome who finally defeated the dreaded Hannibal. His wife, Claudia, is the daughter of the former consul Appius Claudius Pulcher. A man with this lineage is destined to become one of the great movers and shakers of the Republic.
In 133 BC, Tiberius is elected as a Tribune of the Plebs for one year at age 30. A veteran of the Third Punic War and the Numantine War, Tiberius burns at the dishonorable treatment of Rome’s veterans, men whom he has fought and bled alongside. Tiberius, as reported by Plutarch, cries out:
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… 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.
Justice and liberty demand reform.
The lex agraria is one of the first documented examples of trust busting in human history. Relying on legal precedent from the Licino-Sextian rogations, a 267-year-old law that places strict limitations on the amount of public land a single individual could possess for personal cultivation, Tiberius seeks to redistribute public lands to Rome’s dispossessed poor. These reforms would not only begin to rebuild Rome’s broken middle class but would also boost the numbers of men available to serve in Rome’s Legions.
Despite the reasonableness of these proposals and their popularity amongst the Plebeians, resistance from the Patricians emerges immediately. The faction of Tiberius and his supporters becomes known as the Populari while those who oppose Tiberius in the Senate are known as Optimates or “Best Men”. To thwart Tiberius’ reforms, the Senate refuses to allow the lex agraria to come up for a vote of approval. Undaunted, Tiberius makes a move once thought unthinkable: bypassing the Senate entirely and taking the vote to the Council of the Plebeians.
Throughout the drama of the Conflict of the Orders, the concilium plebis emerged as the main legislative body of the Republic. Made up entirely of Plebeians, its sessions are guided by the ten Tribunes. However, in an effort to maintain peace between the classes, the Senate is typically given deference by first approving the passage of bills before they brought before the Council of the Plebians. This centuries old practice, mos maiorum, is shattered when Tiberius brings up his reforms before the Council without Senatorial approval.
In a desperate attempt to block the passage of the lex agraria, the Optimates enlist the aid of one of the other Tribunes of the Plebians, Marcus Octavius, to veto the bill. Tiberius responds by proposing a bill even more harmful to Optimate interests, an attempt at escalating to deescalate. Marcus Octavius vetoes the bill without a word. Tiberius then further escalates by using his power as Tribune to implement history’s first recorded government shutdown by closing the doors of the Roman treasury and threatening to arrest anyone who tries to open the doors. The day-to-day business of the Roman government ceases. But still, the Optimates and Marcus Octavius refuse to yield.
To Tiberius and his supporters, it is clear the Optimates are refusing to allow any reform of the status quo. There is no opportunity for negotiation for it is deemed that all change is bad. Either Tiberius escalates yet again, or he capitulates. Tiberius escalates.
For the first time in Roman history, Tiberius, under questionable authority, commences impeachment proceedings of Marcus Octavius for betraying the best interests of the people. Although repeatedly pleading with Marcus to allow the lex agaria to proceed, Marcus rejects the entrees of Tiberius to avoid this public humiliation. Marcus is impeached, roughly escorted out of the Council of the Plebians by slaves, and Tiberius’ legislation is finally passed.
But this represents the beginning, and not the end, of escalating hostilities.
Trusted advisors are required to implement the land reforms, so the 30 year old Tiberius selects those whom he trusts most: his father-in-law Appius Claudius and his younger brother Gaius. Unsurprisingly given the optics, this action is viciously attacked as corrupt, self-serving nepotism. The Senate only grants a pittance of coin and the lex agraria languishes in obscurity. Or so the Optimates hope.
Sensing rising Roman dominance, King Attalus III of Pergamum, a city state in Western Anatolia, bequeaths his kingdom to the people of Rome upon his death. With a windfall of riches flowing into Rome’s coffers from the East, Tiberius seizes the opportunity. What better way to serve the people of Rome than for Pergamum's riches to fund the lex agraria? Bypassing the Senate entirely once again, Tiberius takes his proposal directly to the Plebians to which it is approved of with great vigor. The Optimates in the Senate begin to murmur that Tiberius is becoming too politically threatening and must be dealt with extreme prejudice.
This creates a major problem for Tiberius. Rome is a litigious society that rivals that of even the most unscrupulous South Florida personal injury lawyer. Lawfare, the use of lawsuit to ruin a political opponent, is perfected by the Romans as controversial political figures can find themselves caught in years of lawsuits and accusations, with libel laws nonexistent. Undoubtedly, Tiberius’ actions have made a great many enemies, powerful enemies at that. So, to shield himself and preserve the lex agraria, Tiberius chooses once again to break mos maiorum by running for a second consecutive term as Tribune.
It is this choice that sets off an unforeseen chain of events that ultimately results in the destruction of the Roman Republic some 106 years later.
The Optimates are incensed. In their eyes, Tiberius’ consistent flaunting of social norms is not just a threat to their own power, but a threat to the Republic itself. Rumors circulate that Tiberius is conspiring to make himself king. These rumors bubble into a fevered pitch on election day when it becomes clear that Tiberius will win a second term as Tribune.
The dam breaks when the chief religious figure, known as the Pontifex Maximus, a Patrician by name Cornelius Scipio Nasica, Tiberius’ first cousin, cries out “let every one who will defend the laws, follow me”. Breaking off stool legs from chairs to serve as makeshift clubs, the Optimates, these “Best Men” of Rome, march the few minutes from the Temple of Fides, where the Senate was temporarily convening, to the Temple of Jupiter and fall upon Tiberius and his unsuspecting and unarmed followers with murderous intent. Blocked in by the mobs of Senators and their slave attendants, what occurs next can only be described as a massacre.
Tiberius Gracchus, a Tribune supposedly sacrosanct in the eyes of the Republic, is bludgeoned to death along with three hundred of his supporters, their bodies being denied burial and cast into the river Tiber. Plutarch records this as the first instance of political violence experienced by the Roman Republic, but it certainly will not be the last.
The Optimates, the “Best Men” and so-called “defenders of the Republic”, have broken a sacred taboo. The Overton window is shifted as mos maiorum is fatally breeched. Organized violence becomes a legitimate recourse to political problems for the remainder of Rome’s millennia spanning history.
There is more to the story of the Populari, particularly the story of his brother Gaius Gracchus, which deserves its own retelling, but the story of Tiberius ends here with important patterns emerging:
Elites capture the gains from Rome’s military and political victories while the middle class bears the costs of said victories. A popular political figure violates social norms to force change due to the unwillingness of Elites to yield to calls of reform. These same Elites, desiring to "conserve" the Status Quo, and thus their own power and prestige, break the ultimate norm by resorting to political violence.
This is why, despite the gap of nearly 2,100 years, there are lessons to be learned from the life and death of Tiberius Gracchus. From its very founding, the U.S. viewed Rome, not Athens, as its inspiration. Benjamin Franklin, when asked by a woman, upon the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, about the form of government created, declared, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
Similar to how the Roman Republic exploded into a position of global hegemony following the Second Punic War, so too did the U.S. find itself unexpectedly thrust into a position of global leadership following the First World War. The Second World War, just like the Third Punic War, ushered in a period of true hegemony for both Republics. And while the U.S. faced the major hegemonic rival in the form of the Soviet Union, so too did Rome face rivalry from the Macedonian, Seleucid, and Pontic Empires. Pax did not emerge uncontested.
Globalization has destroyed the American middle class. The Arsenal of Democracy is now the Rust Belt. Family farms are becoming desolate wasteland as they are acquired by Big Ag or converted into data centers for our Transhumanist Tech Class. The backbone of the American Republic is decimated as wage inequality runs out of control.
In the aftermath of two failed assassination attempts against the then former President and now reelected President Trump and the successful assassination of Charlie Kirk, it is impossible to not get the sense that a mos maiorum of American politics is fundamentally broken beyond repair. Increasingly, younger Americans see political violence as justified as their odds of getting married, owning a home, having kids, and affording basic healthcare continue to collapse faster than a Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.
The real question for the future of American politics is will Elites in Congress, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley yield the calls for reform, or will America repeat the tragedy of Tiberius Gracchus and the Roman Republic?
History is being actively written by our choices.