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Meanwhile, up on the rostra, Tiberius was warned about the approaching mob. Tiberius’s men turned and readied for battle, but hesitated when they saw the mob included senators and was led by the pontifex maximus himself. Though the Gracchans started to give way, Nasica’s men aggressively pushed and beat the crowd anyway. Once the shoving and hitting began, Tiberius’s supporters naturally fought back, leading to a line of clashes throughout the Assembly. The casualties in the resulting mêlée were entirely one-sided—Tiberius’s people were unarmed and made easy targets for Nasica’s gang. Trapped in the confined space in front of the Temple of Jupiter, many people were trampled underfoot or fell to their deaths off the steep cliffs of the Capitoline. When the dust cleared three hundred people lay dead.⁵⁹

The principal target of the attack was, of course, Tiberius himself, and it didn’t take long for the reactionary senators to locate their prey. Near the entrance of the Temple of Jupiter, Tiberius tripped over the body of a man who had already fallen and before he could get up, he was set upon by a fellow tribune and a senator. Though he was a tribune and allegedly sacrosanct, these two men proceeded to beat Tiberius Gracchus to death with the legs of a bench. As the historian Appian records: “So perished on the Capitol, and while still tribune, Gracchus, the son of that Gracchus who was twice consul, and of Cornelia, daughter of that Scipio who robbed Carthage of her supremacy. He lost his life in consequence of a most excellent design too violently pursued; and this abominable crime, the first that was perpetrated in the public assembly, was seldom without parallels thereafter from time to time.”⁶⁰

IT WAS ONE of the bloodiest days in Roman political history, though Plutarch overstates things when he says, “This is said to have been the first sedition at Rome, since the abolition of royal power, to end in bloodshed and the death of citizens.” But at least in living memory Roman politics had always been waged without resorting to violence. Now hundreds of citizens lay dead on the Capitoline Hill. Whatever one felt about Tiberius Gracchus and his Lex Agraria, it must have been a shocking sight.⁶¹

The principal cause of the crisis of 133 was a dangerous game of mutual brinksmanship. Tiberius had bypassed the Senate, so Octavius vetoed the reading of the bill, so Tiberius shut down all public business. When Octavius remained intractable, Tiberius deposed him from office, so the Senate denied the land commission money to operate, so Tiberius seized the bequeath from Pergamum, and then ran for reelection. All of this culminated with Nasica leading an armed mob to kill three hundred people. In just a few short months, a simple land redistribution bill had escalated to violent massacre.

The Senate made no apologies for the attack. Tiberius and his dead supporters were denied traditional funeral arrangements and dumped en masse into the Tiber. This was, in itself, a shocking affront to tradition. The Gracchi were still a powerful noble family; denying their son a proper burial was fraught with religious and social implications. But the story was now that Tiberius had been trying to make himself king—the most taboo of political offices. And the Senate determined that they could not afford a funereal becoming a venue for renewing violent revolution.⁶²

With all the taboos of mos maiorum now breaking down left and right, “this was the beginning in Rome of civil bloodshed, and of the license of the sword.” The definitive triumph of naked force was a lesson no one could unlearn. As the ancient Greek historian Velleius Paterculus later observed: “Precedents do not stop where they begin, but, however narrow the path upon which they enter, they create for themselves a highway whereon they may wander with the utmost latitude… no one thinks a course is base for himself which has proven profitable to others.”⁶³

CHAPTER 2 THE STEPCHILDREN OF ROME

For when those in power act cruelly and wickedly, the character of their subjects is inflamed to reckless action… if they are denied the kindness which they deserve, they revolt against the men who act like cruel despots.

DIODORUS¹