Audio excerpt from The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic by Mike Duncan. Forthcoming Oct. 24, 2017. Pre-order a copy today! Amazon Powells Barnes & Noble Indibound Books-a-Million Or visit us at: revolutionspodcast.com thehistoryofrome.com
The speaker was offered the opportunity to write a book about Roman history, allowing him to fulfill a lifelong dream of writing a book and also reconnect with old friends and his roots. The book covers the backstory of the Roman Republic from its founding to the great imperial triumphs.
Tiberius's father-in-law was a member of the prestigious patrician family and recently named princeps senatus while Roman agriculture was shifting from small independent farms to large commercial operations dominated by a few families due to acquisition of small farmer's lands by the wealthy families that led to transformation of the Roman agricultural landscape.
In an attempt to prevent rich families from monopolizing state lands, the Roman assembly passed a law limiting the amount of land that could be leased to 500 uguera per family. This redistributed land from the rich to the poor without violating private property rights under Roman law.
The Gracchus brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, challenged the power of the Roman Senate with their proposed reforms to address economic inequality, including land redistribution and the implementation of a minimum wage. Tiberius's proposed agrarian reform bill set the precedent for a powerful noble raising a personal army from their client network.
Tiberius urged the assembly to elect himself, his father-in-law Claudius, and his brother Gaius to serve as the first three land commissioners, and promised to purchase all the auger publicus Octavius owned at a fair price if Octavius dropped his opposition to the land distribution bill. Tiberius moved to depose Octavius from office when his opposition didn't budge.
Tiberius Gracchus donned mourning clothes and played to the crowd, bringing his children to the assembly and begging the people to care for them and their mother, as he desperately wanted to pass his agenda which would have the people benefit from Rome's growing empire.
The text talks about the history of sedition and bloodshed in Ancient Rome and promotes pre-ordering the Revolution Podcast to learn more about the subject.