Gaius Gracchus

Killed in 121 BCE in Rome after the senate passed the first final decree against him; his death confirmed political murder as a Roman precedent.

Overview

Gaius Gracchus, younger brother of Tiberius, served as tribune in 123 and 122 BCE and pushed a wider program: grain laws, colonies, judicial reform shifting juries to the equites, and citizenship proposals. Mass support and elite fear grew in equal measure. After a violent incident on the Aventine, the senate issued the first senatus consultum ultimum, authorizing the consuls to save the state. Lucius Opimius raised a militia, offered rewards for heads of the Gracchans, and stormed the hill. Gaius died either by the hand of a loyal slave or by his own order to a follower; some three thousand supporters were executed without trial. Opimius was later prosecuted but acquitted. The decree of emergency would be invoked again against Saturninus, Marius opponents, and finally Cicero and Catiline.