The Gracchi and their tribuneships

[Jacobs_43]

Hello all,

 

I am a Latin teacher in New Jersey, and this coming year I plan on discussing the Late Republic with my second year classes. I have recently been researching the Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus in preparation. However, I keep stumbling on this one topic, which none of my texts deem noteworthy to mention. How did the Gracchi brothers become elected tribunes, despite their patrician and senatorial ranking? To the best of knowledge, Tiberius did not have himself adopted by a plebeian, as did his progeny Publius Clodius Pulcher. Did he simply renounce his patrician status?

 

Any help that you may be able to offer will be appreciated greatly. Thank you in advance.

 

Craig Jacobs

[Primus Pilus]

Hello all,

 

I am a Latin teacher in New Jersey, and this coming year I plan on discussing the Late Republic with my second year classes. I have recently been researching the Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus in preparation. However, I keep stumbling on this one topic, which none of my texts deem noteworthy to mention. How did the Gracchi brothers become elected tribunes, despite their patrician and senatorial ranking? To the best of knowledge, Tiberius did not have himself adopted by a plebeian, as did his progeny Publius Clodius Pulcher. Did he simply renounce his patrician status?

 

Any help that you may be able to offer will be appreciated greatly. Thank you in advance.

 

Craig Jacobs

 

The Gracchii branch of the Sempronius clan was plebeian. At this point in Republican Rome, plebes were fully integrated into the senate and magisterial orders, so there aren't any conflicts of law to be concerned about (in this particular case anyway).

[Jacobs_43]

Hello all,

 

I am a Latin teacher in New Jersey, and this coming year I plan on discussing the Late Republic with my second year classes. I have recently been researching the Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus in preparation. However, I keep stumbling on this one topic, which none of my texts deem noteworthy to mention. How did the Gracchi brothers become elected tribunes, despite their patrician and senatorial ranking? To the best of knowledge, Tiberius did not have himself adopted by a plebeian, as did his progeny Publius Clodius Pulcher. Did he simply renounce his patrician status?

 

Any help that you may be able to offer will be appreciated greatly. Thank you in advance.

 

Craig Jacobs

 

The Gracchii branch of the Sempronius clan was plebeian. At this point in Republican Rome, plebes were fully integrated into the senate and magisterial orders, so there aren't any conflicts of law to be concerned about (in this particular case anyway).

 

That is an interesting fact about the Sempronius clan that I did not know. However, I find it hard to imagine that he could simply vie for the tribuneship, being the blood grandson of Scipio Africanus. Wouldn't that branch of his lineage be first and foremost on the minds of the plebeians?

[Jacobs_43]

[The Gracchii branch of the Sempronius clan was plebeian. At this point in Republican Rome, plebes were fully integrated into the senate and magisterial orders, so there aren't any conflicts of law to be concerned about (in this particular case anyway).

 

That is an interesting fact about the Sempronius clan that I did not know. However, I find it hard to imagine that he could simply vie for the tribuneship, being the blood grandson of Scipio Africanus. Wouldn't that branch of his lineage be first and foremost on the minds of the plebeians?

 

 

I just did a little research on the gens Sempronia. Apparently there were two gentes Semproniae, one patrician, the other plebeian. Again, being that the Gracchi were descendants of Scipio Africanus, I find it hard to believe that they were members of the plebeian gens.

[M. Porcius Cato]

I just did a little research on the gens Sempronia. Apparently there were two gentes Semproniae, one patrician, the other plebeian. Again, being that the Gracchi were descendants of Scipio Africanus, I find it hard to believe that they were members of the plebeian gens.

 

They were descendants on their mother's side (Cornelia), which makes all the difference.

[Primus Pilus]

That is an interesting fact about the Sempronius clan that I did not know. However, I find it hard to imagine that he could simply vie for the tribuneship, being the blood grandson of Scipio Africanus. Wouldn't that branch of his lineage be first and foremost on the minds of the plebeians?

 

The lineage to the Scipiones (and therefore patrician) was maternal. Impressive as this lineage may have been, the Grachii were still plebes via their paternal lineage, the lineage that dictated class and status. Therefore they had full legal authority and social approval to hold the tribunate. Prior to the Leges Corneliae of Sulla (81 BC), it was perfectly acceptable to run for the tribunate as a stepping stone to higher magistracies. (Sulla's law made it illegal to hold any higher office of the cursus honorum after being elected as a tribunis plebis).

[M. Porcius Cato]

Prior to the Leges Corneliae of Sulla (81 BC), it was perfectly acceptable to run for the tribunate as a stepping stone to higher magistracies. (Sulla's law made it illegal to hold any higher office of the cursus honorum after being elected as a tribunis plebis).

 

Right. Also, Sulla's restriction on the tribunate was abolished during (best I recall) the consulship of Catulus in 78, so the tribunate was again a stepping stone to highest office until Caesar.

[ASCLEPIADES]

Prior to the Leges Corneliae of Sulla (81 BC), it was perfectly acceptable to run for the tribunate as a stepping stone to higher magistracies. (Sulla's law made it illegal to hold any higher office of the cursus honorum after being elected as a tribunis plebis).

 

Right. Also, Sulla's restriction on the tribunate was abolished during (best I recall) the consulship of Catulus in 78, so the tribunate was again a stepping stone to highest office until Caesar.

 

Here is an X-cellent essay from a previous contest that reviews the evolution of the tribunate by UNRV member Publius Nonius Severus.

[M. Porcius Cato]

Prior to the Leges Corneliae of Sulla (81 BC), it was perfectly acceptable to run for the tribunate as a stepping stone to higher magistracies. (Sulla's law made it illegal to hold any higher office of the cursus honorum after being elected as a tribunis plebis).

Right. Also, Sulla's restriction on the tribunate was abolished during (best I recall) the consulship of Catulus in 78, so the tribunate was again a stepping stone to highest office until Caesar.

 

On further checking, it turns out that the restoration of tribune rights was accomplished by means of several laws, beginning with the Lex Aurelia (75).