The Brothers Gracchi - How Republics Fall - Extra History - Part 1

The Brothers Gracchi and how republics fall, Part 1 - Extra History
Rome had expanded rapidly during the 2nd century BCE. It now stretched from Spain to Greece, with holdings in Africa, and showed no signs of stopping. At home, this growth destabilized the entire economy. Slaves from captured lands became field workers for the wealthy. Common soldiers who used to own land could no longer tend it during the long campaigns, and returned to find themselves either bankrupt or forced to sell to the large slave-owning elites. Now these displaced landowners flooded Rome looking for work, but many of them remained unemployed or underemployed. In the midst of this, two boys named Tiberius and Gaius were born to the Gracchus family. They were plebeians but of the most distinguished order. Their mother, Cornelia, was the daughter of Scipio Africanus. Their father was a two-time consul who'd celebrated two triumphs for winning great campaigns. But their father died early, so Cornelia raised her children alone and made sure they had a firm grounding in the liberal arts. As soon as he could, the elder boy, Tiberius, ran for office as a military tribune and joined the final campaign against Carthage. There he earned great honor for himself and learned from the Scipio Aemilianus, his half-brother who also happened to be the leading general. Upon return to Rome, he ran for quaeastor and was sent to serve in the Numantian Wars in Spain. This time, the general he served under was struggling and suffered defeat after defeat. At the end, he tried to flee, only to be captured by the Numantians along with the entire army. The Numantians insisted on discussing surrender terms with Tiberius Gracchus, whose father had long ago earned their respect, and he successfully negotiated the release of 20,000 captured soldiers. In Rome, however, the elites looked on his treaty with scorn: they felt his surrender made Rome look weak. The families of the soldiers had a far different perspective: they celebrated Tiberius, and even saved him from punishment at the hands of the Senate. He had learned that power could be found in appealing to the people.

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#ExtraHistory #Rome #History

[grfrjiglstan]

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it - but those who DO know history are doomed to watch everyone else repeat it.

[algaedrone]

Here are some awesome stories from the ancient world that rarely get told:

1.) Mithridates "The Poison King" - He grew up in the wilderness, killed his mother, married his sister, drank poison recreationally, spoke 40+ languages fluently, slaughtered 100, 000 innocent civilians in a single day, and waged three wars against Rome's greatest generals over the course of 22 years.

2.) The family of Attalus of Pergamon - The small city-state of Pergamon was ruled directly by King Attalus, or one of his two sons, for OVER 100 YEARS (seriously). They defeated massively larger armies of invaders, sponsored beautiful works of art (the Dying Gaul statue, the Pergamon Altar, the Stoa of Attalus, etc), and became the most influential state in all of Asia. They were Rome's earliest and staunchest ally, siding with them against Hannibal and Macedon when no one else would, even "sending" Rome their local goddess Cybele as a gift. Their familial bonds were so strong that after a hilarious misunderstanding, one of the sons accidentally stole his brother's wife and usurped the kingdom - but once the mistake was realized, instead of fighting the two brothers forgave one another.

3.) Julian "The Apostate" - He was a shy and bookish boy who had his entire family slaughtered when he was an infant. Despite a total lack of ambition, he managed to fall ass-backwards into becoming a masterful general, and then becoming the Emperor of Rome. But most shockingly... he was the first (and perhaps ONLY) ruler in history to be raised as a Christian, only to convert to paganism in adulthood. He hated Christianity with a passion, but refused to persecute it's followers, instead relying on intellectual debate and reforming paganism. Some considered him to be the ideal philosopher king, while others literally considered him to be the antichrist. His sudden death has left historians wondering for centuries about how history might had changed had he reigned for longer.

[Hans]

"And this is how republics fall"

So iconic and scary sounding its genius

[codyosborne]

The year is 2020 AD and I thought this was current news.

[InsolentEagle]

Fun Fact: Although Mancinus was indeed handed over to the Numantians in chains, they decided to spare him and he returned to Rome. Later, he had a statue built outside his home depicting this event. It was a mark of pride for him that he had been willing to sacrifice his life for the honour of the Republic.

[enternamehere]

The reason why the Republic fell, and indirectly the Empire at some later point. Great to see extra history talking about such an underrepresented part of history.

[mitchelldunn]

The opening of this. Feels so relevant today.

[DragoniteSpam]

0:30 The year is 2016 CE, and . . . this is _still_ how nations fall :^)

[tongliu]

Aww yeah! Ever since I saw the BBC cover this in a docudrama, I've been enthralled by Tiberius Gracchus. Imagine my delight when I found out EC was going to cover him as well, and he has a brother??!! Can't wait guys!

[JonathanLundkvist]

I get a feeling we can learn from this.

[InternetLaser]

I feel like this is another "This is a good lesson. I hope we learn it some day" episode.

[nathanoconnor]

... dose anyone else feel a strange sense of deja vu when watching this and looking back at our own society? I will be following this series with great interest.

[anderskorsback]

There's actually another, possibly even larger reason for why the landowning farmer middle class was shrinking: The Second Punic War. All those legions Rome would spam at Hannibal to bring him down, who died in numbers that no other ancient society would consider acceptable losses. The losses were disproportionately felt by that middle class, and a large part of the farms whose owner had died ended up for sale on the open market, where rich landowners would pick them up.

[frankupton]

I've read that Roman tax policy also favoured larger farms.  Roman landowners paid a tax based on the amount of land that they owned.  That sounds fair but it bore more heavily on small farmers, who needed a larger percentage of their produce to feed themselves.  The small farmers therefore paid a larger percentage of their disposable income as tax.  In a bad year, they might face a choice between paying their tax and feeding themselves.

[mutopis]

Dan Carlin's podcast "Hardcore History: Death Throes of the Republic" goes into details regarding the fall of Rome. A really good listening.

[xdguy]

Wow guys you're so smart. You picked up on that parallel that was about as subtle as a brick to your face

[Yahriel]

The year could also have been 2016 and the intro would still be spot-on

[snackythornt]

This series should be mandatory viewing for all high school students and perhaps even college students.

[Standard_Deviant]

I can't believe how applicable that beginning part is to now a days.

[dominicgutierrez]

Wow it’s like we’re reliving the Roman Empire