Tiberius Sempronius (ca. 163-133 B.C.) and Gaius Sempronius (ca. 154-121 B.C.) Gracchus, commonly known as the Gracchi, were Roman political reformers who, through their use of the plebeian tribunate, set Roman politics on a course that ended in the collapse of the republic.

Sons of Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, twice consul and censor, and Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal, the Gracchus brothers belonged to one of the most distinguished families in Rome with wide connections among the nobility. But their liberalism and overzealous desire to correct existing abuses brought them into collision with senatorial conservatives who killed them.

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus

Tiberius began his political career in 147/146 B.C. on the staff of his brother-in-law Scipio Aemilianus at Carthage, where he was the first Roman soldier over the wall. In Spain, as quaestor to the consul C. Hostilius Mancinus in 137 B.C., Tiberius...