=The Civil Wars.=—­The revolution was inevitable, but it did not come at one stroke; it required more than a hundred years to accomplish it.  The Senate resisted, but too weak itself to govern, it was strong enough to prevent domination by another power.  The generals fought among themselves to see who should remain master.  For a century the Romans and their subjects lived in the midst of riot and civil war.

=The Gracchi.=—­The first civil discord that blazed up in Rome was the contest of the Gracchi against the Senate.  The two brothers, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, were of one of the noblest families of Rome, but both endeavored to take the government from the nobles who formed the Senate by making themselves tribunes of the plebs.  There was at that time, either in Rome or in Italy, a crowd of citizens without means who desired a revolution; even among the rich the majority were of the class of the knights, who complained that they had no part in the government.  Tiberius Gracchus had himself named tribune of the plebs and sought to gain control of the government.  He proposed to the people an agrarian law.  All the lands of the public domain occupied by individuals were to be resumed by the state (with the exception of 500 acres for each one); these lands taken by the state were to be distributed in small lots to poor citizens.  The law was voted.  It caused general confusion regarding property, for almost all of the lands of the empire constituted a part of the public domain, but they had been occupied for a long time and the possessors were accustomed to regard themselves as proprietors.  Further, as the Romans had no registry of the lands, it was often very difficult to ascertain whether a domain were private or public property.  To direct these operations, Tiberius had three commissioners named on whom the people conferred absolute authority; they were Tiberius, his brother, and his father-in-law, and it was uncertain whether Tiberius had acted in the interest of the people, or simply to have a pretext for having power placed in his hands.  For a year he was master of Rome; but when he wished to be elected tribune of the plebs for the succeeding year, his enemies protested, as this was contrary to custom.  A riot followed.  Tiberius and his friends seized the Capitol; the partisans of the Senate and their slaves, armed with clubs and fragments of benches, pursued them and despatched them (133).

Ten years later Gaius, the younger of the Gracchi, elected tribune of the plebs (123), had the agrarian law voted anew, and established distributions[141] of corn to the poor citizens.  Then, to destroy the power of the nobles, he secured a decree that the judges should be taken from among the knights.  For two years Gaius dominated the government, but while he was absent from the city conducting a colony of Roman citizens to Carthage the people abandoned him.  On his return he could not be reelected.  The consul armed the partisans of the Senate and marched against Gaius and his friends who had fled to the Aventine Hill.  Gaius had himself killed by a slave; his followers were massacred or executed in prison; their houses were razed and their property confiscated.