Plutarch (ca. 46–120 C.E.) was a Greek historian and biographer who became a Roman citizen. His most famous work was Parallel Lives, a series of paired biographies of Greeks and Romans, designed to show the ways in which their characters influenced their lives. He drew information from the works of earlier historians — many of which are now lost — though he also altered biographical details in order to make his point. This is part of his portrait of tribune Gaius Gracchus, many of whose reforms Plutarch generally admired.

Of the laws which he introduced to win the favor of the people and undermine the power of the Senate, the first concerned the public lands, which were to be divided among the poor citizens; another concerned the soldiers, who were to be clothed at public expense without any deductions from their pay, and no one was to be conscripted into the army who was under seventeen years old; another gave Italians the same voting rights as the citizens of Rome; a fourth related to the supply of grain and the lowering of its price to the poor; and a fifth regulated the courts of justice. This last law greatly reduced the power of the senators. Hitherto they alone sat as judges and were therefore much feared by the common people and the equestrian order [wealthy commoners]. Gaius added three hundred citizens of equestrian rank to the senators, who also numbered three hundred, and entrusted the judicial authority to the whole six hundred….

After Gaius’ return to Rome [from Carthage, where he supervised the founding of a colony], he gave up his house on the Palatine hill and went to live near the forum, which he thought more democratic since most of the poor and humble citizens lived there. He then announced the rest of his laws, intending to have them ratified by popular vote. A vast number of people gathered from all parts, but the Senate persuaded the consul Fannius to order out of the city all who were not Romans. Accordingly a new and unusual proclamation was made, prohibiting any of the allies and friends of Rome to appear in the city during that time. Gaius published a counter-edict, denouncing the consul and promising the allies his support if they remained in Rome…. He had also, for the following reason, incurred the anger of his fellow tribunes. An exhibition of gladiators was to be held for the people in the forum, and most of the magistrates had erected seats round about with the intention of renting them. Gaius ordered them to dismantle the seats so the poor might see the show without cost. When no one obeyed this order, he collected a group of city employees and removed the seats the night before the spectacle. By the next morning the forum was clear, and in accomplishing this the common people thought he had acted the part of a man. But he had annoyed his colleagues, who regarded him as audacious and violent.

Source: Plutarch, Parallel Lives, “Gaius Gracchus,” based on the translation by John Dryden and revised by Arthur H. Clough, in Nels M. Bailkey, Readings in Ancient History: Thought and Experience from Gilgamesh to St. Augustine, 3d ed. (Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath, 1987), pp. 302, 304–305.

EVALUATE THE EVIDENCE