Tiberius Gracchus, despite belonging to the nobilitas, he was actually Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus's son, the victor of Spain and Cornelia's, Scipio Africanus' daughter He wanted to join the popular cause by implementing a reform that would redistribute the quantities of public agro owned in a more equitable way. It seems that Tiberius, crossing Etruria, was perfectly aware of how those lands, once cultivated by free men, had now ended up in the hands of landowners and that small landowners were reduced to poverty. Greek preceptors might have influenced his social sensitivity in particular by Blossius from Cuma, advocating an egalitarian stoicism which led him to take refuge in Pergamum Tiberius's death. It is no coincidence that Pergamum was at that time the scene of an anti-Roman revolt led by a certain Aristonicus who spread ideas of the order of social utopia. Tiberius as tribune of the plebs, inspired by previous laws such as the Licinian Sestie Laws, proposed the following to the Tribute Comitia of 133 BC: first: a limit of 500 iugera of land was set , i.e. 125 hectares with an additional 250 iugera per son up to a thousand iugera per family information that Appianus confirmed in The Civil Wars as well as Plutarch in The Lives of the Brothers Gracchi. Second: a Commision of Triumvirs was appointed for the assignment of these lots Theoretically, Roman proletarians according to modern studies were the beneficiaries but it is also possible to include the more modest classes of the Italic communities. People elected this board that was made up of Tiberius his brother Caius and Tiberius' father-in-law, Appius Claudius Pulcher who was then Princeps or President of the Senate and believed by many to be the true creator of Tiberius's proposal. The picture was completed by: Publius Licinius Crassus Mucianus, father-in-law of Caius and Publius Mucius Scevola, Consul in 133 BC who had the task of recovering the excess lots to be distributed in the form of smaller and inalienable lots to the poorest citizens to the extent of 30 iugera per person. The funds for the application of this reform apparently came from the treasure that Attalus III, king of Pergamum who died without heirs had decided to leave to the Roman people and we have evidence of this in Plutarch. The purpose of the law was quite clear to defend the class of small landowners. Of course, obviously, the reactions of the oligarchy severely penalized by the reform were not slow to make themselves heard and when the project had to be voted on in tribute rallies, Marcus Ottavius, perhaps because he was linked to more conservative circles, vetoed it to prevent its approval. Irritated, Tiberius wanted Octavius to be dismissed through a popular vote because he did not serve the interests of those who elected him according to a process well known to the Greek democracies, so much so that Plutarch claims that the tribune of the plebs was sacred and inviolable, but if he did not the interests of those who had voted for him was actually the tribune himself who deprived himself of the office received. This procedure, ordinary in Greece but extraordinary in Rome, was however accepted and once Octavius fell, the law was approved and took the name of the Sempronia Law. When Tiberius tried to run for tribunate again the following year, seeing his opponents the attempt to give life to personal power during the electoral rallies, a group of senators and opponents led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Pontifex Maximus attacked Tiberius and killed him together with many of his supporters. On the figure of Tiberius Gracchus we have to read the historical sources very carefully given that the traditional aristocratic historiography has never viewed Tiberius with a good eye Antipopular is the portrait from Velleius Paterculus who belongs to ordo equestris he defined Tiberius as the one who dragged state on the edge of a precipice Cicero and Florus define Tiberius "antipopular" as well. More moderate is the position of Plutarch who is Greek, insisting on the noble cause of Tiberius and on his sensitivity in seeing how the peoples of Etruria were reduced far as to claim that even wild beasts had a bed and were therefore owners of something while those poor people with everything that many of them had given their lives during the wars did not find themselves owners of even a clod of earth. Even Appian is very moderate in his judgment but he recognizes that however noble Tiberius's intent may have been, the Roman tribune had not thought enough about the difficulties of realizing his proposal. The death of Tiberius is described by Plutarch who tells how the supporters of Tiberius and Tiberius were beaten with sticks and stones and when Tiberius' brother, Caius, asked for his brother's body to be able to bury him, the request was even denied. The body of Tiberius Gracchus was thrown into the river together with those of his supporters. The death of Tiberius did not put an end to the continuously renewed triumviral commission as evidenced by the Gracchan stones that marked the boundaries and the new attributions of the fields. Let us not forget the impact that the law of Tiberius had as regards the following eras and in this regard we mention the Lex Agraria Epigrafica of 111 BC which aims precisely to shed light on lands that from public became private from which the strong need for a rationalization probably because the concepts of "possession" and "property", being so poorly defined, must have completely disappeared at some point. To define the distinction between public and private, the law referred to the year in which Publius Mucius and Lucius Calpurnius were consuls, i.e. 133 BC, therefore the year of Tiberius Gracchus, mentioned among other things in the epigraph The Latin and Italic aristocracies despite the death of Tiberius they were not at all happy with all this and the interpreter of their complaints was Scipio Aemilianus, husband of Sempronia, sister of the Gracchi but political opponent of the same. Aemilianus died in his own home under mysterious circumstances and was therefore elected a member of the agrarian Triumvirate, Fulvius Flaccus, who became consul in 125 BC Appian in the Civil Wars tells us about this mysterious death, mentioning the fact that Aemilianus' body was found without even a scratch on him. Appian also reports what was said around and that is that Sempronia, sister of the Gracchi and wife of Aemilianus had killed her husband with her own hands so as not to break the brother's law wanting Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, to be remembered as such and not as the mother-in-law of Scipio Aemilianus. Added to this is the fact that Sempronia was not beautiful and, among other things, it seems she was also a barren woman and that for this reason her husband had never loved her and therefore Sempronia presumably could seek revenge. There are also those who say that some servants subjected to torture declared that strangers had entered Scipio's house and suffocated him. Scipio Aemilianus died like this, in short, a man who had rendered many services in the past to Rome died in the most total mystery. Flaccus, using his consular mandate, proposed that all allies who had made a specific request could obtain Roman citizenship or, if they preferred to maintain their condition, they could still appeal to the people through the provocatio against any abuses by Roman magistrates. The opposition was immense and Flaccus had to take a step back Probable symptoms of the irritation of the allies were also the revolts of Ascolum and Fregellae which required a military intervention which was followed by a ruthless repression Fregellae was in fact razed to the ground and its territory confiscated and on this conquered territory the Roman colony of Fabrateria Nova was deduced in the year following 124 BC. In 123 BC Caius Gracchus, younger brother of Tiberius, was elected tribune of the plebs, who decided to resume and expand his brother's reform involving agrarian plebs, Italic allies and knights and thinking of making re-election possible for two consecutive years. The Lex agraria was thus expanded and the powers of the triumviral commission were increased and above all the expansion of the agricultural law went hand in hand with the creation of new colonies in Italian territory Minervia near Squillace and Neptunia in Taranto. Even Africa became a colony area through the construction of the Iunonia colony founded on the site of the destroyed Carthage. The Frumentaria Law was also fundamental to ensure that each citizen residing in Rome had a monthly quota of wheat at a subsidized price. Many public granaries, the "horrea sempronia" were in fact built on purpose, which housed large quantities of cereals needed for distribution. Caius also wanted to limit the power of the Senate in the judicial field through the Lex Iudicaria, reserving exclusively to the Knights the control of the permanent courts that dealt with cases of extortion and bad government of the magistrates in the provinces. In this way the senators-governors would not have been judged only by judges-senators but also by the knights or rather by the representatives of the Knights who contracted the management of taxes including commercial operations in the provinces as Appian testifies stating that tribunes and knights for this reason they had come closer to each other which worried the Senators quite a lot. The case of tenders for the collection of taxes in the province of Asia is well known, legitimized by the specific Lex de Provincia Asia born in conjunction with the general reorganization in Asia after a popular uprising. With regard to the allies, Gaius proposed that the Latins be granted Roman citizenship and the Latin right to the Italians in a more moderate way than Fulvius Flaccus but despite the moderation this time too the bill was rejected. To safeguard their privileges, the aristocracy managed to manipulate another tribune of the plebs very well: Marco Livio Drusus, taking advantage of the absence of Caius, left for Africa with Flaccus Drusus, and made rather reckless proposals such as the creation of 12 colonies. Interesting is the testimony of Plutarch who in the Lives of the Gracchi tells us about a real struggle between Gaius and Livius Drusus that the Senators shrewdly tried to use by manipulating Livy to ensure that Gaius lost popular favor given that the problem for the Senators was not it was Livio who spoke excessively of colonies and unattainable reforms as the other Gracchus. Returning to Rome in 122 BC, Gaius was well aware of how the political situation had changed completely in the meantime and how his popularity was eclipsing. Candidate for the following year Gaius was not re-elected and to worsen the situation even a superstition was added. In fact, sad omens were connected to the foundation of the Carthaginian colony and it was therefore proposed to revoke the deduction. Appian tells us of a omen true or false that concerned the Cippi that Gaius and Flaccus had planted on the ground to create a new colony in Africa, although Scipio had reiterated that once Carthage was destroyed that territory had to be used as pasture. It seems that some wolves had knocked down the planted stones and this was a bad omen which convinced the Senate to convene a meeting to repeal the law on the colonies of Caius. Obviously Appian says the most audacious of the people went with a lot of dagger in hand directly to the Capitol where the assembly was to be held. Gaius Gracchus and Fulvius Flaccus opposed it but serious disorders broke out and it was necessary to appeal to the Senatus Consultum Ultimum which entrusted the Consuls with the task of protecting the security of the State. Lucius Opimius, one of the Consuls decreed the massacre of Gracchus' supporters who resisted. Flaccus died in the clashes Gaius instead asked a slave to kill him and its end will be remembered by Cicero and his oration against Catilina. After the death of the second Gracchus, the Optimates, although not sympathetic to the opposite faction, were aware that the policy of the Gracchi responded to real problems and therefore did not dare to abolish the Gracchan reforms but tried to minimize their effects, especially the Agrarian Law as Appian testifies which even mentions three laws. The last liquidation Lex of the Gracchan program has come down to us through epigraphy. This is the Tabula Bembina which on one side of it reports this law and on the other one, the Lex Iudiciaria. Allocated lots were declared alienable so that their migration would bring them back into the hands of the magnates. Then the recovery and reassignment operations of the lands first granted and then transferred to ownership were put to an end and above all the agricultural commission was dismantled. It is useless to deny how much politics in Rome will be destined to change after the Gracchi and how the deaths of Gaius and Tiberius did not put an end to the provisions. The aerial photographs taken during the Second World War have in fact made it possible to detect the traditional centuriation of the Graccano type in some Italian lands which, supported by the help of literary sources such as Cicero and the Liber Coloniarum of the late ancient age, have really led to complete and exhaustive studies The Liber Coloniarum is actually a rather heterogeneous writing which includes the studies and opinions of various land surveyors who left a catalog of land divided precisely on the basis of the Gracana centuriation which presents peculiar and precise characteristics which remained so even up to Silla waiting for the new centuriation under Caesar. The Gracchan lots were in fact square 20x20 actus , i.e. approximately 705 meters on each side and were traced by specialized technicians called "land surveyors" who made use of a specific tool called a "groma" formed by the intersection of two perpendicular axes so as to form angles straight From the four arms it was possible to lower a system of weights which two by two created perpendicular planes by first identifying the north-south direction or the "cardo" and then the east-west direction or the "decumanus".