The Gracchi

by David Stockton

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography

268 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 1979

Reviews

[John Bohnert · Rating 1 out of 5]

A tedious account that gives history a bad name to the general reader.
I had to force myself to continue reading. Only my strong interest in the subjects of this book enabled me to continue to the bitter end. The Gracchi brothers deserve a better account.

[Andrew Dockrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was hedging between a three or a four, as the writing style was very dry and matter of fact which is what you will usually get on a critical examination of the sources available. The book itself was quite good, in examining the life and attempted reforms of Tiberius and Gaius. They have largely been seen in history as radicals, largely by the senatorial conservative class who wanted to keep the status quo of Rome and the priviledge they enjoyed. Whereas Tiberius who was a fantastic orator was arguably the first politician of the populares (the regular people) who wished to improve their lives in Rome.

All in all the book was quite nice, it was a critical analysis of their achievements and their aims and motives in putting their reforms forward. If your looking for a light read, this book will not be for you and I would only recommend for the serious classics student or someone who is extremely interested in the Gracchi.

[Yazeed Al Nemer]

The civil pact made with first inhabitants of a city goes as such; I have my interests and you have yours, and we both have some in common(security, community etc...) so it'd be best if we grouped together to accomplish our needs and wants. We are all aware of such a pact, in these terms or not, so it's natural for one to accept when it happens that another pursued their interest and got rich from it. It's not my view that I find being rich wrong. It's not the case that I seek to make rich people live in a constant state of mea culpa. It's not, however, acceptable when that someone manipulates such a pact to advance their interest over mine and justify it as if it was a state of nature of my own fault. That's what the Gracchi brothers, Gaius even more so, understood. The tools on which the Roman civilization was built were being used by the patrician class and the privileged to constantly suppress those who stand against their personal gains and in effect, result in the constant dehumanization of all who live in the Aventine.

It was clear to the Gracchi that the Roman elite, patrician or plebian, had sought to increase their wealth on the expense of proletariat of Rome. Take for example Tiberius' LEX AGRARIA. It decrees that every iguera after 500 should be taken from its owners to the state to be redistributed to veterans, poor families and to farmers. He met with such vociferous opposition to the point where it led to his death. Greed! To understand the greed we only need to do some unit conversion: 500 iguera is equivalent to 1348952 meters squared! it was not enough for the Roman senate, and the fact that they refused to give up land they couldn't even see let alone set foot on is emblematic of the entitlement of such crooks.

I loved reading this book, although it tends to be inclined to the more legal aspect of the Gracchiani period than to the narrative part. I was disappointed that the author didn't record any speech and just mentioned them in passing.

[Nick Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not sure if the problem is that I, as a reader of “popular history”, was nit part of the intended audience for this book, or if it is fair to say that the author failed to write an engaging book. I was sufficiently informed about Republican Rome to know that there were two brothers Gracchus, and to be curious about their story. Unfortunately this book assumes that the reader already knows the story and spends its time analysing the relative reliability of the accounts left by Appian, Plutarch, Livy, Cicero and others.

[Marco Crolla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great scholarly work that is still very readable for the layman. Stockton's book is probably the best work you'll find on the Gracchi and their era in English and he does a fantastic job breaking down the political battle lines and getting to the core of the Gracchan proposals and why they aroused such opposition.

[Matt]

Note: read the sections pertaining to Tiberius only (about 50% of the book) and skimmed the rest – utilized for term paper on Tiberius Gracchus.