The optimates, for their part, tended to be the

members of great noble families from days gone

by and tended to make noises about preserving

the glorious mos maiorum.

As for the masses themselves, they seemed to see

politics more as entertainment than anything else.

Their votes were less important, by tradition,

than those of the wealthy, but they genuinely

enjoyed the drama of the annual political campaigns

and the stray handouts they got at election time.

The tribunes, who were supposedly protectors of

the People and had the power to veto anything

which might endanger the people, were usually

bought and paid for by one or the other faction

and neutralized. In the one thirties and the

one twenties BC, the brothers Tiberius and

Gaius Gracchus used the power of the tribuneship

to its utmost. They tried to help the dispossessed

small farmers and other urban riff-raff.

They were both of the very noblest blood, their

mother Cornelia was a patrician, the daughter of

Scipio Africanus. But they realized something

had to be done. Elected tribune for one thirty three BC,

Tiberius Gracchus tried to bolster the citizen military

by taking ager publicus from the wealthy and

giving it to the landless poor. This was of course

interpreted as trying to buildup a clientele.

When Tiberius stepped down from his second

tribunate, right at the beginning of one thirty one,

the optimates raised up a mob and had him killed.

Elected tribune a decade later, Gaius Gracchus

took up his brother's program along with a

program allowing citizenship for all of Rome's

Italian allies. While both of these initiatives were

laudable and even necessary, the aristocracy,

the optimates, played on fears again of the

Gracchi violating the mos maiorum trying to

make themselves king of a personal clientele.

Like his brother before him Gaius was murdered

by optimate mobs in one twenty one BC.

The aristocratic optimates had gained the upper

hand over the reformers, and ambitious tributes

thought twice before messing with the establishment.

But this was only for the time being though. Something

would have to give, and within fifteen years it did.

Segment nine D: The Rise of Militarism.

The Roman way of war changed right along with

Roman society. No longer could Romans drop the

plow after the spring planting, fight all summer long,

and then come back home in time for the harvest.

More and more, Rome's wars took place over the

seas and far away, forcing Roman soldiers to fight

for extended periods of time without any chance

of coming home, unless they were lucky enough to

survive the war. Because the Roman citizens could

hardly support themselves under such conditions,

the state instituted a salarium, or stipend given to

buy important things like food, weapons, clothing,

and especially salt. That said, a Roman soldier was

more likely to get killed than he was to get wealthy.