e Alps.

The period 133 to 78 B. C. covers the first stage in the struggle which
brought the Republic to an end, and closes with the Senate in full
possession of its old prerogatives, while the powers of the tribunate and
Assembly have been seriously curtailed. In this struggle the Roman citizen
body was aligned in two groups. The one, which supported the claims of the
Senate, was called the party of the "Optimates" or aristocrats; the other,
which challenged these claims, was known as the people's party or the
"Populares."

I. THE AGRARIAN LAWS OF TIBERIUS GRACCHUS: 133 B. C.

*Tiberius Gracchus, tribune, 133 B. C.* The opening of the struggle was
brought on by the agrarian legislation proposed by Tiberius Gracchus, a
tribune for the year 133 B. C. Gracchus, then thirty years of age, was one
of the most prominent young Romans of his time, being the son of the
consul whose name he bore and of Cornelia, daughter of the great Scipio
Africanus. Under his mother's supervision, he had received a careful
education, which included rhetoric and Greek Stoic philosophy. As quaestor
in Spain in 136 he had distinguished himself for courage and honesty in
dealing with the native population and had acquainted himself with the
military needs of Rome. He saw in the decline of the free peasantry of
Italy the chief menace to the state, and when elected to the tribunate
proposed legislation which aimed to re-establish the class of free Roman
farmers, and thus provide new strength for the Roman armies.

*The land law.* His proposed land law took the form of a re-enactment of a
previous agrarian measure dating, probably, from the end of the third
century B. C. This law had restricted the amount of public land which any
person might occupy to five hundred iugera (about three hundred and ten
acres), an amount which Gracchus augmented by two hundred and fifty iugera
for each of two grown sons. All land held in excess of this limit was to
be surrendered to the state, further occupation of public land was
forbidden, and what was within the legal limit was to be declared private
property. Compensation for improvements on surrendered lands was offered
to the late occupants, and a commission of three men was to be annually
elected with judicial powers to decide upon the rights of possessors (_III
vir agris iudicandis assignandis_). The land thus resumed by the state was
to be assigned by the commissioners to landless Roman citize