Tribune of the Plebs (www.romanempire.net)

1. Tribune of the Plebs(www.romanempire.net) • This appointment is ONLY open to Plebeians and Equestrians. • Only Plebeians and Equestrians may vote in the Tribune's election. • The Tribune is the only Plebeian allowed to sit in on ALL Senate meetings as the People's representative. • The Tribune is empowered with the VETO, allowing him/her to reject literally any Senate legislation or function. • Following the six-month term, the Tribune automatically becomes a member of the Senate and Equestrian Order (if not already).

2. Populares and Optimates • The populares were for the extension of citizenship to provincials, for the cancellation of debt, and for the distribution of land. • The optimates were the opposing conservative force, defending the traditions of Rome and the existing order.

3. The Roman Republic • The client system meant that Rome was never really a democracy. People voted at elections in accordance to their family loyalties. Political ideology didn't play a major role. • After the Punic Wars, the displaced farmers and urban poor became a tool to be manipulated in the new political power struggle the Optimates vs. the Populares.

4. But this contest was far from being one between the poor and the rich. For people voted for their patrons, as they had always done. So a man might be poor but still vote as a client for the patron who was a staunch member of the optimates.If the struggle between the optimates and populares was not pitching rich against poor in Rome, then one can perhaps portray it as a contest between the new powers and the old. The old privileged families held sway in Rome and hence sought to prevent any change from reducing their powers. Meanwhile the new powerful families, saw opportunities in winning more clients and supporters by championing the cause of the less privileged or excluded.

5. For example, to speak on behalf of the Cisalpine Gauls or Samnites who did not enjoy citizenship meant, that, if they would ever be granted it, their loyalty - and hence their votes - would be with you. And so the aim of the powerful families in the populares party was clearly one of extending their own power. Any advantage to the poor was therefore merely a welcome side effect.

6. The Gracchi • This is political stage onto which the Gracchi • Brothers stepped, and which they sought to use to their advantage. They were champions of the poor, and by being that, they accumulated quite a bit of power for themselves, enough to make them dangerous…and in Rome being dangerous was a perilous occupation.

7. Tiberius Gracchus • http://dante.udallas.edu/hutchison/Fall_of_Republic/gracchi_brothers.htm • http://www.roman-empire.net/republic/laterep-index.html • http://www.unrv.com/empire/tiberius-gracchus.php