You're probably familiar with the "Ides of March" -- a grim anniversary (Mar.15) marking the murder of Julius Caesar by the Roman Senate (44BC). But did you also know that the Roman Senate, in mob-like fury, murdered two other Roman leaders?
The "Gracchi" family was rich, powerful, and well-connected in Roman politics (ca 160BC). Two brothers, TIBERIUS and GAIUS, would pose a very real threat (like Caesar) to the Roman Senate. Tiberius was a proponent of land reform in a time when the Roman peasantry was truly suffering. The poor had become impoverished, and with Roman land in the hands of the wealthy "Elites" (many of whom were Senators) there was little farming to be had. The Roman people were starving. Tiberius proposed a limitation on the amount of land the Elites could own, and he wanted parcels of excess land given to the poor. For his efforts, he was clubbed to death in 132BC by angry Senators. It was the first time a dispute in the Senate would be settled by bloodshed.
Tiberius' brother, Gaius, was also a proponent of land reform. However, Gaius had the backing of an army of followers, making his threat to the power of the Senate very real and immediate. He had his own angry mob of followers ready to take back the excess lands of the rich by force. There was, indeed, a need for land reform and redistribution... but the wealthy Elites would have none of this. The Senate was responsible for murdering Gaius in 121BC, only eleven years after they had murdered his brother. They would go even further and demand the deaths of Gaius' followers... and it is likely that almost 2500 people were murdered on command by the Senate.
Caesar's assasination is more vivid, and it is probably because he was more famous. The "Pater Patria," 80 years later, was more like a "King" inside Rome. He had himself named "Dictator for Life." Here was the man who had defeated Pompey, who had conquered the Gauls, and who had embroiled himself in controversy with Cleopatra in Egypt (the two had a son together). When the Senate conspired to murder him it was done in the same way as they had dispatched Tiberius and Gaius -- a mob moved against Caesar, clubbed him, and then drew their daggers to stab him almost thirty times.
