121 BC

Events in 121 BC 1

• 133 BC – 121 BC The Gracchi — land reform and political murder Tiberius Gracchus (tribune 133 BC) proposes redistributing public land to landless citizens, breaking the power of great senatorial estates. He is clubbed to death by senators in the Forum — the first political murder in Rome since the kings. His brother Gaius (tribune 123–122 BC) goes further: grain subsidies, new colonies, extended citizenship. He too is killed, along with 3,000 supporters. The Gracchi open a century of political violence that will end only with Augustus.