Asian Review of Social Sciences (ARSS)
Rethinking the Option of Violence in Politics and the Fate of Tiberius Gracchus
Author : Gill Oluwatosin AdekannbiVolume 8 No.3 July-December 2019 pp 25-31
Abstract
The killing of Tiberius Gracchus along with hundreds of his supporters in factional violence has left an imprint of moral controversy. When perpetuated by the aggrieved or oppressed masses, violence is seen as an act of aggression or rebellion. However, it tends to be termed political expediency when initiated by the ruling power or its agency. Using interpretive approach, this paper sets aside justifying the murdering of Tiberius as removal of a potential tyrant who was causing public disturbance. The research, after highlighting how violence became imminent when other legitimate efforts at resolving political conflicts failed, shifts to the moral question arising from resorting to violence as the ultimate tool for achieving a political goal. Corrupt members of the Roman Senate and their supporters would share the view: ‘so perish also all others who do such things’. However, the paper notes the benefits of Tiberius’ agrarian reforms to the poor citizens and the potential benefits of the changes to the state. The conclusion is: the champion of the people had acted well enough but inconclusively to reach his goals. It remained for him and his supporters to stand against being outmaneuvered by the corrupt politicians. If violence had been used by Tiberius and his followers against the senate to succeed, the common people would have declared this as both morally justifiable and politically expedient. Hence, it is theorised that, when moral questions are unanswered in politics, violence looms and no one may have the monopoly of it.
Keywords
Political Violence, Roman Republic, Tiberius Gracchus, Morality, Expediency
Full Text:
References
[1] Appian. (1899). The Civil Wars. Horace White, Ed.London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd.
[2] Brenda, J. L. & James M. L. (2006). Political Violence in the Republic of Rome: Nothing New under the Sun. Government and Opposition, 41(4), 491–511.
[3] Raaflaub, K. A. (1986). Social Struggles in Archaic Rome: New Perspectives on the Conflict of Orders, ed. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[4] Lintott, A. W. (1970). The Tradition of Violence in the Annals of the Early Roman Republic Historia: ZeitschriftfürAlte Geschichte, Bd. 19, H. 1, 12-29.
[5] Lintott, A. W. (1990). Electoral Bribery in the Roman Republic. The Journal of Roman Studies, 80, 1-16
[6] Livy, T. (1990). The History of Rome, Book 4. Canon Roberts, Ed. Retrieved from http://www.perseus. tufts.edu/hopper/text.
[7] Livy, T. (1905). The History of Rome, Vol. 1. Canon Roberts trans. Retrieved from http://mcadams.posc. mu.edu/txt/ah/Livy/.
[8] Livy, T. (1919). The History of Rome, Book 1 Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ed.Cambridge. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[9] Sherwin-White, A. (1956). Violence in Roman Politics. Journal of Roman Studies, 46(1-2), 1-9. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10. 2307/jcd.297959.
[10] Yakobson, A. (1992). ‘Petitioet Largitio: Popular Participation in the Centuriate Assembly of the Later Republic’, Journal of Roman Studies, 82, 32-52. Retrieved from https://doi.org 10.2307/jcd.301283
[11] Polybius. (1889). Histories. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, trans. London: Macmillan.
[12] Plutarch, L. M. (1921). The Parallel Lives The Life of Tiberius Gracchus. Retrieved from http://penelope. uchicago.edu/Thayer/e/ roman/texts/plutarch/lives/tiberius_gracchus.