Gracchi facts for kids

The Gracchi brothers, Tiberius and Gaius, were Romans who both served as tribunes of the plebs between 133 and 121 BC. They attempted to redistribute the occupation of the ager publicus—the public land hitherto controlled principally by aristocrats—to the urban poor and veterans, in addition to other social and constitutional reforms. After achieving some early success, both were assassinated by the Optimates, the conservative faction in the senate that opposed these reforms.

Images for kids

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  Engraving after Vincenzo Camuccini, Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi, Presents Her Children to a Capuana Woman, 1870/1909, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC.

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  Gaius Gracchus addressing the Plebeians.