The Punic Wars: Life In Second Century Italy

In second century Italy life all around was changing socially, economically, and politically due to war expansion. Socially, early Romans liked to think they were hardworking famers living in a society in which family mattered. People strived to be a moral member of society and liked the think of continuity of generation to generation of gilding family members. Before the Punic Wars, most families owned farms in which they depended on. Families used the labor of clients, tenants and hired workers to help their farms. However, fourteen years of fighting in the Punic Wars and farms were ruined and deemed unprofitable. Most of the farmers ended up moving to Rome and becoming laborers. The rich profited from the wars because land and slave labor …show more content…
Tiberius Gracchus tried to resolve these problems. He became a tribune on a land reform program and had help to help him draft a bill. The main problem was public land that had been taken and help illegally. The bill Tiberius proposed said landholders could keep up to five hundred iugura, but any more than that and it would be redistributed in small lots to the poor. They could not sell what they earned and had a pay a small rent. They’re become hostility between people who held a lot of land and the rights each public property had. He continually tried to propose the bill but Octavius kept vetoing leaving Tiberius no choice but to remove him from power. He then proposed a harsher bill saying he wanted to use the Pergamene revenue to finance the commission. This would challenge the Senate’s control of finances and foreign affairs. He announced candidacy for Tribune for a second time, and his opponents feared he might hold indefinitely and dominate Rome. At the elections riots broke out and Tiberius was killed along with his supporters. His tribune changed politics and showed you could pursue a career in politics based on what you want and not other influences (Western Heritage,