The transformation of the political violence in the Late Roman Republic (by the example of the murder of the Gracchi brothers)

Abstract

The article considers the transformation of political violence in the Late Roman Republic by the example of the murder of the Gracchi brothers and its coverage in the works of Graeco-Roman historians. The analysis of the murder of the Gracchi brothers allows us to pose and consider the issue of the transition of the Roman Republic to an increasingly active use of political terror against internal opponents. The assassination of the Gracchi brothers intensifies the conflict tendencies in the republic, the old forms of conflict resolution cease to work, and after the death of the Gracchi brother’s violence becomes an acceptable form of solving political crises. The author analyzes the specific circumstances of the assassination of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus and concludes about the change in the nature of violence in the Roman Republic: political terror was gradually moving towards increasing regulation of violent acts and their increasing scale. From the indiscriminate terror to which Tiberius’ supporters were subjected, the transition is made to a more regulated and less chaotic persecution of his brother Gaius, whose supporters were also prosecuted by the law. Eventually, those trends formed a coherent “enemy” concept that was most clearly reflected in the terror of the proscriptions of the 1st century AD.