ABSTRACT
In the second half of the second century bc the Roman Republic was confronted with a number of serious problems which interacted with one another and created an unstable political climate. The decline of the traditional free landed peasantry led to a shortage of recruits, because poorer citizens were not yet admitted to the army on a large scale. In the course of the second century bc the Roman government was on several occasions forced to reduce the minimum property requirement for service in the armies so as to be able to secure sufficient soldiers. The Italians were vexed by the Roman magistrates’ ruthless behaviour in Italy, against which they were far less capable of protecting themselves than Roman citizens. Gaius Sempronius Gracchus proposed to grant the Latins Roman citizenship and the other Italians some Roman civil rights. Gaius’s plans for the foundation of a colony in North Africa came to nothing, but all his other reforms were retained.
