ABSTRACT
The period from 121 to 88 b.c.e. marks the Roman Republic’s progression from violent political rivalries and murder to the brink of civil war. The internal changes produced by overseas expansion plus the challenges of managing a Mediterranean-wide empire created greater opportunities for amassing pree minent popularity and power. In analyzing the political struggles marking the century of Roman history after the Gracchi, two labels are often applied to the protagonists. These include: Populares and optimates. In Roman political rhetoric, Roman people were called populares by more traditionally minded aristocrats or those whose domination in the senate was guaranteed by the status quo. Both the social origins and the goals of optimates and populares were mostly identical. Individual optimates were often just as much rivals with each other as they were with individual populares, and vice versa. The optimates let most of Gaius Gracchus’ legislation operate once he was dead and could not benefit from it at their expense.
