Tiberius Gracchus

-Tiberius Gracchus (the Younger)- born 168 BC.
   -Parents were Tiberius Gracchus (the Elder) and Cornelia Africana.
      -Gracchus the Elder was a pleb by birth, but had risen up through the political ranks and was eventually elected tribune, censor, and consul (twice).  Personal friend of Scipio Africanus (Cornelia Africana was his daughter).
      -Cornelia Africana was a virtuous Roman woman who would become a legendary figure for the Roman people.  Scipio Africanus' family was arguably the family with the most political connections in the history of the Roman Empire at this point.
   -Tiberius Gracchus (the Younger) fought at Carthage and also had been stationed in the Iberian peninsula.
-137 BC- The Romans went to go put down a revolt in Numantia, and 20,000 soldiers ended up getting captured due to stupid decision-making by the commanders.
   -TG worked out a deal with the Celtiberian barbarians to free the Romans, but when the Roman Senate found out they rejected the validity of this deal and punished him.
      -The rejection of the deal was led by Scipio Amelianus, a former superior officer of TG's when they had been stationed in North Africa.
      -There became a split in the Senate between the two sides, which was foreshadowing the development of two rival political factions (the optimates vs. the populares).
         -To make it semi-analogous to modern times, the optimates were more conservative and the populares were more liberal.
-Meanwhile, the Roman Empire was kind of in bad shape.
   -Farms were being bought by the rich, and slaves were taking all the jobs.
   -Grain imports were halted due to a revolt in Sicily.
   -The common folk were growing increasingly hungry and poor.
-133 BC- TG runs for the office of tribune.
   -Ran on a populist platform, wanted to limit the land that elites could own.  He won, but found enemies, which included Marcus Octavius, another tribune (who also wielded veto power, of course).
   -TG tried to get his main enemy, Octavius, out of office, but any attempts were vetoed.  TG then told his supporters to physically throw Octavius out of office.
      -This was a big deal, as no one was supposed to fuck with the tribunes, period.
      -It actually worked, and the senate recognized the power that TG had over the masses, so they agreed to his reforms, which included a massive land redistribution program (which of course still had plenty of bugs and corruption).
-Attalus III, king of Pergamon, then died without an heir, but had bequeathed the kingdom to his the Roman Empire.  Obviously, Rome accepted this, but the question among the Senate was... what to do with it?
   -Should it be given to the elites to divide up among themselves as private land, or be given to the masses to populate at will?
-TG realized that he couldn't afford politically to step down now even though he had to (by law), so he decided to run again for reelection.
   -This was the last straw for the elites, so they got an angry mob together and attacked TG and his entourage.  TG was killed.