phanes may have been technically without merit, yet it may
well have stood a chance of success.
Th ird, freedom of speech did not protect the speaker
from retaliation at the hands of his enemies. Greek culture
honored the values of competitiveness and aggression, and
Athens, in particular, was known for being wordy and liti-
gious. One should perhaps be surprised that the punishment
of dissenters by their enemies was apparently so rare.
ROME
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Perhaps the most successful dissenter in Rome was one of the
fi rst, Lucius Junius Brutus (sixth century b.c.e.). King Tar-
quinius Superbus (r. 534–510 b.c.e.), meaning “Tarquin the
Proud,” apparently murdered Brutus’s brother. Th is event
motivated Brutus to conspire against Tarquinius Superbus.
Brutus had help in this conspiracy from members of the
social elite who belonged to the Senate. Th ey had been ac-
customed to being consulted by Rome’s kings on matters of
public policy, but King Tarquinius Superbus ruled by edict,
without consulting the Senate, a practice that probably an-
gered senators. In addition, Brutus’s brother had been a sena-
tor, making it clear that the king was a threat even to members
of the Senate.
Brutus’s opportunity came in about 510 b.c.e. Tarquin-
ius Superbus was expanding Rome’s dominance of its area
through wars against local cities, and that year the Romans
were laying siege to the city of Ardea. While her husband,
Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, was at the siege, Lucretia was
raped by Tarquinius Superbus’s son, Sextus. She wrote to her
husband about what had happened. When he and his fellow
offi cers rushed back to Rome, she told them what had hap-
pened and then stabbed herself to death. Brutus seized the
moment and persuaded his companions to rebel against the
king. According to tradition, he became one of Rome’s fi rst
two consuls, Lucretia’s husband being the other, but he fell in
battle soon thereaft er when Etruscans tried to reinstate Tar-
quinius Superbus as Rome’s king.
As the Roman Republic expanded its territories though
warfare, the diff erence in wealth between the aristocrats,
called patricians, and the commoners, called plebeians, wid-
ened, creating broad discontent among plebeians. Th ree im-
portant champions for their cause arose: Tiberius Gracchus
(163–133 b.c.e.), his brother Gaius Gracchus (153–121 b.c.e.),
and Gaius Marius (ca. 157–86 b.c.e.). Tiberius Gracchus came
from a wealthy family but was not an aristocrat. He saw that
common soldiers, who were required to come from landed
families, were losing their farms to wealthy patricians, and
he tried to reform the laws by requiring that retired soldiers
be given public lands. Th e Senate opposed this action, but Ti-
berius Gracchus persuaded the Plebeian Council, the assem-
bly that represented the plebeians, to pass the reform. He then
urged other reforms, including one that would give Roman
citizenship to Rome’s Italian allies—something even some
plebeians opposed because they feared it would dilute their
own privileges as Roman citizens. Tiberius Gracchus ran for
reelection as tribune, and on election day he and hundreds
of his supporters were attacked by a mob led by senators and
were slaughtered.
Gaius Gracchus emerged as the new leader of the re-
form movement. Like his brother, he served in the army. In
spite of his brother’s murder, he chose to advocate some of
the same reforms his brother had advocated. He was elected
to two terms as tribune (123–122 b.c.e.) During his terms he
managed to have laws passed that took public lands out of
the hands of the wealthy and redistributed them among the
poor. He advocated Roman citizenship for Italian allies, and
he undertook a more comprehensive reform of Roman gov-
ernment than had his brother. He lost his race for a third term
as tribune when rival candidates pretended to favor his re-
forms, and thereaft er the new tribunes dismantled his work.
Gracchus’s supporters began carrying weapons for protec-
tion, and their enemies pretended that Gracchus’s supporters
were in rebellion. As a consequence, the Roman army slaugh-
tered over 3,000 of the supporters, and Gracchus was stabbed
to death by one of his slaves. One of the enduring legacies of
the Gracchus brothers was the development of two opposing
political views: the popular, called Populares, and the elite,
called Optimates.
Gaius Marius served as consul seven times between
107 and 86 b.c.e. He was a highly successful general with a
large following of active and retired soldiers. He eliminated
the requirement that soldiers be landowners, allowing tens
of thousands of poor and out-of-work Romans to join the
army—something that alarmed some senators because such
men had little to lose and everything to gain from political
reform. In 91 b.c.e. the tribune Marcus Livius Drusus was
assassinated for advocating the Gracchus brothers’ reforms.
Rome’s Italian allies rebelled, demanding citizenship. Th is
confl ict became the Social War (90–89 b.c.e.). During that
war the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138–78 b.c.e.)
attacked Rome with his army and forced Marius to fl ee.
Sulla belonged to the Optimates faction, but his actions were
viewed as illegal. Marius himself led troops into Rome in 87
b.c.e. and ordered the murders of members of the Optimates
faction, including patricians. About a month aft er becoming
consul for the seventh time, he died unexpectedly.
In 49 b.c.e. Julius Caesar became dictator of Rome.
He was a populist reformer and was despised by the Opti-
mates faction. A prominent member of the Optimates was
Marcus Junius Brutus (85–42 b.c.e.). During the civil war
between Caesar and Pompey, Brutus joined Pompey’s army
because Pompey represented the Optimates faction. Aft er
the war Brutus wrote to Caesar, asking to be forgiven, and
in 48 b.c.e. Caesar pardoned him. He and other Optimates
members conspired to assassinate Caesar, on the ground
that they would be protecting the republic and civil liberties.
Th ey murdered Caesar in 44 b.c.e. but were defeated by Oc-
tavian in the war that followed. Brutus committed suicide.resistance and dissent: Rome 879