Gracchi, grak'i, The Two, Roman brothers who championed the cause of the poor against the wealthy. Their mother was Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, the destroyer of Carthage. When, at a later date, the people erected a monument in her name, it was considered a sufficient honor to inscribe the words, "The mother of the Gracchi." Though of aristocratic lineage, the Gracchi opposed the senatorial party in the interest of the poor. Under fiction of a lease from the state, the public lands had passed largely into the hands of a few. Two thousand owners, it is said, held the greater part of the arable land of Italy. Instead of leasing their fields to tenants, the rich owners preferred to drive out the native population and occupy the land with slaves. Some estates are said to have had as high as 20,000 slaves taken captive in war. The native Latins were crowded into the towns and especially the city of Rome, without employment and in the greatest destitution. In the year 134 B. C. the older brother, Tiberius Gracchus, caused himself to be elected tribune. He was a remarkable orator. He aroused the people to such a pitch of indignation that the voters passed a law restricting the ownership of land to a moderate estate. The surplus was divided into small fields and distributed among the peasants who were without homes. The poor were permitted to occupy the lands on the payment of taxes to the government, but, in order to prevent their being bought out by the wealthy, they were not authorized to sell. The rich, who were thus deprived of their unjust holdings, raised the cry of confiscation and robbery. Foreseeing that if he went out of office his good work would be undone, Tiberius offered himself for reelection, a step contrary to law. On election day the senatorial party, professing to be the party of law and order, attacked the followers of Tiberius, slew him and 300 of his supporters and flung their bodies into the Tiber. This has been called the worst day in Roman history. Riot and mob law were substituted for the will of the majority. The senatorial party proceeded to such an extreme in the murder of Tiberius, that it was several years before they had the courage to begin undoing his work. In the year 124 B. C. Caius Gracchus, the younger brother, was elected to the same office. He carried a law providing that the corn in the public granaries should be sold to the poor at half the regular market price. This, it is considered, was not a wise measure on his part, as it tended to create a mendicant class, and was easily converted into a measure for the bribery of voters. However that may be, he pressed on to carry other measures for the relief of the poor. To relieve the crowded condition of the city, large colonies of Romans were established on the site of Carthage and elsewhere. In 121 B. C. the struggle between the adherents of Caius and the senatorial party became so bitter that 3,000 of his adherents were massacred in a single day. Caius fell on the sword of a friend rather than be taken alive. The consul, a member of the aristocratic party, offered its weight in gold for the head of Caius. Although their efforts came to naught, the Gracchi are held in remembrance as reformers who did their best to uphold the cause of the common people.