Crisis of the Republic: the Gracchi, the civil wars, and Caesar

Rome's territorial expansion produced deep social imbalances, with land concentrated in the hands of large landowners and the impoverishment of the peasantry. The brothers Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus, tribunes of the plebs in 133 BCE and 123-122 BCE respectively, pushed through agrarian reforms aimed at redistributing public land among the poorest citizens, provoking violent opposition from the senatorial aristocracy and leading to the deaths of both in political violence.