Editing Tiberius Gracchus (section)

=== Opposition and death ===

After passage of the bill, the senate allocated very little money for the commissioners, making it impossible for the commission to do its job when it needed to pay for surveyors, pack animals, and other expenses.{{sfnm|Beard|2015|1p=223|Lintott|1994|2p=68}} After this meagre allotment, however, news arrived that [[Attalus III of Pergamum]] had died and that he had bequeathed his treasury and devised his kingdom to Rome.{{sfn|Lintott|1994|pp=34, 68}} Tiberius proposed using the bequest to finance the land commission, which triggered a wave of opposition.{{sfn|Roselaar|2010|p=239}} The ancient sources disagree on what the bequest would be used for: Plutarch asserts it was to be used to buy tools for the farmers, Livy's [[epitome]] asserts it was to be used to purchase more land for redistribution in response to an apparent shortage. The latter is unlikely, as the process of surveying and distribution were incipient; it is also possible the money was to be used to finance the commission itself.{{sfn|Roselaar|2010|p=239}}

After this proposal, Tiberius was attacked in the senate by Quintus Pompeius and accused of harbouring regal ambitions.{{sfnm|Lintott|1994|1p=68|Mackay|2009|2p=47|Roselaar|2010|3p=239}} One of the former consuls also brought a lawsuit against Tiberius arguing the deposition of Octavius violated magisterial collegiality and was a dangerous precedent which a sufficiently powerful tribune could exploit to bypass all checks on his power.{{sfn|Mackay|2009|p=47}}

Tiberius' proposal usurped senatorial prerogatives over finance and foreign policy, breaking a major political norm. Senators also feared that Tiberius intended to appropriate Attalus' bequest to hand out money to his personal benefit.{{sfn|Roselaar|2010|p=239}} This was compounded by his attempt to stand for re-election, claiming that he needed to do so to prevent repeal of the agrarian law{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|p=26}} or possibly to escape prosecution for his deposition of Octavius.{{sfnm|Mackay|2009|1p=47|Gruen|1968|2p=58}} Attempts at such consecutive terms may have been illegal.{{sfn|Gruen|1968|p=57|ps=. "It is possible that this attempt [for a second tribunate] was in violation of Roman law".}} The bid, however, certainly violated Roman constitutional norms: magistrates were immune while in office and continuous officeholding implied continual immunity.{{sfn|Mackay|2009|p=48}} Some ancient historians also report that Tiberius, to smooth his bid for re-election, brought laws to create mixed juries of senators and {{Lang|la|equites}} but this likely emerges from confusion with his brother's law to that effect.{{sfn|Gruen|1968|p=58}} The deadly opposition to Tiberius Gracchus' reforms focused more on his subsequent actions – interpreted by his contemporaries as indicative of a desire to essentially overthrow the republic and institute a popular [[tyranny]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boren |first=Henry C |date=1961 |title=Tiberius Gracchus: the opposition view |jstor=292017 |journal=American Journal of Philology |volume=82 |issue=4 |pages=358–369 |doi=10.2307/292017 |issn=0002-9475 |quote=It appears extremely likely that Nasica and the rest were actually convinced [Tiberius] was aiming at demagogic tyranny }}</ref> – than on the reforms themselves.{{sfn|Roselaar|2010|p=240}}

At the electoral ''comitia'' counting the votes for the tribunes for 132&nbsp;BC, Tiberius and his entourage seized the Capitoline hill where the voting was taking place to dictate the result.{{sfn|Mackay|2009|p=49}} At a senate meeting on the tribunician elections, Tiberius' first cousin [[Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio]], the [[pontifex maximus]], attempted to induce consul Publius Mucius Scaevola use force and stop Tiberius' re-election. When Scaevola refused, Scipio Nasica shouted a formula for levying soldiers in an emergency – "anyone who wants the community secure, follow me" ({{langx|la|qui rem publicam salvam esse volunt me sequatur}})<ref>Val. Max., 3.2.17.</ref> – and led a mob to the {{lang|la|comitia}} with his toga [[capite velato|drawn over his head]].{{sfnm|Mackay|2009|1p=49–50|Lintott|1994|2pp=69–72}} In doing so, he attempted to frame the killing as a religious rite ({{Lang|la|consacratio}}) taken to free the state from an incipient tyrant.{{sfnm|Beard|2015|1p=224|Flower|2010|2p=83}} Tiberius and supporters did not fight back;{{sfn|von Ungern-Sternberg|2014|p=80}} killed with stones, wooden chairs and other blunt weapons, their bodies were thrown into the [[Tiber]].{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2006|p=26}}