Editing Gracchi brothers (section)

==== Death ====
Violent opposition to Tiberius' agrarian policy did not come to a head until he moved legislation to use the inheritance of [[Attalus III]] of [[Pergamon]] for the land commission. The ancient sources differ on the question of what Attalus' bequest was to be dedicated: Plutarch claims it was to be used to help land recipients purchase farm equipment; Livy, via epitome, claims that it was to be used to purchase more land for distribution after there turned out to be little land available.<ref>{{harnvb|Roselaar|2010|p=239|ps=, siding, in this instance, with Plutarch's account.}}</ref>

This second proposal infringed on senatorial prerogatives over foreign policy and public finances. Senators also feared that these financial handouts would give Tiberius substantial personal political power.{{sfn|Roselaar|2010|p=240}} Tiberius then announced his intention to stand for re-election; according to Livy, this was illegal, due to a law which forbade holding the same magistracy within ten years.{{sfn|Lintott|1994b|p=68}} The sources allege that Tiberius also announced plans for a significantly more broad set of reforms, but these may be retrojections of his brother Gaius' later-consummated proposals.{{sfn|Lintott|1994b|p=69}} On the day of the election, Tiberius seized the [[Capitoline Hill]], possibly to intimidate the voters; Tiberius' opponents accused him of having kingly aspirations and attempted to induce the consul in the senate to use force to stop his re-election.{{sfn|Mackay|2009|pp=48–49}} The consul refused to act extralegally, but one of the other senators, [[Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica Serapio]], found this reply unacceptable and led an impromptu military levy of senators, which included one of Tiberius' colleagues in the plebeian tribunate; with Nasica, who was ''[[pontifex maximus]]'', reenacting an archaic sacrificial ritual, they then stormed the Capitoline and bludgeoned Tiberius and a number of his supporters to death.{{sfn|Mackay|2009|p=50}}

It was largely constitutional issues which impelled the violent reaction, not the agrarian laws. The reaction was motivated in part by Greek constitutional thought which created a narrative of popular mobilisation leading inexorably to popular tyranny.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boren |first=Henry C |date=1961 |title=Tiberius Gracchus: the opposition view |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/292017 |journal=American Journal of Philology |volume=82 |issue=4 |pages=358–69 |doi=10.2307/292017 |jstor=292017 |issn=0002-9475 |quote=It appears extremely likely that Nasica and the rest were actually convinced [Tiberius] was aiming at demagogic tyranny. These nobles feared that the deterioration predicted by Polybius was upon them ... the murderers genuinely thought they had saved the state by killing a would-be tyrant ... whose actions were bound to result in the ruin of the republic. }}</ref> Such beliefs were compounded by the recent example of tyranny in Sparta, led by [[Nabis of Sparta|Nabis]], which had come to power with a reform programme of cancelling debts and redistributing lands.{{sfn|Lintott|1994b|p=66}}