Bread and the Republic
Gaius’s grain law sold grain to citizens at a fixed price below the market, and the senatorial faction cursed it as buying favor and corrupting public morals. One current anecdote: Piso, its fiercest opponent, later went to queue for the grain himself, and when Gaius asked why he had come, Piso answered, "I do not want you dividing up what is mine, but since you are dividing it, I want my share too." The city poor thereafter became a force Roman politics had to feed — the account of "bread and circuses" was first entered here.
The lead-filled head
On the day of the final battle Gaius’s men held the Aventine Hill. The Senate offered a reward: whoever brought his head would receive its weight in gold. According to Plutarch, the man who got it scooped out the brain and poured in molten lead before weighing it. Three thousand followers were hanged without trial, their property confiscated, and his widow was even forbidden to mourn. Within twelve years the Gracchi died by the same script — Rome had demonstrated to all who came after the fate of a reformer, and had sealed off the road of peaceful reform for good. The next to step onstage were Marius and Sulla, with armies at their backs.