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Tiberius Gracchus was a Roman politician of the 2nd century BC, notable for his attempts at land and social reform in the Roman Republic of the time. To quote wikipedia,

Gracchus proposed a law known as Lex Sempronia Agraria. The law would reorganize control of the ager publicus, or public land; meaning land conquered in previous wars that was controlled by the state but leased to citizens. Under Ti. Gracchus' proposal, no one citizen would be allowed to possess more than 500 iugera (that is, approximately 310 acres, or 130 hectares) of the ager publica and any land that they occupied above this limit would be confiscated by the state. To mollify these landowners, they would be allowed to purchase and own their land, instead of just renting it from the state.

The land freed up would be used to settle Roman citizens and retired legionnaries, many of whom were approaching a state of poverty. In 133BC, the huge honeypot that was the Roman inheritance of Asia (first stepping stone to the E.R.E!) was opened, and a flood of wealth began to flow towards the Republic. Gracchus proposed that much of it be spent on this land reform, but worried elements of the Senate, and was beaten to death, setting in motion a train of events that would lead, after a century, to the Republic becoming merely a cloak for the early Empire.

But what if Gracchus had succeeded? Could he have succeeded at all, given the conditions of the fast expanding Roman Empire in the second century BC? Discuss.
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