Reforms Made by the Gracchus Brothers and Marius

Abstract

The revolutions in ancient Rome focusing on Gracchus brothers and Marius, mainly about solving the militia problem - military shortage. The Gracchus brothers pointed out the problems of the suppression of the middle class and forcing them to join the army. Even though they did not provide the best solution. The conservatives Senate refused to acknowledge these problems and used violence to kill these reformers. As in Marius’s time, he provided a better solution to the problem by recruiting the lower-class Roman citizens and granting their lands after the serve. The leaders of ancient Rome knew the problems of the empire and the right solution to solve them. But they refused to acknowledge them and insisted there were no problems at all because using these solutions would decrease their power of controlling everything and profit generated. The Roman senators only dealt with the problem when it grows bigger and becomes inevitable instead of solving it early enough when the problem is not severe.The goal of this paper is to compare the refusal of acknowledgment of the problems of the leaders in ancient Rome to the refusal of acknowledgment of the current problems(such as climate change) of the leaders nowadays.