Tiberius Gracchus the Elder

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus the Elder ( † 154 BC) was a Roman politician of the 2nd century BC

Tiberius Gracchus came from the plebeian nobility and thus belonged to the leadership of the Roman Republic. 190 BC, he took part in the war against Antiochus III. part of Syria, and was sent as an envoy to Philip V of Macedon, 185 BC, he visited a second time. 184 BC he was tribune and 182 BC kurulischer aedile. As praetor 180 BC and in the following two years as proconsul he successfully led the war against the Celtiberian in Spain. 178 BC, he negotiated with the Numantiern, a Celtiberian tribe, a peace treaty. He also founded a city named after himself Gracchuris, and probably the city Iliturgi. He was awarded a triumph which he celebrated on February 3, 178.

The following year, 177 BC Gracchus was consul and led, continued as proconsul in the next two years, war on Sardinia. For these achievements he could 175 BC to hold a triumph. 169 BC he was censor, and let the (perhaps later ) in the Roman Forum building named after him Basilica Sempronia. 165 and 162-161 BC, he traveled as an envoy to Asia Minor. 163 BC it reached a second consulate and again took over the management of Sardinia ( and Corsica), in the following year as proconsul. He died in 154 BC and was buried with the highest honors.

As later his sons, he also fought for the poor and never went against his principles. He married, even over 50, the 25 -year-old Cornelia, a woman of the highest nobility. Her father, Publius Cornelius Scipio in 202 BC at the Battle of Zama, the Carthaginian Hannibal decisively defeated and received the honorary title of Africanus. She gave Tiberius 12 children, of which only Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus, the younger, and a daughter survived infancy. The two sons were subsequently found to be tribunes of the people for social reform and both lost their lives.