Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome.

Last week, we discussed the career of Tiberius Crocus, whose extreme populism helped kick

start the century of civil strife that would be the republics undoing.

This is not to say that Tiberius was to blame for the downward spiral, but he certainly

staked out a position that forced the Senate to stake out a reactionary counterposition,

and it was this polarization, not one side or the other necessarily, that eventually

led the Roman people to the safe and comforting arms of Caesar Augustus.

Hot on the heels of that number one summer blockbuster, Tiberius Crocus, man of the people,

came at sequel, Gaius, Revenge of the Croci.

And like all good sequels, they took what made the original work double the special effects

budget and quadrupled the size of the crises.

As protagonist Tiberius had to save the city, Gaius would be tasked with saving the whole

world.

What I mean to say by all that, is that Tiberius entered office, focused on the single issue

of agrarian reform, and met his downfall running for an illegal second term.

His brother would pick up the baton on agrarian reform, but also add a whole slate of other

populist reform measures, and where Tiberius failed to win his second term as Tribune, Gai

succeeded and met his own downfall seeking an unprecedented third term.

The sequel always has to be bigger, better, and go further than the original.

It's just good marketing.

Gaius was born in 154 BC, the same year his father died.

So where Tiberius at least had some contact with their father, Gaius was raised entirely

...