In 133 B.C., a year otherwise made memorable by the final subjugation of Spain and the acquisition of Asia, efforts began Rome to remedy some of the disorders which were now seen to be sapping the strength of Roman society. The first persons to undertake the work of reform were the two brothers, Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. The Gracchi belonged to the highest nobility of Rome. Their father had filled a consulship and a censorship and had celebrated triumphs. Cornelia, their mother, was a daughter of Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal. A fine type of the Roman matron, she called her boys her "jewels," more precious than gold, and brought them up to love their country better than their own lives. Tiberius, the elder brother, was only thirty years of age when he became a tribune and began his career in Roman politics. AGRARIAN LAW OF TIBERIUS GRACCHUS Tiberius signalized his election to the tribunate by bringing forward his celebrated agrarian law. He proposed that the public lands of Rome, then largely occupied by wealthy men who alone had the money necessary to work them with cattle and slaves, should be reclaimed by the state, divided into small tracts, and given to the poorer citizens. By getting the people back again on the soil, Tiberius hoped to revive the declining agriculture of Italy. DEFECTS OF THE AGRARIAN LAW This agrarian law, though well intentioned, did not go to the root of the real difficulty--foreign competition. No legislation could have helped the farming class, except import duties to keep out the cheap grain from abroad. But the idle mob at Rome, controlling the assemblies, would never have voted in favor of taxing their food, thus making it more expensive. At the same time the proposal to take away part of the public domains from its possessors roused a hornet's nest about the reformer's ears. Rich people had occupied the public land for so long that they had come to look upon it as really their own. They would be very sure to oppose such a measure. Poor people, of course, welcomed a scheme which promised to give them farms for nothing. Tiberius even wished to use the public funds to stock the farms of his new peasantry. This would have been a mischievous act of state philanthropy. FAILURE AND DEATH OF TIBERIUS, 133 B.C.