This week on the blog! Part II of our reassessment of the Gracchi: the younger and more fiery brother Gaius.
Once again, I aim to complicate the conventional simplified narrative of the Gracchi as martyred reformers: their critics overreacted, but not at nothing.
acoup.blog/2025/01/31/c...
Once again, I aim to complicate the conventional simplified narrative of the Gracchi as martyred reformers: their critics overreacted, but not at nothing.
acoup.blog/2025/01/31/c...
Collections: On the Gracchi, Part II: Gaius Gracchus
Last time, we started our retrospective on the Gracchi looking at the elder brother Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and his term as tribune of the plebs in 133 BCE; this week, we’ll wrap up this…
acoup.blog
February 3, 2025 at 3:23 AM
This week on the blog! Part II of our reassessment of the Gracchi: the younger and more fiery brother Gaius.
Once again, I aim to complicate the conventional simplified narrative of the Gracchi as martyred reformers: their critics overreacted, but not at nothing.
acoup.blog/2025/01/31/c...
Once again, I aim to complicate the conventional simplified narrative of the Gracchi as martyred reformers: their critics overreacted, but not at nothing.
acoup.blog/2025/01/31/c...
I'm still mad about the Gracchi
August 16, 2026 at 4:21 PM
I'm still mad about the Gracchi
A bit over fifty years from Sulla's civil war to Actium. A century if you start at the Gracchi, arguably.
September 23, 2026 at 3:32 AM
A bit over fifty years from Sulla's civil war to Actium. A century if you start at the Gracchi, arguably.
"Over thousands of years, that ideology has not worked once" Trump correctly recognizing that the Gracchi brothers, Savonarola, Thomas Muntzer and the Levellers were all examples of primitive communism...
indistinguishable from Yoon thinking the DPK are all Northern traitors
June 26, 2026 at 1:13 AM
"Over thousands of years, that ideology has not worked once" Trump correctly recognizing that the Gracchi brothers, Savonarola, Thomas Muntzer and the Levellers were all examples of primitive communism...
Gracchi brothers, paging the Gracchi brothers
June 16, 2026 at 6:23 AM
Gracchi brothers, paging the Gracchi brothers
I picked up my phone and it gave me an alert that it's just downloaded the latest In Our Time on the Gracchi and I went "Ooh, the Gracchi" excitedly and now I am ashamed.
May 1, 2025 at 12:06 PM
I picked up my phone and it gave me an alert that it's just downloaded the latest In Our Time on the Gracchi and I went "Ooh, the Gracchi" excitedly and now I am ashamed.
LIKE if you support the Gracchi, RETWEET if you believe public lands should be divided among the people, FOLLOW if you protect the rights of the plebeians, BLOCK if you are in the Senate!
June 23, 2026 at 5:44 PM
LIKE if you support the Gracchi, RETWEET if you believe public lands should be divided among the people, FOLLOW if you protect the rights of the plebeians, BLOCK if you are in the Senate!
We've had several parallel figures to the Gracchi; we thankfully have avoided a Marius or Sulla.
December 10, 2024 at 2:19 AM
We've had several parallel figures to the Gracchi; we thankfully have avoided a Marius or Sulla.
Look - it's better than the usual go-to of the Gracchi.
Every generation sees the Gracchi brothers in their politics and every generation will.
Every generation sees the Gracchi brothers in their politics and every generation will.
August 25, 2025 at 12:40 AM
Look - it's better than the usual go-to of the Gracchi.
Every generation sees the Gracchi brothers in their politics and every generation will.
Every generation sees the Gracchi brothers in their politics and every generation will.
Ah, sorry, looking closely, 1994 purchase/acquisition order.
The book being a copy of L. Perelli, I Gracchi (1993) - in Italian - evidently gifted to the library in January of 1994 and never actually read by anyone until this very day, so far as I can tell.
The book being a copy of L. Perelli, I Gracchi (1993) - in Italian - evidently gifted to the library in January of 1994 and never actually read by anyone until this very day, so far as I can tell.
May 18, 2026 at 3:54 PM
Ah, sorry, looking closely, 1994 purchase/acquisition order.
The book being a copy of L. Perelli, I Gracchi (1993) - in Italian - evidently gifted to the library in January of 1994 and never actually read by anyone until this very day, so far as I can tell.
The book being a copy of L. Perelli, I Gracchi (1993) - in Italian - evidently gifted to the library in January of 1994 and never actually read by anyone until this very day, so far as I can tell.
In a sense the aftermath of WWII was like if the Gracchi had gotten their way with the spoils of Rome's wars
You could argue, correctly imo, that we were unusually good at dividing the spoils of WWII and using it to enrich the whole middle class for two decades. But it was still driven by spoils of war, and that's not gonna last forever
April 7, 2025 at 9:07 PM
In a sense the aftermath of WWII was like if the Gracchi had gotten their way with the spoils of Rome's wars
actually, it wouldn't be that hard to find a guy who sincerely thinks western civilisation all went wrong with the Gracchi in the late 2nd century BC would it
December 19, 2025 at 11:24 AM
actually, it wouldn't be that hard to find a guy who sincerely thinks western civilisation all went wrong with the Gracchi in the late 2nd century BC would it
All my homies hate Sulla. We are Gracchi ultras through and through.
December 8, 2025 at 2:38 AM
All my homies hate Sulla. We are Gracchi ultras through and through.
I'm currently spinning up a book project on the Gracchi, amusingly, but I take a more mixed - not quite wholly negative, but mixed - view of them.
Scipio Nasica Serapio sucks, to be clear, but I think folks who were worried about what the Gracchi were doing had a point.
Scipio Nasica Serapio sucks, to be clear, but I think folks who were worried about what the Gracchi were doing had a point.
August 16, 2026 at 5:50 PM
I'm currently spinning up a book project on the Gracchi, amusingly, but I take a more mixed - not quite wholly negative, but mixed - view of them.
Scipio Nasica Serapio sucks, to be clear, but I think folks who were worried about what the Gracchi were doing had a point.
Scipio Nasica Serapio sucks, to be clear, but I think folks who were worried about what the Gracchi were doing had a point.
Turkey Trot
Stuffing Stalinists
Cranberry Communards
Mac and Cheese Mensheviks
Potato Posadists
Leftover Leninists
Gravy Gracchi
Pumpkin Proletarians
Cocktail Cadets
Asparagus Anarchists
Stuffing Stalinists
Cranberry Communards
Mac and Cheese Mensheviks
Potato Posadists
Leftover Leninists
Gravy Gracchi
Pumpkin Proletarians
Cocktail Cadets
Asparagus Anarchists
November 28, 2024 at 2:30 PM
Turkey Trot
Stuffing Stalinists
Cranberry Communards
Mac and Cheese Mensheviks
Potato Posadists
Leftover Leninists
Gravy Gracchi
Pumpkin Proletarians
Cocktail Cadets
Asparagus Anarchists
Stuffing Stalinists
Cranberry Communards
Mac and Cheese Mensheviks
Potato Posadists
Leftover Leninists
Gravy Gracchi
Pumpkin Proletarians
Cocktail Cadets
Asparagus Anarchists
Trump controversially endorses traditional Marxist historiography on the Gracchi brothers
Beyond just suggesting socialism is "thousands of years old" Trump's comment illustrates something familiar: the "socialism always fails" crowd always present it as a descriptive claim while morally sidelining their own, often intense, efforts to make sure it fails....
September 29, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Trump controversially endorses traditional Marxist historiography on the Gracchi brothers
For anyone who's done ancient history, doesn't this have a Late Roman Republic feel to it? I mean the past 60+ years, with the Kennedys playing the Gracchi, Reagan as Sulla, and a player to be named later (I fucking hope!) in the role of Caesar.
The message should not be that political violence is bad because it targeted a good guy who was “practicing politics the right way” (which Kirk definitely was not). Political violence is bad because it inherently corrodes the democratic polity, because it makes democracy impossible.
September 14, 2025 at 4:29 PM
For anyone who's done ancient history, doesn't this have a Late Roman Republic feel to it? I mean the past 60+ years, with the Kennedys playing the Gracchi, Reagan as Sulla, and a player to be named later (I fucking hope!) in the role of Caesar.
The closest US analogue to the Gracchi is probably Huey Long.
Both brothers put out strong signals that they intended to keep running for the tribunate effectively indefinitely, which would have put them effectively above the law (as tribunes couldn't be prosecuted) and the tribunes had big, destabilizing powers.
September 5, 2025 at 9:19 PM
The closest US analogue to the Gracchi is probably Huey Long.
Also, I guess we're going to have to, at some point, do an "On Sulla" post to match the ones on Cleopatra, Alexander and (in progress) the Gracchi.
The range of receptions for Sulla run from, "sincere but horrific extremist who destroyed most of what he wanted to save" to "brutal, cynical monster."
The range of receptions for Sulla run from, "sincere but horrific extremist who destroyed most of what he wanted to save" to "brutal, cynical monster."
January 27, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Also, I guess we're going to have to, at some point, do an "On Sulla" post to match the ones on Cleopatra, Alexander and (in progress) the Gracchi.
The range of receptions for Sulla run from, "sincere but horrific extremist who destroyed most of what he wanted to save" to "brutal, cynical monster."
The range of receptions for Sulla run from, "sincere but horrific extremist who destroyed most of what he wanted to save" to "brutal, cynical monster."
Like, there’s criticism of the Gracchi to be had, but I can’t imagine being on the side of the optimates unironically.
March 1, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Like, there’s criticism of the Gracchi to be had, but I can’t imagine being on the side of the optimates unironically.
I support the grand unified tradition of Hammurabi, Akhenaten, the Gracchi Brothers, Mazdak, An Lushan, Wat Tyler, Thomas Muntzer, Maximilien Robespierre, Abraham Lincoln, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Sun Yat-sen, Vladimir Lenin and [squints at wikibox] Lyndon LaRouche?
Alien Wikipedia entry that's like "Earth Civil War, 8,000 BC - ongoing," and the most incomprehensible and lengthy belligerents sidebar imaginable that when you untangle it really does show the United States and Ur are on the same side in a longue durée sort of way.
August 21, 2026 at 5:42 PM
I support the grand unified tradition of Hammurabi, Akhenaten, the Gracchi Brothers, Mazdak, An Lushan, Wat Tyler, Thomas Muntzer, Maximilien Robespierre, Abraham Lincoln, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Sun Yat-sen, Vladimir Lenin and [squints at wikibox] Lyndon LaRouche?
🖼️ New Painting!
Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi by Angelica Kauffman
OK phew!!! This was the neo-classical painting I worked on for 5hrs. It's great! Not easy, but not too hard. My first attempt here—room for improvement.
#gamedev #indiegame #indiedev #art
Wishlist
bit.ly/sloppy-bs
Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi by Angelica Kauffman
OK phew!!! This was the neo-classical painting I worked on for 5hrs. It's great! Not easy, but not too hard. My first attempt here—room for improvement.
#gamedev #indiegame #indiedev #art
Wishlist
bit.ly/sloppy-bs
January 6, 2026 at 3:29 PM
🖼️ New Painting!
Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi by Angelica Kauffman
OK phew!!! This was the neo-classical painting I worked on for 5hrs. It's great! Not easy, but not too hard. My first attempt here—room for improvement.
#gamedev #indiegame #indiedev #art
Wishlist
bit.ly/sloppy-bs
Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi by Angelica Kauffman
OK phew!!! This was the neo-classical painting I worked on for 5hrs. It's great! Not easy, but not too hard. My first attempt here—room for improvement.
#gamedev #indiegame #indiedev #art
Wishlist
bit.ly/sloppy-bs
Sometimes the farce precedes the tragedy. Sometimes the Brutuses, Gracchi, and the Caesars wear the masks of the Says, the Cousins, and the Guizots. Sometimes the Owl of Minerva smashes into a window and flies back the way it came.
July 1, 2026 at 4:21 AM
Sometimes the farce precedes the tragedy. Sometimes the Brutuses, Gracchi, and the Caesars wear the masks of the Says, the Cousins, and the Guizots. Sometimes the Owl of Minerva smashes into a window and flies back the way it came.
look if you're going to call someone in the Republic a leftist, it should be the Gracchi. You'd be wrong, but I would at least get how it happened
April 20, 2026 at 11:14 PM
look if you're going to call someone in the Republic a leftist, it should be the Gracchi. You'd be wrong, but I would at least get how it happened