Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus

Who was Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus?

Tiberius Sempronius Tib. f. Tib. n. Gracchus was a Roman Republican consul in the Second Punic War. He was son of Tiberius Sempronius Tib. f. Gracchus who was apparently the first man from his branch to become consul.

Gracchus is first mentioned in 216 BC as curule aedile in which capacity he was inducted as Master of the Horse to the newly elected Dictator Marcus Junius Pera after the defeat at Cannae.

He was elected consul in 216 BC, at the recommendation of the Dictator, whose orders he had faithfully obeyed even when obliged to abandon Italian allies to their fate. His colleague-elect Lucius Postumius A.f. Albinus being killed in an ambush in Gaul on his way home, Marcus Claudius Marcellus was elected consul in his stead, to the protests of patricians who claimed that two plebeians could not serve as consuls. Marcellus thereupon resigned and Quintus Fabius Maximus was elected consul to serve out the year. In that year, Fabius Maximus and the Senate decided to induct volunteer slaves into the Roman armies and to have them serve in separate legions to win their freedom. Gracchus was appointed commander of the slave troops, and he rapidly became known as an effective general of volunteer slave troops, winning their loyalty and trust for his clemency when some broke and ran from the field. [Livy]. He was appointed proconsul in 214 BC, continuing to lead his slave and freedmen troops in central and southern Italy with mixed successes against Hannibal.