The Agriarian Law - Tiberius and Caesar

As Consul, I had an idea that I thought necessary to the Republic and the Roman people. The idea was that there should be a daily record of the proceedings in the Senate. These proceedings should be taken by a man who will write them down, and that man should be in the business of publishing. That way, the Roman people would know what happens in the Senate, and the people can see how they run the Republic, good or bad. Another practice that had been made obsolete previous to my consulship is the practice of an orderly walking in front of the Consul or Consuls while the lictors walk behind the consuls into the Senate. I reinstated this practice because I knew how much the Senate did not want me to be Consul. A Consul has never been murdered on the Senate floor, but I wanted to take precaution by making an orderly walk in front of me, just in case an assassin by the Senate would approach my front. Call it paranoia, but I figure it as necessary due to my unpopularity in the Senate.
The next thing I saw too as a Consul was to put into effect the Agrarian Law. Wealthy senators and wealthy landowners had for many years dominated the ownership of lands in the Republic, and for the sake of the Roman people against these greedy land owners, I enacted the law so that the less fortunate would have better division between public lands, private lands, and common pastures. The wealthy would like to believe that the public lands that they rent were their own private lands. This practice must end. Similar attempts at reform of lands existed in the time of Tiberius Gracchus, and with that in mind, it is not hard to imagine why I put the practice of an orderly walking in front of me while in public to the Senate house. Greedy men would do anything to hold what they have, and as long as they take the public's land as their own, their must be division between them and what is owe to the Roman people. My former rival, now colleague- Bibulus, attempted to delay the passing of the Agrarian law, and he stated that the omens were not right for the passing of the law. What a load of horse dung. Bibulus had large pockets as the rest of the Senate does. I saw it as a necessity for Bibulus to be driven from the Senate house by force from the Forum due to his corrupt views and prevention of the Agrarian Law. 
The day after I had Bibulus thrown out of the Forum by force, Bibulus complained to the Senate, but no one heard his cries. He was so frustrated that he stayed at home with his resentment. Bibulus attempted to, on later laws, reject laws on bad omens, and once again, everyone did not listen to Bibulus.


Sources used:

Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Penguin Classics Revised Edition, December 18, 2007. Print