Tiberius Gracchus on a Roman coin

Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (163/162 BC- 133 BC) was an important Roman Tribune of the plebs. He proposed a reform called the "Lex Sempronia Agraria". This was meant to reduce the number of poor and homeless people by allowing the rich to have only a certain amount of land. The rest of the land would be given to homeless veterans of the Roman military. But the Roman Senate did not like his plan. They convinced another tribune, named Marcus Octavius, to oppose Tiberius Gracchus. Eventually, enough tension built up that some of the Senators beat Tiberius to death with their chairs and threw his dead body into the Tiber. Tiberius' death is seen as the first death caused by political problems in the Roman government.