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I was just reading a history of the Hellenistic world, and something like this seems to have been common in towns in Ptolemaic Egypt, and functioned as the main check on otherwise rapacious taxation.
Uh yeah.. cool? What makes it relevant for HN?
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
(from Robert Heinlein’s character Lazarus Long.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll be that guy: Gracchi is already plural (-ī is the plural masculine nominative for the singular Gracchus). You can also see in in their gens : they're each Sempronius, so the family is gens Sempronii ("the Sempronius clan", "the family of the Semproniuses").
Ya that's what I thought too, but I heard a few people say gracchiae and just followed the leader, wondering why the name turned feminine. You think gracchiae could be referring to the whole lineage or something?
Caveat lector!
On the other side of the coin, the machinations to divide and defeat the interests of the plebeians were horribly fascinating. Beware the promises of a Drusus. In my mind, the failures of the gracchiae seem to echo for hundreds of years until Rome itself was sacked. Granted, the gracchiae were fighting for the latins, but the lack of compassion shown to visigoths undoubtedly played a role in the impetus behind their…
I'll be that guy: Gracchi is already plural (-ī is the plural masculine nominative for the singular Gracchus). You can also see in in their gens : they're each Sempronius, so the family is gens Sempronii ("the Sempronius clan", "the family of the Semproniuses").