28. Study Questions

Attempts at land reform, debt reduction had been blocked by optimates factions in the senate, and pressures on the urban infrastructure had worsened over time. Violence was now seen as a viable way to achieve change when the political system could not do it.

Patricians rarely looked beyond what benefited themselves, and so felt little need to give in to pressure to change the system. Also, there was no real police force, and troops were out in the provinces.

It demonstrated that the plebeians were very unhappy, but the only real change it achieved was to legitimate the coming civil war.