A martyr for equality to some, an aspiring tyrant to others, the Roman senator who wanted to give power to the people of Rome is the subject of two novels written by historian Luis M. López Román.

His reforms, even if they had succeeded, were like trying to cure cancer with a simple diet. The popular image of Rome, the one that Hollywood and literature—from Robert Graves to Marguerite Yourcenar—have forged in our collective imagination, is full of tyrants and megalomaniacs, great heroes and brave generals, betrayals, epic battles, and bitter struggles for power.

The complex transition from the oligarchic Republic to the authoritarian Empire was a slow and gradual process that would tear the Roman state apart in the 1st century BC, when social injustice and tension led to several slave wars—such as that of the famous Spartacus—and civil wars—the last of which, won by Augustus, put an end to the republican model—the dictatorships of Sulla and Caesar, and the conservative reaction of the Senate.

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