View source for Tiberius Gracchus

==Military career==
[[File:Tunisie Carthage Ruines 08.JPG|thumb|Ruins of Carthage in modern-day [[Tunisia]]. Tiberius served as an officer in the army under Scipio Aemilianus that razed the city during the Third Punic War. ]]
[[File:Numantia_in_Hispania.png|thumb|Rome expanded into Spain and came into conflict with Numantia in the middle of the 2nd century&nbsp;BC. ]]

Tiberius began his military career in 147&nbsp;BC, serving as a [[Roman legate|legate]] or [[military tribune]] under his brother-in-law, [[Scipio Aemilianus]] during his campaign to take [[Carthage]] during the [[Third Punic War]].{{sfn|Broughton|1951|p=464}} According to [[Plutarch]], Tiberius – along with [[Gaius Fannius]] – was among the first to scale Carthage's walls. He served through to the next year.<ref>{{harvnb|Broughton|1951|pp=464, 468|ps=, citing {{harvnb|Plut. ''Ti. Gracch.''|loc=4.5}}.}}</ref> Some time in his youth, perhaps before his Numantine campaign, he was co-opted into the [[Augur|augural college]].{{sfnm|Rosenstein|1986|1p=239 n. 28|Broughton|1951|2pp=495–96}}

In 137&nbsp;BC he was [[quaestor]]<ref>Extraurban quaestors acted as consular lieutenants, supervising campaign funds while supporting provincial administration and taking command if a commander died. {{Cite web |last1=Badian |first1=Ernst |last2=Honoré |first2=Tony |date=2016 |title=quaestor |url=https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-5470 |access-date=2023-05-11 |website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5470 |isbn=978-0-19-938113-5 }}</ref> to consul [[Gaius Hostilius Mancinus]] and served his term in [[Hispania Citerior]] (nearer Spain){{sfn|Brennan|2014|p=39}}  during the [[Numantine War]]. The campaign was unsuccessful; Mancinus and his army lost several skirmishes outside the city before a confused retreat in the night led to the army being surrounded.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2016|p=119}} Mancinus then sent Tiberius to negotiate a treaty of surrender.{{sfn|Brennan|2014|p=42}}

The Numantines had previously signed a treaty with Rome a few years earlier under [[Quintus Pompeius (consul 141 BC)|Quintus Pompeius]], but Rome had reneged on its terms; the senate refused to ratify the treaty on the grounds that its terms were too favourable to the Numantines.{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2016|p=118}} Tiberius' negotiations were successful in part because of the influence with the Numantines he inherited from his father's praetorship in the area in 179–78&nbsp;BC.<ref>{{harvnb|Brennan|2014|p=42}}; {{Cite book |last=Baker |first=Gabriel |title=Spare no one: mass violence in Roman warfare |date=2021 |isbn=978-1-5381-1220-5 |location=Lanham, MD |oclc=1182021748 |page=179}}</ref> During the negotiations, Tiberius requested the return of his quaestorian account books which were taken when the Numantines had captured the Roman camp; the Numantines acquiesced.{{sfn|Brennan|2014|p=42}} 

The new treaty brought back in defeat was also rejected: the Romans rejected the terms as humiliating,{{sfn|Goldsworthy|2016|p=119}} revoked Mancinus' citizenship, and sent him stripped and bound to the Numantines.{{sfn|Brennan|2014|p=40}} However, by the time the terms of this agreement were being debated in the senate, Numantine ambassadors had also arrived and Mancinus likely argued in favour of his own ritual surrender, felt confident in his safety, and wanted to look towards making a soft landing for his career.{{sfn|Brennan|2014|p=42}} Tiberius offered no forceful support for the treaty and seems to have distanced himself from it;{{sfn|Brennan|2014|pp=42–43}} it was proposed to send Tiberius in chains along with Mancinus, but that proposal was defeated.{{sfnm|Rosenstein|1986|1pp=247–48|Broughton|1951|2p=485}}