(Sallust p.17) This style of government closely resembles that of today's, where people go out for a personal betterment. Many of the political figures used bribes and other cons to sway people to their favor. These bribes and cons by political figures soon led to the development of criminal punishment. Which would prove significant later on. .
For some time Italy as a whole was not doing as well as would have liked in economic perspective. Farm land all across the Italian Peninsula were it such a devitalized state, due to the ongoing Hannibalic War. Trade was down from the past. Italy was in dyer need for some reforming. During the year of 133 BCE a well-known reformer took action. Tiberius Sempromius Gracchus came around to try to better the economy. (Sallust, p. 19) It was his idea to sell the farmland of the small landowners to the upper-class people, who could maintain the farmland. The wealthier people were able to maintain the land better due to the amount of slaves that they had, unlike the poorer landowners. Tiberius like many people tied into the economy, he schemed and scammed to try to better himself. These schemes would eventually lead to Tiberius" murder by the Senate, through newly found criminal punishment. .
Soon after the death of Tiberius Sempromius Gracchus, Italy was in need of more reforming. It was the brother of the slain Tiberius who stepped forward, the idea to develop new colonies in Italy itself, and also in land beyond Italy. The Equites loved this idea because the saw the opportunity to begin overseas trade. Now they had motive in all situations. The Equites were able to come up economically by taking up new provinces in Asia. This simultaneously spawned new trade connections. Intelligently the Equites taxed the new Asian products, and they did so heavily. This heavy taxation was soon neutralized, by a law sufficiently entitled Gaius" Law.