*sigh* I can still remember, when I first read about the Gracchi, I got all starry-eyed at the idea of a high-class patrician with clout caring about "the little people." I remember discussing this with Freddy Pinguinus, who noted dryly that I had a lot to learn. He was right!

I think it's a real hindrance in an age when democracy exists, to consider anyone in the ancient world giving a toss for the "common people," including the Gracchi. But I do think a couple of factors may have been in play:

1) There's no question but that Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus' reforms were backed and drawn up by a very powerful group of Senators, who wanted him to propose legislation they thought could do several things, including restoring small land-holders to some kind of parity so they could continue serving in the army, and addressing some of the economic dislocations that were BOUND to cause problems in the future. Rather like Lord so-and-so coming up with a beneficial plan for the peasants to keep them happy and from revolting. It was a control mechanism, in some part.

2) Soon after the Gracchi, it must have become obvious that there was a mob out there that could be used to increase one's political power-base; hitherto unmanipulated in force, Marius, Saturninus, and many others learned how to manipulate this mob and set it crashing through the fragile constitution to force through popular measures - some good, some bad (remember, it was the horror of the headcount and other Romans that made it impossible to give the franchise to the Italian allies - a war had to be fought, first. "The people" weren't unselfish by a long shot)

3) Was Caesar an idealist? I doubt it. He probably took the same hard-headed look at things in the Republic that needed fixing - and if it could be made to APPEAR to the head-count that he cared about them, so much the better.

Never in all history that I know of, was there anyone in the ancient world who viewed the mob as more than something to be manipulated for your own ambition and, perhaps, fix a few broken problems ('reforms') at the same time.