Page "Gracchi" Paragraph 15

Another problem for Gaius's aims was that the Roman constitution, specifically the Tribal Assembly, was designed to prevent any one individual governing for a sustained period of time – and there were several other checks and balances to prevent power being concentrated on any one person.

Another reason for the efforts ' failures was the Gracchi's idealism ; they were deaf to the baser notes of human nature and failed to recognize how corrupt and selfish all sections of Roman society had become.

According to Oswald Spengler, the characteristic mistake of the Gracchan age was to believe in the possibility of the reversibility of history – a form of idealism which according to Spengler was at that time shared by both sides of political spectrum – Cato had sought to turn back the clock to the time of Cincinnatus, and restore virtue by returning to austerity.