 This led to a population explosion in Rome itself, with the plebeians clinging desperately to survival while the patricians lived in splendor.This income inequality severely threatened the constitutional arrangements of the Republic, since all soldiers had to be property owners, and gradually property owning was being limited to a small Senate, rather than being evenly distributed across the Roman population.Beginning in 133 BC, Gracchus tried to redress the grievances of displaced smallholders.