Hello, I'm trying to get an understanding of the Late Republic's Political system. It is my understanding that the People's Tribunes had to be plebeians. Weren't the Gracchus brothers both patricians? I've got bonus questions as well, how many people made up the Plebeian assembly (those who elected the People's Tribunes)? Could any Plebeian vote towards it? Was it also based on Century? Basically I'm just trying to understand, did Plebeian citizens directly vote on the Tribunes, or were officials selected for an assembly to then vote on the Tribunes?
No, the Gracchi were members of the gens Sempronia, an old plebeian nobilis family. The senatorial class had included plebeians for centuries by the time of the Gracchi, since the resolution of the Conflict of the Orders, and by Caesar's time the patrician order had essentially ceased to exist. The vast majority of senatorial families were plebeian, and you really sort of have to go out of your way to find patricians, they're fairly unusual