The Populares were a radical populist faction in Republican-era Roman politics which existed from 133 BC to 36 BC. The Populares were so-called because they supported the supremacy of the plebeians over Rome's aristocracy and the aristocratic Roman Senate, whose cause was championed by the conservative Optimates. The Populares were originally led by the populist crusaders Tiberius Gracchus and Gaius Gracchus, who championed the urban poor by advocating for the distribution of free grain and bread to the poorest residents of the city of Rome, the creation of new colonies, the redistribution of public land, the granting of Roman citizenship to the Republic's Italic allies, anti-corruption reforms in the judicial system, and the use of plebiscites to block Senatorial opposition. The Gracchi and their successors, Lucius Appuleius Saturninus and Publius Clodius Pulcher, were murdered by the Optimates, but Julius Caesar and his adoptive Octavian postured as Populares to enhance their popularity among the plebs, enabling their takeover of the Republic in Caesar's Civil War, and they finally enacted most of the Populares' reforms during their rule. The final defeat of Sextus Pompeius's Optimates in 36 BC led to the dissolution of both the Populares and Optimates.