On what date was Gracchus Babeuf executed?

Gracchus Babeuf was executed on 27 May 1797. He was guillotined at Vendôme alongside Augustin Alexandre Darthé after both were convicted of leading the Conspiracy of the Equals against the Directory.

Babeuf, born François-Noël Babeuf, adopted the name “Gracchus” in admiration of the Roman tribunes Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. Through his newspaper Le Tribun du Peuple, he argued for political equality and an economic order that anticipated later communist ideas.

The conspiracy sought to overthrow the Directory and establish a more egalitarian republic. Babeuf and his associates were arrested in 1796, but their trial did not begin at Vendôme until February 1797. Babeuf and Darthé were sentenced to death on 26 May and executed the following day.

A common mix-up is confusing Babeuf’s execution with the earlier executions of leading revolutionaries during the Terror. Babeuf died after Robespierre’s fall, under the more conservative Directory regime.