Marcus Livius Drusus (before 122 BC – 91 BC) was a Roman politician and reformer. He is most famous for his legislative programme during his term as tribune of the plebs in 91 BC. During his year in office, Drusus proposed wide-ranging legislative reforms, including offering citizenship to Rome's Italian allies.
The failure of these reforms, and Drusus' subsequent murder at the hands of an unknown assassin in late 91 BC, are often seen as an immediate cause of the Social War.
Early life
Marcus Livius Drusus was born before 122 or 124 BC.. "He was born not earlier than 124, and possibly not earlier than 122". He was the son of Cornelia (precise identity unknown) and the Marcus Livius Drusus who had served as tribune in 122 BC, consul in 112 BC, and censor in 109 BC. His father died in office during his censorship in 109.
If the younger Marcus was the eldest son, he would now have become the pater familias of the Drusi and the provider for his two siblings, Mamercus and Livia. However, certain scholars believe that Mamercus was in fact the eldest son, Marcus one or two years his junior.K. Zmeskal, adfinitas: Die Verwandtschaften der senatorischen Führungsschicht der römischen Republik von 218 – 31 v.Chr. (Passau, 2009), vol. 1, p. 171
Cicero reports that Drusus was a principled and conscientious youth.Cicero, De Officiis 1.30 When serving as quaestor in Asia, possibly in 102 BC, he conspicuously refused to wear his official insignia as a sign of respect.Pseudo-Aurelius Victor, De Viris Illustribus 66
After the death of his father, Drusus inherited vast amounts of wealth, with which he paid for grand gladiatorial shows during his aedileship, possibly in 94 BC. His generosity was famous in antiquity: he once commented that he spent so much money on other people that he had 'nothing left to give away to anybody but mud and air'.Pseudo-Aurelius Victor, De Viris Illustribus 66. Drusus also built a grand new house on the Palatine Hill, telling the architect to build it so that all his fellow-citizens could see everything he did. This famous house was later owned by Cicero, Censorinus, and Rutilius Sisenna.Velleius Paterculus 2.14.
Tribunate
Drusus was elected tribune of the plebs for 91 BC. Hostile propaganda later portrayed him as a demagogue from the outset of his tribunate, but Cicero and others assert that he began with the aim of strengthening senatorial rule and had the backing of the senate. This included the princeps senatus, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, who had been the colleague of Drusus' father in the censorship of 109 BC; and Lucius Licinius Crassus, the most influential orator of the day.
His reform programme was hammered out within a large group of the leading senators. He intended to reinforce and restore the authority of the senate by inducting some 300 equites into the senatorial class while moving the jury pool for the permanent courts back to the senators. This was the "ultimate goal [to which] the entire legislative activity of Drusus was apparently directed". In his programme, he also included an agrarian bill along with extension of citizenship to the allies. The purpose of expanding citizenship would have been to give "further reinforcement of a moderate political position within a Roman governing class". However, not all of his senatorial allies agreed with his proposals: "the most obviously negative aspect of [Drusus' legislative] programme... was the unacceptable personal power which he would have achieved".
The Quaestio de Repetundis History of the Equestrian Courts The most important issue which Drusus and his backers sought to address concerned the composition of juries at trials for extortion.Th. Mommsen, The History of Rome, Vol. 3, p. 484 In 122 BC, Gaius Gracchus had made the juries for these courts (Latin, quaestio de repetundis) composed entirely of wealthy equites instead of senators.Cicero, First Verrine 38Velleius Paterculus 2.13.2, 2.32.3 This gave the equestrians great judicial power, a fact resented by many senators, many of whom found the loss of their forensic role humiliating.C. Steel, The End of the Roman Republic (Edinburgh: 2013), p.37
In 106 BC, Quintus Servilius Caepio had attempted to end the equestrian monopoly on juries by proposing a law to introduce mixed senatorial–equestrian juries. However, despite the famous support of Lucius Crassus, this Lex Servilia was replaced after only two years by a law of Gaius Servilius Glaucia which restored the equestrian monopoly.Cicero, Brutus 164
Over time, the equestrian jurors proved reluctant to give guilty verdicts. Of the many political prosecutions in the years 99-92 BC, not a single individual was condemned under their courts; this created great frustration in the Senate, as it paralysed one of the main avenues of political rivalry. As a result, a growing number of eminent senators came to believe that the equestrian monopoly had to be ended.
This resentment was intensified by the prosecution and exile of the esteemed consularis Publius Rutilius Rufus in ca. 92 BC. Rutilius Rufus had served as legatus to Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex during the latter's governorship in Asia. They had famously opposed the rapacity of the equestrian businessmen operating in the province, gaining much praise from the provincials and the Senate but hostility from the equites.Diodorus Siculus, 37.5.1–4 In retaliation, the equestrians brought about Rufus' prosecution in one of their own courts when he returned to Rome. Although Rufus was likely innocent, the jury nonetheless found him guilty, and he was sent into exile to Smyrna. The injustice of the affair was compounded by Rutilius Rufus' calm, Stoical acceptance of his fate, and his case was long a byword for unjust sentences.Livy, Epitome of Book 70Florus, Epitome of Roman History 2.5
Since Rutilius Rufus was one of Drusus' uncles, his scandalous exile likely provided the immediate incentive for Drusus' reforms.E. Gabba, Republican Rome, the Army, and the Allies (Berkley: 1976), p. 132
Drusus' reform The exact form of Drusus' solution to this problem is unclear. Appian says that Drusus proposed to include 300 new equites into the Senate, and that future jurors would now be drawn from the enlarged pool of senators.Appian, Civil Wars 1.35 However, Livy states that Drusus introduced juries comprising a mix of senators and equites, with no enlargement of the Senate.Livy, Epitome of Book 71 Since Appian is notoriously unreliable for this period, some scholars believe Appian has conflated Drusus' proposal with the actual expansion of the Senate that took place ten years later under Sulla's regime.Steel, The End of the Roman Republic, p. 38
Supplementary legislation In order to gain popular support for his jury law, Drusus put forward a number of supplementary bills. To gain support from the plebeians, he passed a land law, which seems to have proposed the redistribution of public land (Ager publicus) to the poor as well as the creation of new colonies in Italy and Sicily.Appian, Civil Wars 1.35–6 He then assigned himself a place on the board of ten commissioners tasked with carrying out the redistributions.Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae 49 To attract further support, Drusus may also have passed a law reducing the price of grain.Livy, Epitome of Book 71
Alongside these popularist bills, Drusus passed a law making the equestrians liable to prosecution for bribery.Cicero, Pro Cluentio 153 He may also have deliberately debased the coinage by adding one-eighth of bronze to the silver coins, perhaps in order to help pay for his agrarian redistributions.Pliny the Elder, Natural History 33.3.46 All these bills were likely passed in the early months of 91 BC.Steel, The End of the Roman Republic, p. 39
Opposition to legislation
Senatorial opposition Despite support from notable backers, Drusus' legislation attracted powerful opposition, including the consul Lucius Marcius Philippus. Also among Drusus' opponents was the praetor Servilius Caepio, his former brother-in-law. On the day of voting, Philippus tried to stop proceedings, and was only deterred when one of Drusus' supporters throttled the consul to the point that he started bleeding.Florus, 2.5Pseudo-Aurelius Victor, De Viris Illustribus 66.9 When Caepio continued to oppose the legislation, Drusus threatened to have the praetor hurled from the Tarpeian Rock, an archaic punishment for treasonable magistrates.Pseudo-Aurelius Victor, De Viris Illustribus 66.8 Eventually, Drusus passed his legislation by combining all the various bills into one law – a practice that had been banned several years previously under the terms of the lex Caecilia Didia.Th. Mommsen, The History of Rome, Vol. 3, p. 487
By September, momentum was turning against Drusus and his backers.Appian, Civil Wars 1.35–6Valerius Maximus 9.5.2 Senators in the Roman Republic were deeply wary of any one individual gaining extraordinary personal power; as a result, Drusus' popularity with the people lost him support in the Senate, where it was feared he was becoming dangerously influential in the model of the Gracchi or Lucius Appuleius Saturninus.E. Gabba, 'Rome and Italy: The Social War', in The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume IX: The Last Age of the Roman Republic, 146–43 BC, p. 113
The consul Philippus called for the abrogation of Drusus' laws,Cicero, De Oratore 1.24–6, 3.1–6 and a heated exchange took place on 13 September in the Senate House between Philippus and Lucius Crassus. Philippus claimed he could no longer work with the current Senate, to which Crassus retorted by calling Philippus' status as consul into question, remarking 'Should I consider you a consul, when you don't think that I am a senator?'Quintilian, Inst. 8.3.89 However, this was to be Crassus' 'last swan-song', in Cicero's words, as he suddenly died a week later.Cicero, De Oratore 3.2–6
Italian proposal and abrogation of the laws With Crassus dead, Drusus was robbed of one of his most influential backers.C.F. Konrad, 'From the Gracchi to the First Civil War', in A Companion to the Roman Republic (Blackwell, 2006) Now, late in 91 BC, he turned towards soliciting support from the Italian allies.Steel, The End of the Roman Republic, p. 40e.g. Velleius Paterculus, 2.14: 'since his excellent programme had fared so badly, Drusus turned his attention to granting the citizenship to the Italians'Pseudo-Aurelius Victor, De Viris Illustribus 66.10 It seems Drusus already had close contacts among the Italians, as the important Marsic aristocrat Quintus Poppaedius Silo, who would later serve as the main Italian commander in the Social War, was a regular guest at his house.Plutarch, Life of Cato the Younger 2
However, Drusus' proposal attracted more opposition, as many senators feared the personal power Drusus would gain from mass enfranchisement. Rumours apparently circulated that the Italians had sworn a sacred oath pledging allegiance to Drusus alone, a version of which is preserved in Diodorus Siculus:Diodorus Siculus, 37.11
I swear by Jupiter Capitolinus, by Vesta of Rome, by Mars her ancestral god, by Sol the founder of the race, and by Terra the benefactress of animals and plants, likewise by the demigods who founded Rome and by the heroes who have contributed to increase her empire, that I will count the friend and foe of Drusus my friend and foe, and that I will spare neither property nor the lives of my children or parents except as it be to the advantage of Drusus and of those who have taken this oath. If I become a citizen by the law of Drusus, I shall consider Rome my country and Drusus my greatest benefactor.
It was also around this point that Drusus apparently suffered a minor breakdown or epileptic fit, prompting a flood of supportive messages from the Italian towns.Pliny the Elder, Natural History 17.15.6, 25.52Pseudo-Aurelius Victor, De Viris Illustribus 66.11