4-6 By the Sempronian Laws of C. Gracchus 123 B.C. exclusive judicial rights had been given to the Equites, as a counterpoise to the power of the Senate. The corruption of the Equites (as Judices) was flagrant, and Drusus proposed to transfer the judicial functions to a mixed body of 300 Senators and 300 Knights, the selected Knights to be included in the now attenuated ranks of the Senate.
14 ad dandam civitatem Italiae. The claims of the Italians to the franchise were just and pressing, but the overbearing pride and self-sufficiency of the Roman citizens proved too strong.
Parallel Passages. Cic. de Oratore iii. 1, and pro Cluent. 56, 153. Florus, iii. 18.
Reference. Ihne, Hist. vol. v. pp. 176-189.
‘Drusus was the Mirabeau of the social revolution of Rome, and had his measures been carried Rome might have been spared the most terrible of her civil wars.’
THE SOCIAL OR MARSIC WAR, 91-88 B.C. (1)
[A.] Cause and Outbreak of the War at Asculum.
Cum ius civitatis, quam viribus auxerant, socii iustissime postularent, quam in spem eos cupidine dominationis Drusus erexerat, postquam ille domestico scelere oppressus est, eadem fax, quae illum cremavit, socios in arma et in expugnationem urbis 5 accendit. . . . Primum fuit belli consilium ut in Albano monte festo die Latinarum Iulius Caesar et Marcius Philippus consules inter sacra et aras immolarentur. Postquam id nefas proditione discussum est, Asculo furor omnis erupit, in ipsa quidem ludorum 10 frequentia trucidatis qui tum aderant ab urbe legatis. Hoc fuit impii belli sacramentum. Inde iam passim ab omni parte Italiae duce et auctore belli discursante Poppaedio diversa per populos et urbes signa cecinere. 15
Florus, III. xviii. 3-10 (sel.).