(D. G. H.; G. Be.)
[1] Sophisticated Druses still sometimes claim connexion with Rosicrucians, and a special relation to Scottish freemasons.
DRUSIUS (or van den Driesche), JOHANNES (1550-1616), Protestant divine, distinguished specially as an Orientalist and exegete, was born at Oudenarde, in Flanders, on the 28th of June 1550. Being designed for the church, he studied Greek and Latin at Ghent, and philosophy at Louvain; but his father having been outlawed for his religion, and deprived of his estate, retired to England, where the son followed him in 1567. He found an admirable teacher of Hebrew in Chevalier, the celebrated Orientalist, with whom he resided for some time at Cambridge. In 1572 he became professor of Oriental languages at Oxford. Upon the pacification of Ghent (1576) he returned with his father to their own country, and was appointed professor of Oriental languages at Leiden in the following year. In 1585 he removed to Friesland, and was admitted professor of Hebrew in the university of Franeker, an office which he discharged with great honour till his death, which happened in February 1616. He acquired so extended a reputation as a professor that his class was frequented by students from all the Protestant countries in Europe. His works prove him to have been well skilled in Hebrew and in Jewish antiquities; and in 1600 the states-general employed him, at a salary of 400 florins a year, to write notes on the most difficult passages in the Old Testament; but this work was not published until after his death. As the friend of Arminius, he was charged by the orthodox and dominant party with unfairness in the execution of the task, and the last sixteen years of his life were therefore somewhat embittered by controversy. He carried on an extensive correspondence with the learned in different countries; for, besides letters in Hebrew, Greek and other languages, there were found amongst his papers upwards of 2000 written in Latin. He had a son, John, who died in England at the age of twenty-one, and was accounted a prodigy of learning. He had mastered Hebrew at the age of nine, and Scaliger said that he was a better Hebrew scholar than his father. He wrote a large number of letters in Hebrew, besides notes on the Proverbs of Solomon and other works.
Paquot states the number of the printed works and treatises of the elder Drusius at forty-eight, and of the unprinted at upwards of twenty. Of the former more than two-thirds were inserted in the collection entitled Critici sacri, sive annolata doctissimorum virorum in Vetus et Novum Testamentum (Amsterdam, 1698, in 9 vols. folio, or London, 1660, in 10 vols. folio). Amongst the works of Drusius not to be found in this collection may be mentioned—(1) Alphabetum Hebraicum vetus (1584, 4to); (2) Tabulae in grammaticam Chaldaicam ad usum juventutis (1602, 8vo); (3) An edition of Sulpicius Severus (Franeker, 1807, 12mo); (4) Opuscula quae ad grammaticam spectant omnia (1609, 4to); (5) Lacrymae in obitum J. Scaligeri (1609, 4to); and (6) Grammatica linguae sanctae nova (1612, 4to).
DRUSUS, MARCUS LIVIUS, Roman statesman, was colleague of Gaius Gracchus in the tribuneship, 122 b.c. The proposal of Gracchus (q.v.) to confer the full franchise on the Latins had been opposed not only by the senate, but also by the mob, who imagined that their own privileges would thereby be diminished. Drusus threatened to veto the proposal. Encouraged by this, the senatorial party put up Drusus to outbid Gracchus. Gracchus had proposed to found colonies outside Italy; Drusus provided twelve in Italy, to each of which 3000 citizens were to be sent. Gracchus had proposed to distribute allotments to the poorer citizens subject to a state rent-charge; Drusus promised them free of all charge, and further that they should be inalienable. In addition to the franchise, immunity from corporal punishment (even in the field) was promised the Latins. The absence of Gracchus, and the inefficiency of his representative at Rome, led to the acceptance of these proposals, which were never intended to be carried. Drusus himself declined all responsibility in connexion with carrying them out. He was rewarded for his services by the consulship (112), and the title of patronus senatus. He received Macedonia for his province, where he distinguished himself in a campaign against the Scordisci, whom he drove across the Danube, being the first Roman general who reached that river. It is possible that he is the Drusus mentioned by Plutarch as having died in 109, the year of his censorship.
Appian, Bell. Civ. i. 23; Plutarch, Gaius Gracchus, 8-11; Florus iii. 4; A. H. J. Greenidge, Hist. of Rome, vol. i. (1904).
His son, Marcus Livius Drusus, became tribune of the people in 91 b.c. He was a thoroughgoing conservative, wealthy and generous, and a man of high integrity. With some of the more intelligent members of his party (such as Marcus Scaurus and L. Licinius Crassus the orator) he recognized the need of reform. At that time an agitation was going on for the transfer of the judicial functions from the equites to the senate; Drusus proposed as a compromise a measure which restored to the senate the office of judices, while its numbers were doubled by the admission of 300 equites. Further, a special commission was to be appointed to try and sentence all judices guilty of taking bribes. But the senate was lukewarm, and the equites, whose occupation was threatened, offered the most violent opposition. In order, therefore, to catch the popular votes, Drusus proposed the establishment of colonies in Italy and Sicily, and an increased distribution of corn at a reduced rate. By help of these riders the bill was carried. Drusus now sought a closer alliance with the Italians, promising them the long-coveted boon of the Roman franchise. The senate broke out into open opposition. His laws were abrogated as informal, and each party armed its adherents for the civil struggle which was now inevitable. Drusus was stabbed one evening as he was returning home. His assassin was never discovered.