The following year (B.C. 91) witnessed the memorable Tribunate of M. Livius Drusus. He was the son of the celebrated opponent of C. Gracchus. He was a man of boundless activity and extraordinary ability. Like his father, he was an advocate of the party of the Nobles. He took up arms against Saturninus, and supported the Senate in the dispute for the possession of the judicial power. His election to the Tribunate was hailed by the Nobles with delight, and for a time he possessed their unlimited confidence. He gained over the people to the party of the Senate by various popular measures, such as the distribution of corn at a low price, and the establishment of colonies in Italy and Sicily. He was thus enabled to carry his measures for the reform of the judicia, which were, that the Senate should be increased from 300 to 600 by the addition of an equal number of Equites, and that the Judices should be taken from the Senate thus doubled in numbers. Drusus seems to have been actuated by a single-minded desire to do justice to all, but the measure was acceptable to neither party. The Senators viewed with dislike the elevation to their own rank of 300 Equites, while the Equites had no desire to transfer to a select few of their own order the profitable share in the administration of justice which they all enjoyed.
Another measure of Drusus rendered him equally unpopular with the people. He had held out to the Latins and the Italian allies the promise of the Roman franchise. Some of the most eminent men of Rome had long been convinced of the necessity of this reform. It had been meditated by the younger Scipio Africanus, and proposed by C. Gracchus. The Roman people, however, always offered it the most violent opposition. But Drusus still had many partisans. The Italian allies looked up to him as their leader, and loudly demanded the rights which had been promised them. It was too late to retreat; and, in order to oppose the formidable coalition against him, Drusus had recourse to sedition and conspiracy. A secret society was formed, in which the members bound themselves by a solemn oath to have the same friends and foes with Drusus, and to obey all his commands. The ferment soon became so great that the public peace was more than once threatened. The Allies were ready to take up arms at the first movement. The Consuls, looking upon Drusus as a conspirator, resolved to meet his plots by counterplots. But he knew his danger, and whenever he went into the city kept a strong body-guard of attendants close to his person. The end could not much longer be postponed; and the civil war was on the point of breaking out, when one evening Drusus was assassinated in his own house, while dismissing the crowds who were attending him. A leather-cutter's knife was found sticking in his loins. Turning round to those who surrounded him, he asked them, as he was dying, "Friends and neighbors, when will the Commonwealth have a citizen like me again?"
Even in the lifetime of Drusus the Senate had repealed all his laws. After his death the Tribune Q. Varius brought forward a law declaring all persons guilty of high treason who had assisted the cause of the Allies. Many eminent men were condemned under this law. This measure, following the assassination of Drusus, roused the indignation of the Allies to the highest pitch. They clearly saw that the Roman people would yield nothing except upon compulsion.
CHAPTER XXV.
THE SOCIAL OR MARSIC WAR. B.C. 90-89.
Rome had never been exposed to greater danger than at this time. Those who had been her bravest defenders now rose against her; and she would probably have perished had the whole Italian people taken part in the war. But the insurrection was confined almost exclusively to the Sabellians and their kindred races. The Etruscans and Umbrians stood aloof, while the Sabines, Volscians, and other tribes who already possessed the Roman franchise, supported the Republic, and furnished the materials of her armies. The nations which composed the formidable conspiracy against Rome were eight in number—the Marsians, Pelignians, Marrucinians, Vestinians, Picentines, Samnites, Apulians, and Lucanians. Of these the Marsians were particularly distinguished for their courage and skill in war; and from the prominent part which they took in the struggle, it was frequently termed the Marsic as well as the Social War.