Marcus Livius Drusus
Marcus Livius Drusus was a Roman tribune whose murder began the Social War. Born around 124 BC into a wealthy and distinguished plebeian family, he was the son of the tribune who had been used by the Senate to undercut Gaius Gracchus, and he inherited a reputation for conservative respectability. He held the tribunate in 91 BC, and used it to attempt a comprehensive settlement of the republic's accumulated conflicts. His programme addressed each interest in turn. He proposed transferring the criminal courts back from the equestrians to the senators while enrolling three hundred equestrians in the Senate, so that both orders had a share. He proposed colonies and grain distributions for the urban poor. And, most consequentially, he proposed granting Roman citizenship to Rome's Italian allies. The allies had supplied the majority of the manpower for Rome's wars for a century, were subject to Roman magistrates' arbitrary punishment, received a smaller share of land and plunder, and had no vote. Drusus had built personal connections among their leaders, who regarded him as their patron. Each element of the package alienated someone. The Senate resented dilution, the equestrians the loss of the courts, the urban plebs the prospect of sharing land and grain with Italians. The laws were annulled on a technicality of religious procedure. He was stabbed in the hip in the atrium of his own house in autumn 91 BC by an unknown assassin, and died asking whether the republic would ever have a citizen like him again. The Italians revolted within months.
- Lived: 124 BCE – 91 BCE
- Nationality: Roman
- Roles: politician
