10

away. If expulsion from the city were not formally enforced, it was the necessary consequence of the degradation to which the victims of the law were brought in the eyes of their neighbours and connections; and more than one, we may be sure, who had lived sumptuously and, according to the common standard, honestly as a Roman, went forth in shame and passion as an Italian. Ties of years were snapped in twain; long kindliness or familiarity was forgotten; and in some instances the husband departed without his Roman wife, or the father without his son, more fortunate to have been born in Rome. The fugitives went to add their heart-burnings to the uneasiness of their former countrymen; and the law by which they had been outraged, "pernicious," as Cicero afterwards wrote, "to the Commonwealth,"" increased the numbers, and in a much greater proportion the grievances, of the dissatisfied Italians.

Months and even years elapsed; but the Italians were still content to complain of their afflictions, sometimes trusting in the promises of a Roman to befriend them, yet always disappointed and incessantly murmuring of wrongs and of redress. At this juncture, when the ill-will on their side and the defiance on that of their superiors at Rome would have

10 The law, described in Cic., De Off, III. 11, is more tersely designated as "acerrima de civitate quæstio," in the oration Pro Balbo, 21. See, also, the fragment in Pro C. Corn., I., with Asconius's commentary.

11 "Legem..... video constare inter omnes non modo inutilem sed perniciosam reipublicæ fuisse." Pro C. Corn., I. See Pro Sext., 13.

perplexed the serenest wisdom ever given to a heathen, Marcus Livius Drusus, the son of the colleague and opponent of Caius Gracchus, entered upon the tribuneship. 12 Nine years before, he had taken part against Saturninus; but the charms of his wealth, and, it may be added without uncharitableness, of his self-conceit, kept him aloof from the Forum and the factions of which it was the arena. He was known, however, from his youth, to be ambitious, and though he seemed too vain to be really wise, he had exhibited a firmness and an uprightness 13 which attracted confidence, though they might not win affection. If Drusus belonged to any party, it must have been to that of the Senate, whose cause his father, as will be remembered, had singularly upheld; 14 but the son, instead of putting forward the name of that or any other faction, acted in his own, and was elected to office without further security in relation to his designs than was afforded by his character and his position amongst the aristocracy. Something, nevertheless, had been whispered of his partiality towards the demands of the Italians, and to their great delight, apparently, he was declared Tribune, while the Senate, for the reasons already mentioned, seem to have been equally confident that he would prove their champion.15

12 A. C. 91.

13 Vir sanctissimus," says Velleius Paterculus, II. 13. On the other hand, see De Vir. Ill., LXVI. 14 See Chapter I. pp. 259, 260. 40

VOL. II.

15" Non tribunatus modo viribus, sed ipsius etiam senatus auctoritate, totiusque Italiæ consensu." III. 17.

Flor.,

zen.

The Tribune himself appears to have been persuaded of his sufficiency to allay every evil in the Commonwealth. He began by throwing open his doors, and displaying the hospitality and the luxury he had previously restricted to himself and his own household. In public, he was continually appearing before the people with new bills, some framed after former laws, but all adapted to his present purpose of gratifying the different classes and bringing about the happy change of which the first principle was the recognition of his superiority to every other citiTo the Italians he first promised his intervention in behalf of their long-deferred pretensions; 16 and for them, as for the populace of Rome, he proposed the distribution of lands and grain, together with the establishment of colonies in Italy and Sicily."7 Then, turning to the Senators and the Knights, still quarrelling for the judicial tribunals, on which hung the possession of vast authority and wide corruption, the Tribune waved his wand, and bade them mark how he would transform three hundred Knights into so many Senators, and then from the united body call forth the judges of the Commonwealth.18 "I have left nothing," he exclaimed, as if apostro

17

16 Liv., Epit. LXXI.

17 Ibid. App., Bell. Civ., I. 35. Another law, perhaps to please the people, concerned the adulteration of the silver currency. Plin., Nat. Hist., XXXIII. 13.

See

18 All this is uncertain. note 82 in the preceding chapter.

Drusus seems to have intended only to fill up the Senate for the nonce from the Knights, and to leave the judicial powers entirely with the Senators. See App., Bell. Civ., L 35; Cic., Pro Rab. Post., 7; Liv., Epit. LXX. The law, at all events, passed. Liv., Epit. LXXI.

phizing himself, "nothing but the dust of the earth or the sky overhead to be given away!" 19 But it was more than this indiscriminate liberality, much more than this extravagant presumption, of Drusus could achieve, to bring harmony into the midst of his discordant countrymen. He exchanged his smiles for frowns, ordering the Consul, Marcius Philippus, into custody,20 and threatening to hurl his own brotherin-law from the Tarpeian rock; 21 but though his laws were mostly carried, by the aid of the Senate, who liked the recovery of their judicial authority, he did not seem to succeed so majestically as he desired. Offended by the Senate themselves, at last, or perhaps in the same absurdity of self-importance by which he had shaped his course from its outset, he returned word, on being summoned to consult with them, that the Senate must come to him,23 if they desired his opinion.

22

It was this ineffable arrogance that proved his ruin. An act of the Senate repealed his laws at one swoop,24 without the regret of a single party, populace, Knights, or Senators, for their untimely end. There was little in them to make the Italians lament their repeal; yet it was from these, or from their lead

19 Flor., III. 17. De Vir. Ill., LXVI.

20 The story of the Consul's altercation with the Senate and the Tribune's attack upon the Consul may be read together in Cic., De Orat., III. 1, 2; Flor., III. 17. 21 De Vir. Ill., LXVI.

22 Liv., Epit. LXX., LXXI. Tacit., Ann., III. 27. Cic., De Orat., I. 7. And note 20.

23 Val. Max., IX. 5. 2.

24 Uno versiculo." Cic., De Legg., II. 6. Ibid., 12, and Pro C. Corn., I.

26

ers, that Drusus received the only expressions of gratitude and of fidelity. He, still undisturbed, informed the Senate that he could have hindered their act, had he so desired, but that its consequences were far more injurious to them than to him; 25 and having made this show of confidence before them, he turned, with all the vehemence of wounded pride, to the Italians," resolved to make their claims the instruments of his own rehabilitation. Already, perhaps in concert with him, there seems to have been formed or planned a league amongst the eminent Italians, if not amongst the people at large; and of this, on his disgrace, he was chosen the patron or the chief. The oath of fidelity to him was then, apparently, taken by all the principal confederates: "I swear," such being its terms, "to have the same friends and the same foes with Drusus, and to spare neither my own life nor that of children or parents in his service and for the good of my associates. And if I become a citizen by the law of Drusus, I swear to hold to Rome as my country and to Drusus as my greatest benefactor. And I will communicate the oath I have here taken to as many of my companions as I can." 27 The oath was followed up by energetic action. Secret meetings were convened by night; armed crowds were assembled by day; and though the plans of the association were kept concealed amongst its leaders, every follower they had was trustful and determined.

10.

25 Diod. Sic., Reliq., XXXVII.

26 Vell. Pat., II. 14.

11.

27 Diod. Sic., Reliq., XXXVII.