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Marcus Livius Drusus (c. 124 – 91 BC) was a Roman politician and reformer, most famous as Tribune of the plebs in 91 BC. During his year in office, Drusus proposed wide-ranging legislative reforms, including offering the citizenship to Rome's Italian allies. The failure of these reforms, and Drusus' subsequent murder at the hands of an unknown assassin in late 91 BC, are often seen as an immediate cause of the Social War.[1]
Early life
Marcus Livius Drusus was born in ca. 124 BC.[2] He was the son of Cornelia (whose precise identity is unknown) and Marcus Livius Drusus the Elder, a distinguished statesman who had served all the major magistracies of the cursus honorum as tribune in 122 BC, consul in 112 BC, and censor in 109 BC. Drusus the Elder died in 108 BC: if the younger Marcus was the eldest son, he would now have become the pater familias of the Drusi and the provider for his two siblings, Mamercus and Livia.[3] However, certain scholars believe that Mamercus was in fact the eldest son,[1] Marcus one or two years his junior.[4][5]
Cicero reports that Drusus was a principled and conscientious youth.[6] When serving as quaestor in Asia Minor, he conspicuously refused to wear his official insignia as a sign of respect.[7]
After the death of his father, Drusus inherited vast amounts of wealth, with which he paid for grand gladiatorial shows during his aedileship.[2] His generosity was famous in antiquity: he once commented that he spent so much money on other people that he had 'nothing left to give away to anybody but mud and air'.[8] Drusus also built a grand new house on the Palatine Hill, telling the architect to build it so that all his fellow-citizens could see everything he did. This famous house was later owned by Cicero, Censorinus, and Rutilius Sisenna.[9]
Drusus had several distinguished descendants. Through his adopted son, he became an ancestor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty; and through the two marriages of his sister, Livia, he was uncle to Cato the Younger and great-uncle to Marcus Junius Brutus. His brother, Mamercus Aemilius Lepidus Livianus (who was adopted into the Aemilii Lepidi), also served as consul in 77 BC.
At some point ca. 100 BC, Drusus married Servilia, a sister of his friend Quintus Servilius Caepio. However, they appear to have divorced sometime around the year 97 BC without having any known children.[78] It seems that Drusus did not marry again before his death in 91 BC.[79] However there is a Livia of the late Roman Republic whom has been speculated to be Drusus daughter.[80]
Imperial descendants
Drusus did adopt Marcus Livius Drusus Claudianus, born Appius Claudius Pulcher. This adopted son married Alfidia, with whom he had a daughter named Livia. This Livia was the famous Empress, the wife to the emperor Augustus and mother of the second emperor Tiberius. Therefore, through the adoption of his son, Marcus Livius Drusus and his family (the Drusi) became eventual ancestors to the imperial Julio-Claudian dynasty.[81]
Nieces and nephews[edit]
Drusus had a sister, Livia, whom he married to his friend and brother-in-law Quintus Servilius Caepio. Livia and Caepio had three children: the famous Servilia, who was sequentially the mistress of Julius Caesar and the mother of Marcus Junius Brutus; another Servilia, who married the general Lucullus; and a son, also called Gnaeus Servilius Caepio.[82]
However, Drusus and Caepio fell out, allegedly over the sale of a ring at an auction, and subsequently they became personal enemies.[83] As a result, Drusus divorced Servilia, and Caepio divorced Livia.
Drusus apparently had his sister remarried almost immediately, either in 97 or 96 BC,[84] this time to Marcus Porcius Cato, the grandson of Cato the Elder. Livia and Cato had a son, Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, who was to become the famous opponent of Julius Caesar; they also had a daughter, Porcia, who married Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus. However, both Livia and Cato seem to have died in the mid to late 90s BC, meaning that Servilia, Cato, and Porcia were all raised in Drusus' house before his own death in 91 BC.[85]
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124 BC - 91 BC
