Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/1095

Rh DRUSUS. DRUSUS. 1077 I I 17. Nero, m. Julia, dauglitcr of No. 16; died A D. .'{0. 18. Dru- sus; died A. D. 33. 19. Cains Cae- sar (emperor Calioula) ; ni. 3. Caesonia. I 20. Agrippi- iia, mother of the emperor Nkko. I 21. Drusilla; in. l.L.CasHius, 2. M.Lepidus; died A. D. 38. I I I I 22. Julia Livilla. •22. Three other children ; died young. 23. Drusus;, died A. D. 20. 24. Claudia. 25. Julia Drusilla; died A. D. 41. OTHER, DKUSL 26. D. Dnisus, Constil suflFectus b. c. 137..» (Dig. 1. tit. 13. §. 2.) 27. C. Drusus, historian. (Suet. Augustus^ 94.) 1. M. Livius Drusus, the father, natural or adoptive, of No. 2. {Fast. Capit.) 2. M. Livius M. f. Dri'sus Akmilianus, the father of No. 3. {Fast. Capit.) Some modern writers call him Mamilianus instead of Aemilianus, for transcribers are not agreed as to the correct reading of the Capitoline marbles, which are broken into tliree fragments in the place where his name is mentioned under the year of his son's consul- ship. (Compare the respective Fasti of Marliani, the fabricator Goltzius, Sigonius, and Piranesi, ad A. u. c. 606.) 3. C. Livius M. Aemiliani f. M. n. Drusus, was consul in B. c. 147 with P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus. Of his father nothing is known, but it may be inferred with much probability that M. Dmsus Aemilianus belonged to the Aemilia gens, and was adopted by some M. Livius Drusus. It is possible, however, that M. Livius Drusus, the grandfather, had by different wives two sons named Marcus, and that one of them was the son of Aemilia, and was called, from his mother, Aemi- lianus. {Diet, of Ant. p. 641, s. v. Nomen.) There was a Roman jurist, named C. Livius Drusus, who has, by many writers, been identified with the subject of the present article. Cicero {Tusc. Qu. v. 38) mentions Drusus the jurist be- fore mentioning Cn. Aufidius, and speaks of Drusus as from tradition {accepimus), whereas he remem- bered having seen Aufidius. The jurist Drusus, in his old age, when deprived of sight, continued to give advice to the crowds who used to throng his house for the purpose of consulting him. Hence it has been rather hastily inferred, that Drusus the jurist was anterior to Aufidius, and was never seen by Cicero, and could not have been the son of the Drusus who was consul in b. c. 147. Others are disposed to identify the jurist with the son, No. 5, and there is certainly no absurdity in sup- posing the son of one who was consul in b. c. 1 47 to have died at an advanced age before Cicero (born B c. 106) happened to meet him, or was old enough to remember him. Seeing, however, that Cicero was an active and inquisitive student at 16, and considering the inferences as to age that may be collected from the years when No. 4 and No. 6, the brother and nephew of No. 5, held offices, the argument founded upon Tttsc. Qa. v. 38 seems to be rather in favour of identifying the jurist with our present No. 3 ; but, in truth, there are not sufficient data to decide the question. (Rutilius, Vitae JCtorum 19; Guil. Grotius, de Vit. JCtorum, i. 4. § 8.) The jurist, whether father or son, composed works of great use to students of law (Val. Max. viii. 7), although his name is not mentioned by Pomponius in the fragment de Origine Juris. There is a passage in the Digest (19. tit. 1. s. 37. § 1), where Celsus cites and approves an opinion, in which Sex. Aelius and Drusus coincide, to the effect that the seller might bring an equitable ac- tion for damages {arlntrium) against the buyer, to recover the expenses of the keep of a slave, whom the buyer, without due cause, had refused to accept. (Maiansius, ad XXX JCtos. ii. p, 35.) Priscian {Ars Gram. lib. viii. p. 127, ed. Colon. 1528) attributes to Livius the sentence, " Impuhcs libripens esse non potest, neque antesiari.^'' It is probable that the jurist Livius Drusus is here meant, not only from the legal character of the fragment, but because Priscian, whenever he quotes Livius Andronicus or the historian Livy, gives a circumstantial reference to the particular work. (Dirksen, Bruchslucke aus den Schriflen der Ro- 7nischen Juristen, p. 45.) 4. M. Livius C. f. M. Aemiliani n. Drusus, son of No. 3, was tribune of the plebs in the year b. c. 122, when C. Gracchus was tribune for the second time. The senate, alarmed at the progress of Gracchus in the favour of the people, employed his colleague Drusus, who was noble, well educated, wealthy, eloquent, and popular, to oppose his measures and undermine his influence. Against some of the laws proposed by Gracchus, Drusus interposed his veto without assigning any reason. (Appian, B. C. i. 23.) He then adopted the un- fair and crooked policy of proposing measures like those which he had thwarted. He steered by the side of Gracchus, merely in order to take the wind out of his sails. Drusus gave to the senate the credit of every popular law which he proposed, and gradually impressed the populace with the be- lief that the optimates were their best friends. The success of this system earned for him the designation patronus senatus. (Suet. Tib. 3.) Drusus was able to do with applause that which Gracchus could not attempt without censure. Gracchus was blamed for proposing that the Latins siiould have full rights of citizenship. Drusus was lauded for proposing that no Latin should be dis- honoured by rods even in time of actual military service. Gracchus, in his agrarian laws, reserved a rent payable into the public treasury, and was traduced. Drusus relieved the grants of public land from all payment, and was held up as a patriot. Gracchus proposed a law for sending o«t two colonies, and named among the founders some of the most respectable citizens. He was abused as a popularity-hunter. Drusus introduced a law for establishing no fewer than twelve colonies, and